The Pack's 'tour': sanity prevails... late

The Constitutional Court has finally and fortunately overturned the sentence imposed on the Homo Velamine collective for the so-called tour of the Manada. Let's recall the background: this group of activists critical of the media-driven society set up a website that offered a tour of the places and venues the five rapists had visited in Pamplona before attacking their victim.apparently It is important, here, because the tour It didn't exist: there was no way to subscribe to it, and the only link provided led to the group's home page, where the true intention of the provocation was revealed: to encourage reflection on how this terrible affair had become a spectacle, a media circus in which radio, newspapers, and television stations had sensationalized. The message wasn't understood, and they were sentenced to a €15,000 fine (to which another €25,000 in legal costs would have to be added).

The Constitutional Court's decision comes late and badly. Late because the Court, by sentencing, set a dangerous precedent for freedom of expression. The sad irony is that Homo Velamine was the victim of the very thing he was denouncing: the Manada tour became more widespread because hundreds of media outlets covered it as if it really existed. The group failed to see that the matter could get out of hand and end up harming the victim, but, for me, the real blame lies with everyone who made this matter bigger out of laziness and didn't check. And there's also the disturbing issue of literality: we're losing the ability to read. That is, to read well, understanding contexts and ironies. Ultimately, it's all part of the same old campaign to kill humor.