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The Brazilian courts sentenced Leo Lins, a comedian, to 8 years for so-called racial crimes. It’s still under appeal, but this just shows the Americans are right to keep a close eye on high-level Brazilian officials. I’m not even a big fan of his type of humor, so I don’t watch it, but we’re supposed to live in countries with free speech, and that freedom is seriously fading.
What’s even crazier is that he got sentenced under a law that didn’t even exist when he made the joke. Like, come on, with that logic, anyone could be thrown in jail. Their excuse? The video is still up on YouTube, so they claim it counts as ongoing.
It sucks to see Brazil heading down this road. I’m dropping the court ruling PDF in Portuguese for whoever wants to check it out.
5 sats \ 1 reply \ @OT 4 Jun
What exactly did he say? Joke about politicians?
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I'd have to watch the video to give you an exact answer, but from what I read, it's dark humor with jokes about black people, fat folks, people in wheelchairs, politicians, and stuff like that...
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Welcome to Putin's Russia 2.0
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It's headed that way. But right now, I'd say it's like Venezuela 2.0 or Cuba!
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Wow. So much for freedom of speech.
This is what the ruling says:
It describes that throughout the presentation - which has a total time of 01h:14m:35s- "LÉO LINS" makes hateful, prejudiced and discriminatory comments against people belonging to various vulnerable groups, reproducing speeches and stereotypes that encourage religious persecution, the exclusion of minorities and discrimination against people with disabilities, thus inciting discrimination and prejudice based on race, ethnicity, religion or national origin, as well as on the basis of physical and mental disabilities.
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I’m not sure, are you cool with the conviction or not?
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