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Monday, March 30, 2009

PETA Holocaust Ads Officially Offensive

Germany's supreme court has ruled that a series of PETA ads comparing factory farming to the Holocaust are "an offense against human dignity" and not protected speech. The ads show pictures of concentration camps next to pictures of animal farms and bear the slogan "The Holocaust on your plate". I actually have a couple of problems with this ruling. Most importantly, no court should be able to limit free speech based on its "offensiveness". The word "offensive" is just so uselessly vague. These ads aren't offensive, they're simply idiotic, cruel, naive, and wrongheaded. Also, submitting them for government censorship just focuses more unnecessary attention on them. These ads have been around for a while, and most of us had forgotten about them. Why go out of your way to render legal rulings against PETA's insanity when that insanity does a much better job of lampooning the organization all by themselves? More details here. And on another note, does anyone else find it infuriating that PETA has stolen the Star Trek font for these ads? Gene Roddenberry must be rolling in his weightless vacuum.

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