The prosecution of Count Dankula

Today the British government convicted Count Dankula of being grossly offensive for making a YouTube video of a dog raising its paw in front of a television. The prosecutor, the judge and the law used to prosecute Count Dankula are anti-moral and anti-intellectual garbage.

Any new moral idea that is an improvement will contradict standard moral ideas in some ways. As a result, some people will find moral improvement offensive. Moral progress is often required for intellectual progress since morality is about what you should do, including how you should conduct discussion. The British government’s actions are an attack on practices required for intellectual and moral progress.

By prosecuting Count Dankula for speech, the British government have conceded that their policies and ideas are intellectually and morally indefensible:

Let us consider the effect that coercion produces upon the mind of him against whom it is employed. It cannot begin with convincing; it is no argument. It begins with producing the sensation of pain, and the sentiment of distaste. It begins with violently alienating the mind from the truth with which we wish it to be impressed. It includes in it a tacit confession of imbecility. If he who employs coercion against me could mould me to his purposes by argument, no doubt he would. He pretends to punish me because his argument is important, but he really punishes me because his argument is weak.

William Godwin, An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice Vol. II, Book VII, Chapter II