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Officials at the Wildern School in England called cops after they found a 15-year-old student had looked at the website of the anti-European Union UK Independence Party and watched a English Defense League video at school.

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Charles Oliver is a contributing editor at Reason.

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  1. Head teacher Marie-Louise Litton said: “I wish to make it absolutely clear that the decision to pursue the matter further was not made by the school.”

    A spokesman from Hampshire Constabulary said: “The school contacted us in good faith and in complete accordance with their safeguarding procedures.

    “We have a duty to respond to these concerns and we spoke to the pupil and his father informally about comments and internet usage at school.”

    No further action was taken.

    No further action was needed. That little UKIP terrorist finally learned something from that school, namely that Limeys have no working First Amendment analog. Also, bureaucrats like to pull the grenade and pass the buck, mixaphorically speaking.

    1. Adans smith

      True,their right can be taken in a moments notice by parliament. Though crimes in the land of Orwell,who’d a thunk it?

      1. BearOdinson

        Going back to the Magna Carta, the fact that rights could only be taken away “by law” was a pretty important step forward. So the king (at least in theory) had to get some buy-in from nobles, and then eventually, parliament.

        But of course, we see in action, the expression, paraphrased from “The Patriot”: Why is it better to be ruled by 3000 tyrants 1 mile away, rather than 1 tyrant 3000 miles away?

    2. Thymirus

      I can also guarantee that while the authorities may have forgone their usual harassment in handling this boy’s case, the school’s administration will have warned him away from reading material that strays from the mainstream socialist claptrap in the future, probably threatening him with reprimand and expulsion.

      Residing in Britain has given me a thorough, personal experience of just how spectacularly depraved these people are. American bureaucrats aren’t even in the same universe of awfulness.

      1. Adans smith

        I assume Animal Farm and 1984 are not on the ‘approved’ list then?

        1. Thymirus

          When I lived here previously (as a child), life was a fucking nightmare. Everybody from the small kids to the teachers at school, for example, treated me like absolute shit for being American.

          One of the first realizations I had — the one that began to stir my hatred of authority — was when they started teaching some module on American history in class. The retarded Limey teacher introduced some basics concerning the United Styates, like the geography and founding documents (all laden with bullshit and errors, unsurprisingly). When he got to the part about the Bill of Rights, he read about five of the amendments aloud, and told the class they were main ones, and some other shit I don’t care to remember. I was pissed off that he’d very obviously intentionally missed the Second Amendment, and after correcting some mistakes he’d made as to the order and meanings of the others he’d spoken of, I recited the Second Amendment, and summarized my view of it to him.

        2. Thymirus

          He went near-batshit, screamed at me that that sort of talk was inappropriate in this country, kicked me out of class, and I was eventually suspended for “disrupting others’ learning” and “anti-social behavior”.

          Never again did I pay any attention to anything any of these fuckbags had to say.

          If you have kids, monitor what their teachers feed them. I’m not ashamed to say I was smart enough to avoid the brainwashing — but then, I wasn’t impressionable, and most kids are.

          ‘Animal Farm’ and ‘1984’ are probably unknown to the last few generations.

          1. Eman

            im only thirty, so im very, very not far removed from high school (I still feel like im in high school, but I dunno if that ever changes) but there seems to have been an awfully sharp break at some point in the past ten years, maybe people who have been indoctrinated that “equality” refers to outcomes? Ive been irritated by “diversity” nonsense my whole life, but it seems like that word has been contorted to mean, well, exactly the opposite. Sort of like something someone wrote once… (I imagine 1984 is way too controversial for public high school now)

            1. BearOdinson

              I am 46. I remember taking AP US History my junior year and we had some great, substantive debates (and my teacher was a conservative, though he did a great job of debating from all angles and not just propagandizing, but rather getting us to think.)

              But, we did not yet offer an AP Govt/Free Enterprise course during my senior year. So the 30 of us or so (There was only 1 AP US History class at the school at that time) got distributed among the “regular” Govt classes. Oh my fucking gods. Not only was my teacher the union rep, and had her walls plastered with the typical “education gets all the money and air force bomber bake sale” and stuff about “peace”, but she was as dumb as a box of rocks and wouldn’t entertain any debate at all.

              She wasn’t necessarily an anomaly, but she wasn’t yet the norm. Usually, the knock on history/govt teachers were they were football coaches and just didn’t give a shit. Now, it seems she has become the standard for “social studies” teachers.

  2. “If my son had been accessing these websites on a regular basis – then maybe there would be cause for concern,” Mr Taylor said.

    Soft capitulation – It’s not just for Reason’s journalist anymore.

    1. Thymirus

      He’s openly admitting that censorious repression is an acceptable response to his son’s potentially divergent political leanings. He’s a serf — a psychoemotionally degenerate serf.

  3. “”If my son had been accessing these websites on a regular basis – then maybe there would be cause for concern,” Mr Taylor said.

    “”But it’s a one-off incident and I don’t think it merited such an extreme section of the police coming in.””

