Going
to jail over a stupid meme...that seems a bit much
I
was digging through Google News and this came up.
From
Time.com, ((In
October, a physician named Bilgin Ciftci was fired from his job at
the Public Health Institution of Turkey after he shared a meme that
juxtaposed Gollum
))
Now,
this doctor is now looking at two years in jail for insulting the
president in Turkey. That is a very strange and silly law. I almost
think the whole point of becoming president is to let the entire
world insult you. Mocking Heads of States is fun.
And,
President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan does look
like Gollum. Shit, does this mean I might end up in a Turkish prison
or a bath?
And,
the best part is the people in charge of the case haven't fully seen
the Lord of the Rings movies, so they're bring in specialists. Uh,
pop culture specialists?
From
Time.com, ((The
BBC reports that
105 people were indicted in Turkey between August 2014 and March 2015
for “insulting the head of state.”
))
Yep, you read that
correctly. Getting arrested for mocking royalty is one thing, which
I still don't agree should be a law, but an elected official should
be full game for insults. You know the same way we made fun of the
class president in high school. That's part of the job. We in the
US take this sort of thing for granted and it is part of our culture.
I can't count the number of times I made fun of Bush.
Heck, even Peter
Jackson has asked for his release.
BTW, Erdogan and Tayyip sound like Lord of the Rings characters...or at least Game of Thrones.
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