It isn’t at fault here. There’s plenty of nonsense on the internet originating from countries that may or may not practise this law. So neither the country nor the law can be held responsible here.
The authorities and the governments however are at fault when it comes to neglecting right-wing extremism in the name of freedom of speech. Let me quote The Guardian - “Western democracies and their security agencies have focused almost exclusively on only one form of violent extremism. The far right may still pose less of a threat than al-Qaida-inspired groups, say, but our ignorance of this form of extremism is striking.” - Therein lies my tid peer with this law.
If someone was going around preaching radical jihad, no one would just say “Pfftt ignore, let him tell everyone to kill the infidels, he has a right to free speech”. Everyone knows the authorities would crack down on him and his associates (and rightly so). On the opposite end of the spectrum, no one cares to investigate people like Wade Michael who openly talk about mudering jews, blacks, asians, muslims etc, actively attend “hate events” all across the country, are known associates of “incredibly violent” supremacist organizations that despite being known to be violent are well-funded, well-established and no one cares to dismantle them.
Just like Osama was a hero to some loonies, Wade Michael also had plenty of supporters who praised their “brother”: “All I feel is loss and sympathy for a brother that was overwhelmed by pain and frustration. I could [sic] care less though for those injured and wounded other than Wade.” Another warned of future attacks: “There are thousands of other angry White men like Page, the vast majority of them unknown … When will they, like Page, reach their breaking point…?”
So the question, that I asked right after the Wisconsin tragedy and got no response, is that what criteria of a terror suspect do these people not fulfill? Had the authorities intervened in Wade’s activities earlier, perhaps those innocent lives could have been saved. Those who have even warned of future attacks, does anyone care to track them down? The Department for Homeland Security warned of an “explosive” growth in this form of extremism in a report in 2009 and no one took it seriously, some political parties even criticized the report. So clearly, no preventative measures are being implemented and this is my only beef with the authorities and the governments, who I think should do more than just show up to condemn and clean up the mess after these extremists attack the minorities.
What I expect them to do is I think quite reasonable and fair. Don’t let these psychos preach hatred and extremism, just like you won’t let a radical jihadist abuse the freedom of speech. Dismantle the neo-Nazi organizations, just like you’d crack down on a radical madrassa’s operations. It’s high time you started taking these bigots seriously because your own official departments have warned that they pose a significant domestic security threat. That 2009 DHS report even warned of radical “disgruntled veterans” and lo and behold in 2012 an Army veteran shoots six people dead. So it’s not like no one was aware of the threat, just that no one cared to take any action.This article by The Guardian pretty much spoke my mind – “Wisconsin teaches us that the challenge that now presents itself is to understand what “pushes and pulls” citizens to commit violence in the name of rightwing extremism, and to develop an effective response. To do this, we must first start taking violence from the far right more seriously.” – That effective response, the preventative (not just corrective) control measures, is what I’m looking for. Hopefully, that’s not too much to ask.