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Comment by magicjosh | Hacker News Reader

"the only good Brit soldier is a deed one, burn auld fella buuuuurn"

What I find the most remarkable about this thing is that if you dismiss the spelling and the overall style of it, it is kind of valid political statement that some people could totally relate to. Which is to prove once more, that modern Britain or USA or whatever else is essentially no different from the demonized images of "totalitarian Russia" or Third Reich, NK... — pick your favorite. And it's pretty much always been like that, sometimes a bit colder, sometimes a bit hotter.

> that modern Britain or USA or whatever else is essentially no different from the demonized images of "totalitarian Russia" or Third Reich, NK..

Uh, there's a matter of degree.

In the US, that'd be protected political speech. The most one could expect is scorn.

The UK may have a lesser speech protection than the US, but still a much broader set of political speech is allowed than in Russia or NK.

> there's a matter of degree.

The degree gap is usually quick to be bridged, via this common anti-fallacy called "slippery slope". Give it a few more years.

> The degree gap is usually quick to be bridged, via this common anti-fallacy called "slippery slope". Give it a few more years.

That's kinda a silly argument, given that free speech rights have generally increased in the UK in the last few decades.

Slippery slopes are good to be aware of, and hope to avoid. They aren't inevitable. Things don't progress constantly towards the worst possible state.

I imagine the spelling is an affectation of a Scottish accent.

It's written in Scots which is considered both a dialect and as a separate language (though there's not really a difference)

https://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/deid (also deed) https://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/auld

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scots_language

Just the accent would be covered by: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_English

I feel like that's more Scottish English than genuine Scots, but not an expert.

In Germany you are not even allowed to print "Soldiers are murderers" on your T-shirt, which makes me angry every time I think about it. How about "historically and statistically soldiers have a tendency to be rapists, torturers and manslaughterers"?

1. Assuming that under a just war theory, a just war can AT MOST be just for one of the warring sides

2. big armies aren't any more likely to fight just wars than small armies

We can conclude that if you're a soldier in a war, there's a better than even chance that it is unjust, and deserters are on average more honorable than soldiers."

Admittedly less catchy.

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