UPDATE: This has been overturned. Good job YouTube!
Pat Condell has the most subscriptions of any comic on YouTube. He has been making candid, no-holds-barred critiques of British society, Muslim theocracy and religion in general for quite some time.
Recently YouTube threatened to suspend his account, and pulled his latest video on Sharia law in Britain. From his user page on YouTube, Condell tells us:
I’VE RECEIVED THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE FROM YOUTUBE EXPLAINING WHY MY VIDEO “WELCOME TO SAUDI BRITAIN” WAS REMOVED:“Your video was removed due to a violation of ourpolicy against hate speech. The specific portion of the video found to be in violation occurs around 2:20.”
But it doesn’t matter that he’s popular or that he’s consistent. What matters is whether or not he has the right to say what he’s saying. Here’s a heads up regarding YouTube’s comments about what happens at 2:20. He calls one Saudi an “idiot,” and the entire country “mentally ill.”
He’s angry about Sharia law being instituted in Britain. He’s angry that his society, which values tolerance, does so to the extreme of allowing an INtolerant subculture to establish and legitimize its own INtolerant court system. Rules in a Sharia court would not be allowed in society at large’s court. He’s angry that political correctness rules common sense.
Is that not something worth being angry about? Has he crossed some line to rail against a culture that punishes rape victims as mentally ill? How should members of socially tolerant liberal democracies react exactly? Please, YouTube, enlighten us!
The point is, even if you don’t like the WAY he is saying it, or for that matter, even if you disagree with him altogether, you ARE simply proving his point by censuring him for this video. Watch ALL his videos (start at the end of the list and work back to get them chronologically), and tell me you don’t come to the conclusion (as many have) that he is really a peace-loving patriot, that his heart really is in the right place and that he is genuinely concerned and, yes, outraged.
Sticks and stones, YouTube. As has been said, WAY WORSE language than this has been used in all sorts of official public discourse around the world, whether it’s politics, courts or food critics!
What can they possibly hope to accomplish by banning this video? I am dumbfounded that they would even try. There’s NO foundation for it, and they should be ashamed of themselves.
For fuck’s sake, are you even paying attention to the last 8 years in America, and the current election? YouTube, are YOU mentally ill?
