---
title: >-
  A rude comment
date: 2013-11-05 18:06
modified: 2013-11-05 18:06
lang: en
authors: rysiek
tags:
 - ancient
 - politics
 - pirate-party
status: published
pinned: false
---

Swedish Pirates are deciding today whom they put on the #1 spot on the ballot for the coming elections. The choice is between [Christian Christian Engström](http://christianengstrom.wordpress.com/) and [Amelia Andersdotter](http://ameliaandersdotter.eu/).

I believe Amelia is a much better choice: she's a good leader and a very effective lobbyist, having been incredibly active in copyright reform, privacy, transparency and other debates. She also has a deep and intimate understanding of issues that arise in these debates. She's an avid public speaker, and has great connections with the backbone of the Pirate movement -- hackers, hackerettes, hackerspaces all around Europe.

Rick Falkvinge [decided to put his weight behind Christian](http://falkvinge.net/2013/11/04/vote-christian-for-the-pirate-party-eu-ballot-heres-why/) -- and that's perfectly fine, of course. There are two eerie things about his support, however.

First of all, Rick based his support for Christian mainly in money:  
> The reason is simple: between him and the other candidate for the ballot’s top position, Christian is the only one funding my keynoting and evangelizing.

Secondly -- and that's a biggie! -- Rick (a pirate!) decided to **[censor the comments](http://copyisright.se/?p=2730) [on his blogpost](http://imm.io/1jR1x)**, and commented:  
> (If you want to campaign for the other candidate, use your own damn blog. A number of rude comments deleted.)

So, hereby I am using "my own damn blog". And for the record, here's my "rude comment" that got censored along with other comments:  
> I’m with Asta on this one. I am following your site, Rick, for years, and you have inspired many people, including me, to act and to get involved in the copyright reform debate — and with solid results (to mention the anti-ACTA movement in Poland).

> But this is dismal. I understand the need to finance your activities, but this is not the right reason for political decision of this weight, by no means! 

> In my opinion, the right person for the No 1 spot is, unsurprisingly, Amelia Andersdotter. You may believe otherwise. But the discussion should be based upon merit, not on who pays whom what.

I stand by my comment, [as do the other "rude commenters"](http://blog.piratar.is/asta/2013/11/04/rick-falkvinge-censorship/). This is no way to act for a pirate.