Rowan Atkinson on free speech

uh oh I think mister rowan is a right wing extremist... quick silence him before he spreads his lies!

Mr Atkinson, you have all my respect.

In the news currently. Police forces in England have been ordered to investigate every theft. In the same week, Police Scotland announce a new pilot scheme in which they openly admit they will no longer be investigating any low level theft where there is no known suspect in the first instance. Police Scotland however have made it clear that the want to hear about any and all “hate” crimes. So the only hope you have of having the theft of your lawn mower investigated in Scotland, is if you suspect the thief was homophobic or racist.

...I think we have a deeper issue here, a clash of cultures which has NOT been properly adressed at all. European culture is deeply, almost foremostly rooted in people's freedom to use insulting sarcasm and ridicule, especially in art, to drive social progress and change of the establised mindset if not the establishment itself. From a snake biting a penis on the ceiling of a chatedral to hilarious charicatures of the new King of Britain, Europe has communicated it's desire for a change and progress BY - being insultive and ridiculing the wrongdoings. We have mocked Torquemada and Hitler and Stalin to their demise all the way to a free Europe which allows gay marriage, child adoption, self-inflicted euthanasia, freedom of religion, divorce, abortion... to name a few commodities. Through centuries, this has been long recognized BY the establishment itself, as it is in European culture to not only give, but also graciously take the insult. It's worth noticing no Pope ever sent someone to paint over that snake, and while the Royal family may whinge, I do not recall any artist being reprimanded or fired, let alone imprisoned, tried or executed over a less than favourable depiction of one of the members.

The Eastern cultures (ones rooted in religion as well as variuous brands of socialism) that made a huge breach inside Europe in the past 50 years are diametrically opposite of this, and they have, excuse my crudeness, worked to remain the same for centuries by stifling any attempt of insult at all. In those cultures, insult is grounds not only for imprisonment or trial, but also for straight out murder. Including casually walking by a charicature artist and slicing his head off with a sword. People who are descendants of these cultures are now in the establishment; in the police, in parliaments, in the ruling class, presidents, majors, judges and law givers.

I would suggest that this cultural influence, their aggressive and most intolerant reaction to any kind of insult has spilled over into the European culture and damaged our deeply rooted acceptance of insult as a legit means of communication. I am saying this as someone coming from the Balcans, where once you lived in fear of losing your job for calling a politican a monkey, and now you are cautious to check the skin colour of the person you want to call a monkey because the same might happen in case they do not happen to be white.
(for those who don't understand the true irony, calling someone "a monkey" in the balcans is a low level insult most commonly used by mothers to reprimand children).
Someone might ask themselves "but why are you such an uncivilized brute to ever call anyone a monkey!?" to which I reply "because people often deserve it, and it is a much easier way of communicating to them their social inadequacy than to off their head with a sword".

To dwell on the Balcans a bit more, we have been ostracised and ridiculed by the rest of Europe for the better part of our presence on the continet. But it is my firm belief that Germans, Italians, the irish..., mocking their Balcan immigrants did a good job teaching them how to integrate in their new homes and possibly leave less favourable Balcan behaviors (such as keeping live pigs on the 5th floor balcony of an apartment building, to name a curious event from my own city) back where they came from.
And while you can sometimes expect a physical backlash from someone who had a bottle of slivowitz too much, it has never been as socially acceptable as it is understood to be perfectly OK for a black man to beat up someone using an n word to their face. Even if in the language in question "negro" simply means "black" - apparently Spanish should be changed to accomodate American nomenclatures these days.

and I am not entirely hostile to our Eastern immigrants, as I see it as poor form that we not only failed to pass on to them our culture, but also the basic information on how our countries work. Starting with traffic, we have been so quick to exploit our Indian and Nepalese immigrants as delivery boys we forgot to tell them which side of the road we drive, and what the blinking lights near the railways mean. There were some horrendous consequences.

Now, I myself am neither in possession of knowledge nor information on how to exactly handle this issue, but it has NOT been handled and I percieve this as a HUGE mistake on the part of European politicians at large. I do not see Putin's strategy of "if you come to Russia, you have agreed to become Russian, and if you don't want to you can go home" as the way to go, I do fully support the idea that if you come to a different culture, you should strive to integrate and become a part of it, not change it to your liking. After all, most eho emigrated from the Balcans did so because they considered the Elsewhere they went to, to be a better place - would it not be foolish to try and make this better place into the Balcans? Absolutely.
I do believe the EU way - allowing of Everything European to be condemned as evil while cultural aspects of other peoples such as decapitation of those who dare break their cultural norm to be considered "acceptable" and blame placed on those who issued the "insult", is NOT a good way.

We are at a crossoads. We will either find the right way, or we will have BIG problems.

Getting off my litterbox now. sorry.

