this post was submitted on 07 Apr 2026
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I hope that one day soon, the UK will also make it an offence to tell lies or to cause harm. In medical, legal, nursing and other professions, it's also liable to get you removed or have restrictions imposed upon your practice.
Yeah, they should have a Ministry of Truth.
Bypass any bullshit ministry and send straight to the courts.
Do you believe you can trust the authorities to ascribe what is a lie? Hold on, tell Palestine.
It doesn't work at all currently as there is no downside that they can't talker voters out of.
Make it an offence (as appears to be the case with Finland) and then it's in the hands of impartial courts who themselves are subject to scrutiny and legal tests.
I mean, it's an interesting viewpoint, but I'm not sure I'm entirely on board.
The professions listed are indeed ones where to tell lies could be a direct causal factor in causing harm, so I'm with you with that.
Outwith those safety critical environs though, I'm not sure I like the idea of free speech being curtailed by that degree. As much as I hate it. It's a big leap from where we are now to "lock them up because they're lying". I quite like freedom to drop such wild mistruths such as "no mate the sky is green" or " your relative died peacefully" or "Arsenal are a good football team".
Cool discussion point though.
I don’t see the relationship to be honest. One is professionals telling lies, relevant to their field, that can cause harm to people. The other is you, personally, telling wildly obvious lies about a soccer team. Free speech barely enters into it. Jokes are all well and good in most places but go tell a bomb joke in an airport and it’ll likely be the most expensive joke you tell. Doesn’t mean people are being arrested in the street for making similar jokes. Context is the key factor in this.
Ultimately it's the intention behind the lie/mistruth that matters and unless we find truth serums idk how you can prove them