• @pingveno@lemmy.ml
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    2 years ago

    You can call for the overthrow of the US government. People do it all the time without consequence. More specific threats against particular targets might get a visit from the Secret Service.

    It’s easy to find counterexamples of China having a go at journalists. For example, a journalist was sentenced to four years in prison for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”, the CPC’s blanket crime for those who displease it. She had been doing unflattering reporting on the CPC’s handling of COVID-19.

    death is only on the table for the most serious crimes like murder, rape, etc, just like the West.

    Most of the West has abolished the death penalty. The US is an outlier here, and even in the US it is only for murder and many states have abolished it completely.

      • @pingveno@lemmy.ml
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        -52 years ago

        In the US the death sentence is given out for such innocuous crimes as being Black while walking and living in Indigenous communities so I dunno what you mean.

        Bullshit. Complete bullshit.

        China did it 6

        The number of people China subjects to the death penalty is considered a state secret. It includes not just murder but also drug trafficking. Estimates usually range in the thousands, with China estimated to execute more than every other state combined.

        The US has executed 365 juvenile offenders, and only raised the minimum age of execution to 18 in 2005

        So we’re doing better than China, which still executes juveniles? Cool.

        And again, the extrajudicial executions carried out by US police is exceptionally astounding.

        This is a valid complaint, but it’s a debate we are fully free to have. BLM has been a strong movement with support from a wide variety of racial groups.

        So nope, you can’t call for the overthrow of the US government.

        That law, the Smith Act, hasn’t been used in decades. Many of the convictions under it were overturned, with one prosecutor expressing regret for even bringing an indictment.