U.K. politicians seeing what’s happening in the U.S. and getting ideas. But since the U.K. doesn’t have any actual rights like in the U.S. they can enact their bullshit faster.
Comment on Protest footage blocked as online safety act comes into force
The_Picard_Maneuver@piefed.world 2 days ago
What is happening in the UK in the last year or so? I keep seeing crazy headlines like this every so often.
The online safety act requiring ID, police showing up at old people's houses for their Facebook/twitter posts, or that one time someone suggested they would try to extradite Americans for the same thing. Where is this coming from all of a sudden?
LodeMike@lemmy.today 2 days ago
NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 2 days ago
The centre left party are afraid of losing voters to the far right party, so they’re cutting out the middle man and implementing crazy authoritarian policies first.
Saleh@feddit.org 2 days ago
Labour won in a landslide after the Brexit mess rightfully fucked up the Tories. They do this because they aren’t center left, but a right/far-right party by their ideology now. They don’t have to do this. They want to do this.
The “Labour/Social Democratic” parties all over Europe have been sliding into right/far-right authoritarianism and Racism over the past decades, after many of them slided into Neoliberalism at the end of the 90s and in the 2000s.
Infernal_pizza@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
Also worth noting that they only won by a landslide because the Tories lost loads of voters because people were so fed up with them. Labour actually got less votes this election than they did previously when they lost
Goldholz@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 days ago
Whats been happening? Betrail in the people. The biggest in UK history
Fondots@lemmy.world 2 days ago
It could just be the parts of the internet I inhabit, but I don’t think it’s really a recent thing, I think it’s just hitting a point where the masses are really starting to take notice of it.
I’m pretty sure I remember seeing memes about CCTV cameras and such in the UK about 20 years ago now, and I don’t think it’s an accident that things like 1984 and V for Vendetta were written by British authors and set there.
As an outsider, it’s certainly looked to me like the UK has been kind of a nanny state for a long time, and it’s not a long walk from there to the kind of bullshit we’re seeing more of now.
shalafi@lemmy.world 2 days ago
FFS, you can’t carry a 3" pocket knife and if you carry any pocket knife it has to be the dangerous kind that doesn’t lock.
5in1k@lemmy.zip 2 days ago
You can’t have a tiny pot metal Zelda sword letter opener that’s dull. Ridiculous place it is.
shalafi@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Reminds me of NYC cops bragging about taking away pellet guns.
“You… you can’t be serious?!”
And guess where ICE is operating. I’ll give you three guesses, but you’re only going to need one.
Fondots@lemmy.world 2 days ago
As someone who has regularly carried a variety of knives and multi tools almost every day of my life, I also can’t say I’m a fan of their knife laws.
That said, as-written, I don’t find them to be quite as bad as a lot of people make them out to be (how the police choose to interpret and enforce those laws is sort of a different matter)
It’s not the sort of knife I normally choose to carry, but all of the reasons I normally carry and use a knife for can be done perfectly safely and effectively with something like a regular Swiss army knife with a 2.5inch non-locking blade which should generally be ok to carry for no particular reason.
It should be noted that I do not carry a knife for any self-defense purposes. I feel very little need to defend myself, and even if I did a knife would be just about my last choice after pretty much any other object in arm’s reach. Even though where I am, I could pretty much walk around town carrying a halberd for self defense if I really wanted to and it would be legal, I actually do tend to choose my EDC knives to be pretty inoffensive-looking free of any unnecessary point/stabby bits and if possible.
And cases that really require more knife than that aren’t exactly part of my usual everyday carry scenario, and the appropriate knives for those occasions should be covered under the lawful justification and reasonable use exemptions (again, how the police actually apply those laws can leave something to be desired, but that’s often a problem here too)
Again, not a fan of their knife laws, but in the grand scheme, I’m not nearly as outraged by them as a lot of people are.
shalafi@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Seems like the law was meant to exclude the full-size Swiss army knife. They’re great for most pocket knife purposes! But having damaged nerves on two fingertips from non-locking knives, yeah, I won’t touch one. Although the “classic” is a great everyday pocket knife!
Funny enough, I was hiking today with a small "Rambo knife affixed to my backpack strap. Do I need that on a hike in the woods? LOL, hardly ever. But it’s nice to have when I do need it.
Thanks for saying all that! We’re clearly on the same page.
The_Picard_Maneuver@piefed.world 2 days ago
You're probably right. I bet I'm being US-centric to just assume everyone there values free speech/expression with the same cultural intensity.