I see what I see
When it is fat, it is fat
I hadn’t seen our neighbour’s cat in a while. She used to sneak out of the house, climb the fence and then, accidentally, show up in our pasture. She hasn’t been doing that anymore and I was wondering if she had died. That is, until I spotted her across the fence. Boy, she looked more like a football than like a cat. Yesterday, I overheard our ranch owner chat with the neigbour. “We had to take her to a vet,” the neighbour said. “She had grown so fat that she was dragging her belly, she could barely walk.”
I was astonished to hear that. A cat so fat that she couldn’t walk? It’s just hard to grasp for me. I wouldn’t know how to grow that fat. I eat some grasses, flowers and hay. Occasionally, I will nibble on a carrot that some friendly people bring with them to the ranch. My natural instincts tell me when to eat and when I have had enough. Honestly, have you ever seen a fat horse? They don’t exist, but should I ever see one, for sure I’d tell you just that. Fortunately, I don’t live in Germany, so I’m able to say this.
“I wouldn’t be able to say that in Germany”, you may wonder? If you think this to be extreme, you may want to consider the following: recently, the German Bundeskriminalamt has started to investigate and prosecute the petty crime of … insult. Millions of insults happen on a daily basis, and we have argued before that negative expressions can have a positive function in this universe. Insult is no exception.
Of course, since insults happen so frequently, the German prosecutors do not go after every single occurrence. We also previously pointed out that an abundance of laws, rules and regulations inevitably leads to selective application of those. Whether the selection process happens randomly, for instance because agents can impossibly know all statutes, or if it is organized from above with a certain political bias, is a degree of freedom not constrained by the legal body itself. Germany is no exception to this. So, which insults are selectively being prosecuted there? Of course, the ones that involve “democratic institutions and their representatives”. In Germany too, elites seem to be determined to make the dirty populace respect its power brokers, even when these accomplish nothing to earn their respect.
(Yes, respect needs to be earned. You will earn my respect when you subscribe.)
In the vein of prosecuting citizens who dare and criticize the perfect humans who represent democratic institutions, German prosecutors recently subpoenaed social media platform Gab to produce a set of personal details related to the user account “@die_Lunte_brennt_schon”. They motivated their request by the fact that the user had referred to the Green Party politician Ricarda Lang in a way that “sexualizes and refers to her body weight”. I quickly screened the corresponding social media account and … it deserves the label “vulgar”. However, I am also happy that Gab decided not to comply with the request, for several reasons. Party politicians should be aware that they can never please all of their citizens and that some will vilify them. As they themselves opted to be in the position they are in, they should be the adults in the room. Rather than to scour every post that mentions them, they should ignore vile comments and react by being more inclusive and act as a representative for all, even for denizens who hate them. Hearts can be won over by positive impulses. On the contrary, by having criticisms prosecuted, politicians antagonize their opponents even more. Instead, they should grow a thicker skin. Ricarda Lang physically appears to have a very thick skin, so I wonder why it is so thin metaphorically.
The precedent set by the German prosecutors in this case is very dangerous. In fact, Ricarda Lang is just an example of a long standing pedigree of voluminous German politicians. Do you remember Helmut Kohl, the West German Chancellor who was credited with the German reunification? I can only observe that he must have enjoyed his Schweinshaxen a little too often while he was at it, reunifying the country. That is what brings me to the point: it is objectively true that these politicians are far overweight. To call them fat, is to merely state a fact. In so doing, there doesn’t even have to be the intent to insult them. Yet even if there is such intent, insulting these people for their inability to control their body weight might actually help them. Once they get over the initial hurt feelings, they might consider to start living a healthier lifestyle and avoid a heart attack at age forty. Insults can have positive effects. Just like hate, they have a role in the greater scheme of things and it is complete insanity to criminalize them.
Unfortunately, Germany does not stand alone in this trend to criminalize criticism of the ruling classes. In Brazil, the Supreme Court “Justice” and de facto ruling despot Alexandre de Moraes has repeatedly mandated the removal of social media accounts critical of himself. He even ordered the profiles of an entire political party to be removed. Why? The communist Partido da Causa Operária had dared to call for the dissolution of Moraes’ own Supreme Court…
More recently, Australia has been in the spotlight when it comes down to nonsensical legislative action. The country has created an “Online Safety Commission”. Seemingly by coincidence, the latter is headed by a US national and former CIA operative, Julie Inman-Grant. Given the stupidity community’s track record to try and “make people behave” according to their own upside down morals, the so-called Online Safety Commission will have nothing to do with safety, but instead will use any event in the public space as an excuse to stifle opinions critical of the ruling classes and to make sure media platforms nudge in the desired direction. Not a single country needs such an “Online Safety Commission”, but the Albanese government appears to be willing to go further: they intend to criminalize misogynistic content with “steep penalties”. They motivate this proposal by the fact that “children should not be influenced by such content”. If they really cared for children, they would keep them off social media altogether. Yet this is another bout at window dressing that uses “children’s online safety” to obtain legal levers for the dark power of censorship.
(If you don’t know what the ‘stupidity community’ or ‘nudging’ means, I advise you to consume more pony wisdom and subscribe)
This push to criminalize misogynistic content is also dangerous from another perspective. Why should misogyny be a crime, yet misandry be allowed? The law has to apply equally to all. We are all born on the same planet and under the same sun. However, we are observing a terrifying trend in which it is deemed acceptable to attack one group, yet unthinkable to attack another in the same way. Some refer to the latter as treating people “equitably”, which, in spite of the similar phonemes, bears no commonality with “equally”. In this trend, which I can again trace back to nudging, it is absolutely inconceivable to refer to certain people as “black trash,” while at the same time it is laudable to refer to another group as “white trash”. I will not call any person trash. No person is trash, be it black, white, red or purple. The law has to codify this universal truth. However, some countries are doing the opposite. Brazil’s Lei do Racismo selectively criminalizes what it deems racist speech in one direction. We’ll have to see that inconsistency eliminate itself. I can’t wait to see a black Brazilian criticize “justice” Moraes, be trialed by him and then accuse the latter of racism.
(If you want to learn more about the Lei do Racismo and consume some farofa on the go, you may want to check older pony wisdom out and subscribe)
Censorship has always been a tool that was exclusively adopted by dark powers. Today is no exception. Yet it has always been possible to reverse it. Again, today is no exception. The laws discussed here will be rescinded and so-called “Online Safety Commissions” will be disbanded. Yet we should do everything we can to not have them copied in other places. I rest assured though, that in North America I will be allowed to spontaneously express anything that I observe and call Ricarda Lang what she is: fat. That is because North American politicians will make sure that they do everything in their powers to maximize Ozempic prescriptions.
I don’t see fat cats that often and I don’t see fat horses at all. If I ever saw Rebecca Lang approach the fence from afar, I don’t know how I’d react. Maybe I’d think “what is that amorphous piece of jelly over there that wobbles toward the fence? Oh, it has eyes, it’s a human …”
Come get me, Bundeskriminalamt. My hind legs will kick you back across the fence.