As another commenter has said, people absolutely do get prosecuted for private conversations.
What bothers me about this case is that "Do X for all I care" is not the same as "Let's do X". It's a statement of callous indifference, not an incitement to anything. I've never seen anyone acknowledge this, either when she was first charged and people were discussing it, or in the more recent discussions prompted by the failed appeal.
(and if the OP's position on that is that it was her own fault for pleading guilty: is that his position on criminals in general, even knowing the way the system pressures and threatens people to plead guilty?)
I'm also bothered by the inconsistency on what kinds of speech count as incitement to violence, such that this counts and merits 31 months in prison, but "k*ll the J*ws, r*pe their daughters" (clearly phrased as an instruction, and clearly targeting a specific ethnic group) doesn't, and "kill your MP" (again, clearly phrased as an instruction, and targeting specific individuals, which I thought was worse legally speaking) doesn't.
In an ideal world I would prefer none of these speech acts to be criminalised (although they should be condemned and disapproved of), but in a world where Connolly is in jail, the others should be too.
Re: 8
What bothers me about this case is that "Do X for all I care" is not the same as "Let's do X". It's a statement of callous indifference, not an incitement to anything. I've never seen anyone acknowledge this, either when she was first charged and people were discussing it, or in the more recent discussions prompted by the failed appeal.
(and if the OP's position on that is that it was her own fault for pleading guilty: is that his position on criminals in general, even knowing the way the system pressures and threatens people to plead guilty?)
I'm also bothered by the inconsistency on what kinds of speech count as incitement to violence, such that this counts and merits 31 months in prison, but "k*ll the J*ws, r*pe their daughters" (clearly phrased as an instruction, and clearly targeting a specific ethnic group) doesn't, and "kill your MP" (again, clearly phrased as an instruction, and targeting specific individuals, which I thought was worse legally speaking) doesn't.
In an ideal world I would prefer none of these speech acts to be criminalised (although they should be condemned and disapproved of), but in a world where Connolly is in jail, the others should be too.