Thursday, December 03, 2015

Going to jail over a stupid meme...that seems a bit much

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.

BTW, Erdogan and Tayyip sound like Lord of the Rings characters...or at least Game of Thrones.  

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