    Well, like I said before in response to this quote, stick a fork in “Great” Britain, it’s done.

    “But it’s not as my son is a political dissident, comrade commissar! He just took a look at a dissident Web site this one time – he meant no harm to the Party!”

    1. Adans smith

      Yep,in a country whose influence once spanned the globe ,defeated the armada,Napoleon and spread their language and customs far and wide,are now a bunch of quivering little bitches.

    2. Thymirus

      This is a country where participating in certain chants at soccer games is sufficient grounds for your children to be forcibly removed from your care by the government — permanently — and criminal charges to be filed against you.

    3. “But Europe is the cultural, common-sense center of the universe! What is America to do if Europe caves under its own timidity?”

      Send in Judge Dredd.

      1. +1 “I am the law”.

  4. Adans smith

    OT,the more hear Bernie Sanders talk,the more I believe he is pure evil.The man never stops with the socialist crap and seems to get more commie every day.And not Clinton seems to be jumping on the surf cart.

    1. Brochettaward

      What’s funny and alarming to me is seeing those stupid trending tags on Facebook, clicking on it, and seeing the most horrifying of his quotes being praised to high heavens. And for whatever reason, not a single dissenting voice shows up. It’s the damndest thing.

      1. Thymirus

        Well, in my experience, genuinely conservative/libertarian folks really don’t use Facebook, mostly because of the shit they get for straying from the progressive horseshit that website’s general population loves spewing.

        1. I have more die hard conservative friend/relatives than progressives on FB, but I got one or two of each that continually post stupid political memes and articles. there is plenty of from both sides to go around. I don’t see much libertarian shit but I’m probably the only libertarian on my feed and I don’t post anything.

          1. Adans smith

            ‘We know who you are,comrade’

        2. Mustang

          I have a large group of libertarian friends who frequently share things. By large I mean about three. It’s almost all Republicans who are ashamed of Trump, Republicans who are silently voting Trump, and majority bats hit insane proggies. I’m sure about 95% of them all have blocked me.

          1. *Tries to block Mustang*

            *Realizes I don’t have a Facebook account*

            1. Mustang

              Must be nice. If I didn’t travel so much I would delete mine too, but my family members would probably lose their minds since I’m notoriously bad about keeping in touch.

          2. Eman

            “by large I mean about three” so that’s where they all went, jerk

          3. Wizard4169

            “…and majority bats hit insane proggies.”

            I was going to make fun of that, but the more I think about it, the more it sounds like a good idea. Hitting insane proggies with bats, that is. Either kind of bat, for that matter. I love the mental image I just got of proggies being pelted with flying mice.

  5. Brochettaward

    What the hell has happened in the Western world to where this is found to be acceptable on every level? The Enlightenment and its ideals seem to be a blip in the grand scheme of things. An anomaly that as more time passes, what was left to us is lost.

    It’s blatant censorship and intimidation. It’s blatantly one-sided and ideologically driven at that.

  6. straffinrun

    When I was 15 my browser history was a National Geographic,a Sears catalog underwear section and my sister’s “like a virgin” LP insert sticking to my bedroom floor. Kids these days.

  7. Mr Lizard

    In all fairness the police managed to intervene without a dead dog or someone going on a sex offender list.

    1. Adans smith

      True,I’m sure he’ll be shown the proper path in good time. Those limeys can be subtle.

  8. straffinrun

    UKIP’s purple flag reminds me of something.

    1. I don’t get it.

      Also, “The Joy of Painting” was filmed against an empty black backdrop.

      I watched an episode of that just this weekend. He painted a trail through the woods.

      1. straffinrun

        Just liked the pic. Cultural icon.

  9. Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer

    ‘We don’t need no education…” Sing it! “We don’t need no thought control…” /plays air guitar. “No dark sarcasm in the classroom Teachers leave them kids alone!”

    1. BearOdinson

      Agree with their sentiment. And yet, Roger Waters is a far out lefty loon. So thought control is ok when progressives do it. It is those yucky Tories and, state-forbid, these hooligan libertarians and their freedom nonsense.

  10. AlmightyJB

    So we lost all those men at Normandy why?

    1. So the French could look down their noses at us.

    2. Rich

      How do you know they’re lost? Have you checked on Facebook?

      1. *narrows gaze*

        1. “Earn this.”

          1. No.

            I don’t want one.

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  12. BearOdinson

    I wonder if the kid went to the “Pete Townshend” defense.

    “I was only doing research”. After all, those dirty UKIP and EDL hooligans are worse than kiddie porn.

  13. BearOdinson

    I wonder if the kid went to the “Pete Townshend” defense.

    “I was only doing research”. After all, those dirty UKIP and EDL hooligans are worse than kiddie porn.

  14. CPRM

    So this UKIP has “22 MEPs, a member of Parliament, three lords and 500 councillors all over the country,” So they are a legitimate part of the government, not some terrorist group, and if you look at their website the cops get sent after you? Yep, nothing to see here.

  15. nice post thanks admin

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