I like how he can tackle a serious subject very seriously as well putting some humor in there , humor is the way forward as well as trying to stop their stupid plot

Rowan is a supporter of free speech but a denouncer of electric vehicles, i am a HUGE fan of electric vehicles (EVs). And i still want Rowan to have the right to say whatever he truly feels about the matter, I support his right even though I vehemently disagree with the content of what he says regarding EVs. And hacing this back and forth discussion openly, even while i feel "offended" and he would probably feel "offended" by some of what i have to say is essential in a healthy society. Free speech is an absolute bedrock of democracy, thank you Rowan!!!;)

From a man, who made a career only with gestures and faces, this is incredible

You're wrong. The Thomas Sowells and Milton Friedmans of this world use their freedom of speech rights to bamboozle people. They's so good at this that all the extra dialogue in creation won't help. Once convinced of the rightness of their beliefs by these charlatan tricksters, it's well nigh impossible to shift Joe Average from his suicidal course. This is how anti-climate changers get air and why no amount of learned retort, graphs, charts by experts in their field is considered adequate as a response. It's why nothing was done about the Panama Papers bar the assassination of one of the jounalists who reported it.

What a boss!

Rowan is such an elegant and eloquent speaker.

The free speech people are always incomparably more eloquent, educated, and intelligent than the censorship people. It cannot be any other way, for that is the nature of censorship - ignorance mandated by force.

we are slowly loosing freedom of speach, MSN is the worst for this recently anyone who has used it will agree you have to agree with the news article you are commenting on or you cant comment on it the AI filter literally stops you its ridiculous

give him his food and free speech, and take away his shelter and see 😂 christian brains love to see chest puffing over actual logic

this is the first time i've seen mr. bean voice

Thank you Rowan for stepping up and putting your opinion forward.

Britain is a joke. Literally the dystopian future we make fun of.

Stop putting up with the bs ! Fight back, keep speaking your truths… Do Not Comply …

All well said!!! ❤

The words someone say, speak volumes on their character. listen and learn.

How right…the public needs to get rid of the So called Young Global Leader Students and Alumni that are involved in Politics, Media, Economy….this WEF is a dangerous Cult and sadly almost all of the European Leaders are hooked to it…including Rishi Sunak…

Makes sense that he acted out Mr Bean mute. Man is way too eloquent to be funny otherwise.

How about the prominent Canadian Psychologist, Jordan Peterson, who is being investigated for criticizing (among other things) the Prime Minister. His professional organization is seeking to rescind his license to practice because by exercising his right to free speech, he has ‘offended’ the new wokeness.

...spot on ❤👍

Agree with RA he speaks the truth. Why is this muzzling of comment deemed ‘hurtful’ allowed to continue. Perhaps government knows that we are soon to be squashed like prawns, millions of us, unable to avoid the foul breath of our neighbours for lack of space - much better to have had our tongues trained. And as RA says, this applies to the lowly and vulnerable. The elite will live different, hypocritical lives.

I never found those shows all that funny. I could see the future.

Mr Bean speaks out my very soul. I live in Germany and we have no free speech here at all. So many innocent humans are in jail just for speaking out their critical opinion controrary to the main stream. I hate it when humans get put in jail instead of honestly talk about the topic. For example our fucking shit law forces all humans to lie about history of WW2. History and scince about this topic is written by the penal law book, not by open research and discussion as it ought to be. Every human being speaking out a different opinion about the history of WW2 just gets put in jail instead to honestly talk about the topic. This makes me sick. Fuck those assholes to make always new laws of censorship to keep their fucking lies alive.

hear hear!

😊❤

All my respect for Rowan Atkinson !

So glad that a "childhood hero" of mine is actually making a good point. Sad that I can't say the same about people like Sasha Baron Coen.

So true.❤

Mr Atkinson was the best former Prime Minister of all times.

It's interesting for me an atheist to see that video is on a Catholic channel.

Dear BREXITeers. This educated, talented and respectful Comedian may be your only way to gain trust in you again.
Greetings from Germany

I thought Mr Khan was talking sense for the first time in his life Then realised it was Rowan Atkinson

I'm really afraid of the future. All these censorships and anti-free-speech movements are getting ridiculous.

"Micro agressions", "Bigot",... what the hell is happening? Why are so pany people actively for a North Korea/China -system?

Genius of a man. Should be an author like Salman Rushdi, both brilliant British Asians.

No bees around 😂❤❤

Sadly, when people say "free speech" today, they imply "only if we agree"

Genius, funny and all round awesome!

Mr. Atkins can you make a comment over South Korean Goverment who criminalized internet comments that dislike their spy such as BTS or Song hye Gyo sponsored by samsung and Korean minustry of foreign affairs? For those who are on behalf of free speech, please rebuke and reject K pop and UN at NYC. If you support K pop or UN of Korean ministry then it means that some is killed or unrighteously imprisoned or became criminals... Or fired for the reason of cyber defamation or insulting.

i keep notice when some one try's to tell the truth and being honest there's always some folks who laugh at something they say that isn't a joke

Mr Bean my hero ❤

Can we have an encore please??

Loops and loops over over loops

King Stop playing

ditto - thank you for speaking for those that are always forever taken advantage of - exceptionally women, the elderly forgotten, and all that is not elite - we are worthy of our words when you move through eons, 50+ years of abuse, degradation, and defilement to the ridiculousness - and yet the governments, elite, get away with the most horrendous intentions - you cannot have been so civil when you are impaled with human testing - we need consciously aware and those that simply want to silence the truth

i was already giggling expecting mr brean

A wise man’s way to speak out about ugly truths 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻 thank you Sir!! 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