Article 2, Code D'honneur Du Légionnaire


Chaque légionnaire est ton frère d'arme quelle que soit sa nationalité, sa race, sa religion. Tu lui manifestes toujours la solidarité étroite qui doit unir les membres d'une même famille.


We discuss some controversial subjects here on SWJ, some topics are outside our comfort zone of others at times. Issues of tribalism, factionalism and religious roles in small wars are a common topic here. It would be a shame if the well informed opinion of one person is seen as hate speech and that person were prosecuted under the law in another nation in absentia. The whole idea of laws against hate speech and banning offensive content are a double edged sword. I do not think this would be an effective tool in combating anything.

The first amendment of the U.S. Bill of Rights does protect those sorts of things. It was specifically designed to protect speech that was inflammatory. Gitlow v. Ney York, Yates v. United States, Brandanburg v. Ohio shows a situations where free speech is not covered. The majority opinion stated that only when words that, "by their very nature, involve danger to the public peace and to the security of the state," is it lawful to suppress their usage. Most items, if not all that are considered hate speech in Europe simply do not meet that criteria in the United States.

Speech that is not protected, like advocating the violent overthrow of the USG are covered by the Smith Act and other laws. Attempts to regulate communication on the internet have been struck down time and time again in the United States for the same reason the Communications Decency Act were declared unconstitutional. The laws were overly broad and presented difficulties when reconciling them with Article I of the Bill of Rights, enforcement, jurisdiction and a myriad of other things. In the United States blanket statements, though disturbing to the victim are protected under the law. Group libel is also protected under law in the United States. The only exceptions to this is when a person advocates the violent overthrow of the USG, threatens violence or grievous bodily harm, or incites a riot.

The European Convention on Cybercrime states that "any written material, any image or any other representation of ideas or theories, which advocates, promotes or incites hatred, discrimination or violence, against any individual or group of individuals, based on race, colour, descent or national or ethnic origin, as well as religion if used as pretext for any of these factors." However, those laws are not accepted, nor acceptable in the United States for several reasons. The NAZI memorabilia matter is mentioned in the thread. It is legal to sell memorabilia and reproductions of NAZI materials in the United States. That is not the case in germany, or France. In fact the policies of these three governments differ to such a degree that the official policy of the USG not extradite individuals who sell NAZI memorabilia online from the United States ,regardless of its criminality in other nations. Another odd example of enforcement difficulties comes form online games from what I hear. They have these Chinese sweat shops companies called gold farmers, who are known to use child labor. It is sort of a hybrid crime and a violation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Children. Yet again, unenforceable due to jurisdiction, and cooperation with the country that the crimes took place in. I point these matters out to show the complication of enforcement of national, regional or international law on the internet.

As some one who has lived in France and went through regularization of situation I can tell you that hate speech laws are used as punching bags typically. Group X says or prints something group Y finds offensive. Group Y files a criminal complaint in the courts. The court battle ensues and a verdict is reached. Group X files counter complaint and another battle in the courts takes place. Rinse repeat ad nauseum! The same appears be the case for internet based crimes so far.