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Comment by lukewarm707

9 hours ago

If the UK is in europe, you should make fun of the following: they don't have a first amendment. So to me, it's an authoritarian state preaching freedom.

22 comments

lukewarm707

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mcv  8 hours ago

The order of amendments is just the order in which the constitution has been amended. It's meaningless to talk about "first amendments" in other countries. Talk about the actual laws and rights described therein.

And as you can probably tell by now, the first amendment in the US is not actually preventing the US government from promoting a specific religion or silencing speech. It's just words on a paper at this point. Look at the actual practice.

Several European countries do a much better job at protecting the rights described in the first amendment to the US constitution.

  • cesarb  8 hours ago

    > The order of amendments is just the order in which the constitution has been amended. It's meaningless to talk about "first amendments" in other countries.

    Also, at least here in Brazil, the way the constitution is amended is by patching it. For instance, our constitutional amendment number 115 (https://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/constituicao/emendas/e...) patches article 5 of the constitution to add protection of personal data as a right. But we wouldn't talk about "amendment 115", we would instead talk about "article 5 item LXXIX of the constitution"; that is, what matters is the patched text, not the law that patched it.

    I don't know about other countries, but it wouldn't surprise me if they take a similar approach.

    • mcv  8 hours ago

      Same in Netherland. We don't count changes to our constitution, we simply refer to the article in the constitution.

  • lukewarm707  8 hours ago

    > "Talk about the actual laws and rights described therein."

    Freedom of speech.

    > "Look at the actual practice."

    The UK does not have that? The situation in the UK is very obtuse. It is confused.

    • mcv  8 hours ago

      The UK does not have what? Book bans? Science censorship by the government? The government pushing TV shows off the air for criticising the government? The president banning certain news media for asking questions he doesn't like?

      The UK is not the world's biggest champion of free speech, but I think it's still doing better than the US right now.

      7 replies →

ascorbic  5 hours ago

No, it doesn't have a first amendment, but it does have ECHR articles 9 (Freedom of thought, conscience and religion), 10 (Freedom of expression) and 11 (Freedom of assembly and association)

gond  8 hours ago

Sometimes, comments are so baffling, I couldn’t formulate an answer even if I tried, and that’s not due to the content.

This is Not Even Wrong.

mortalapeman  8 hours ago

I mean laws and rights are only useful if enforced. If the arm of government responsible for enforcement just doesn't and the people allow it, then what good is that purported freedom?