One can only imagine that this issue will be more and more fraught in the era of deep fakes. Where on the cline between stick-figures and indistinguishable from video of a heinous crime do we need to draw the line?
I think you are missing the point of the word I very deliberately put in bold italics twice!
These guys advocate the murder of MPs and call for graphic and violent attacks on police officers.
Just go and read the Wikipedia link and then come back here and try and claim some equivalence with being accused of thoughtcrime for being a communist. The group he was a member of were not ‘thinkers’ committing ‘thoughtcrime’, they were nasty violent thugs also calling for
a “white jihad” to “cleanse Britain of parasites” using leaflets, stickers and video.[46] Members of the group stated in speeches that there was a “disease of international Jewry”, and that “when the time comes they’ll be in the chambers”.[47]
They are the only far right group to have been proscribed since the 1940s. Which suggests we are a lot more tolerant than you seem to believe.
The group was proscribed as a terrorist organisation under the Terrorism Act 2000, making it a criminal offence to support or be a member after 16 December 2016.[47] In laying an order for National Action’s proscription, the Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, described the group as “a racist, antisemitic and homophobic organisation which stirs up hatred, glorifies violence and promotes a vile ideology”.[56] National Action is the first far-right organisation to be proscribed in the UK since the now-defunct British Union of Fascists in the 1940s.[57] National Action is one of only four terrorist organisations based in Great Britain to be proscribed (one being the Sonnenkrieg Division, a splinter of the System Resistance Network (a National Action alias), and the other two being radical Islamist organisations).[58]
Most - and there are many of them - right wing groups in the UK are free to spew their hate. This lot go further and promote and support murderous, violent terrorist acts.
I’m done trying to educate people who have not bothered to read the links and think this guy has been hard done by for his political views or having some ‘wrong’ material on his PC. Educate yourselves before coming here and pushing that crap. (Yes, I am very angry that anyone here comes anywhere near defending this nasty little shit and his nazi brethren.)
Remember, intolerance is the one thing we absolutely must not tolerate. These guys are intolerant to the point of actively seeking to harm anyone who is not what they consider Straight British White.
Goodnight.
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I certainly wouldn’t want to impose American notions of free expression on the rest of the world, anymore than I would want to impose our dumbass 2nd amendment rights on them. I was only expressing the emotional discomfort that I and I think a lot of my fellow left-leaning Americans feel about outlawing group membership per se rather than the crimes committed by them. I don’t view the British law as being wrong and I certainly wouldn’t want to defend this person’s breaking of it.
You
Yet you are emotionally uncomfortable with it.
Group membership in this case IS illegal. (And I’m glad you acknowledge that.)
He could have joined any number of other right-wing, hate-spewing, nazi-aligned, jew-hating, homophobic, racist groups and not been imprisoned (though I cannot speak for his successful continued employment at the Metropolitan Police - who knows?) but he chose this one, fully aware that it actively promoted violent terrorist activity.
There is nothing to be uncomfortable about here.
And now I really must say goodnight.
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Joining that particular banned fascist hate group, which celebrated the murder of Jo Cox MP and planned to assassinate more politicians, maybe?
And before you say “what about the left?”, yes, we know. Joining the PKK or INLA will get you a similar prison sentence.
If you and the other pearl clutchers put even a fraction of your efforts to defend this arsehole into helping support British trans people, who are under constant psychological attack from TERs, then Britain might start down the path to not being Garbage Island. As it is, you are just confirming that the name is true.
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Maybe explained by a number of recent vehicle and knife attacks.
Seems? What would he have to do to be classified as a dick?
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I think this is just a cultural difference between Europeans and Americans because recent history hasn’t had them being embroiled in war and suffering due to demagogics.* On the other hand, with things like Qanon and Trump they are beginning to see that the market place of ideas thing doesn’t work and like every market it needs regulation to not become a dystopia.
* On a national level. I am well aware that individuals and minorities have suffered oppression and persecution thanks to this sort of thing
I’m aware of the reasons for the knife laws, but it’s a bit surprising to view knife related literature as a crime when in the US, gas stations or truck stops often have news stands like this: 
and I grew up with my dad having this book 
on his bookshelf. I believe he picked it up when he was in the army, and I’ve seen it in used book shops. Not a fan of anyone killing anyone by any implement.
What I meant was that the recent “lone wolf” type terrorist attacks have involved knives and vehicles because the routes to getting a gun involve organised crime (or people who say they are part of organised crime) which has led to several sting operations by security services.
I can recall a Fairbairn-Sykes commando manual being in the school library!
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