I'd start by supporting Amnesty International. An organization I've always trusted to put the spotlight on human rights issues and always manages to put pressure governments around the world to do better.

https://www.amnesty.org.uk/press-releases/thailand-activist-...

On the contrary orgs like Amnesty are so focused on putting the spotlight on other countries that they miss the stuff happening right under their noses both in the UK and here.

We need a new generation of activists who are less self serving and more aware of the risks posed by totalitarian tendencies with a more realistic perception of how the world works.

At the moment media, academics and NGOs are quick to turn the spotlight outward and barely register or handwave issues around Snowden, surveillance, whistle blowers, the NSA, GCHQ, privacy, border checks and harassment and the 'endless' wars.

Amnesty hasn't ignored issues around Snowden.

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=amnesty+international+snowden

If enough light can be shed on this matter for it to make the regular news and be seen by the masses, it might begin to have an impact on tourism, something Thailand would definitely notice.

It's been more than 3 years since the military staged a coup and has been ruthlessly suppressing dissent using the lese majesty laws and other laws they enacted that make it illegal to protest against the government. Tourist arrivals just keep increasing to record levels[1]. Tourists don't care, at least not enough to choose a different destination.

[1]https://tradingeconomics.com/thailand/tourist-arrivals

The counter argument would be neighbouring Myanmar, which is remarkably underdeveloped for tourists by comparison despite comparable tourist potential (and oil money to invest in infrastructure) because its authoritarian government has historically been boycotted, whereas Thailand's series of mostly authoritarian governments interspersed with elections and coups have usually played the international relations game just well enough to avoid becoming a pariah state.

But it's quite difficult to find a tropical paradise destination with progressive liberal democratic government

You mean a "cheap" tropical paradise with a liberal democratic government. You could always head off to Hawaii if you can afford it, or if you are in Asia, Okinawa or Taiwan.

But for those of us on a more restricted budget, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines provide a better value. Thailand has always pulled through in being worth it for me, especially when prices crash after a coup.

Thailand has a coup followed by democratic government followed by coup every 5-10 years for about the past 50 years, what's happening now is no different to what's happened before. You're right, tourists don't care because by and large the Thai people don't care, this is nothing out of the ordinary for them.

Pretty much everyone knows that Turkey is a full blown dictatorship and yet I still have friends who go there on holiday. There's no connection in their mind between spending money on holidays in Turkey and helping Erdogan in the long term.

It's at best doubtful that tanking a country's economy will make it less authoritarian and more open to foreign influence.

"Like and share this if you think he should be free!"

Find and support people who are against persecuting thought crimes within the country.

If I'm following your implication, I think this is less of a slippery slope than you think. When one's ideology is organized around killing people based on the color of their skin, it deserves no space in modern society.

>ideology is organized around killing people based on the color of their skin, it deserves no space in modern society

Please explain why you think a comment that basically said we shouldn't persecute people for crimes of thought/opinion/speech makes that implication.

"Thought crimes" is right-wing-speak denouncing what used to be called political correctness or ... not being racist, sexist or a bigot.

"Thought crime" comes from Orwell for me. Except his meaning was probably a bit different than I thought.

Anyway I define it as criminalizing certain expression of ideas in a violent attempt to control what population thinks. Also you're reacting to Thailand story, so I'm not sure what American right has to do with this.

I'm merely trying to give a possible explanation for codydh's reaction. Searching "thought crimes" for example on Google news also shows how the meaning appears to have changed.

Also this discussion started with somebody asking what they can do to help, given that Thailand is far from our sphere of influence.

In your response of "Find and support people who are against persecuting thought crimes within the country", the "within the country" could be easily interpreted as whatever country the people discussing are in, which will likely be some Western democracy. So I believe your statement can easily be interpreted as trying to make a connection between free speech issues in the Thailand and the 'fight to free speech' of the alt-right in Western Democracies, asking for tolerance of their intolerant opinions (this is not just a US phenomenon btw).

Note also how the example of Chinese tourists getting arrested in Germany for making the nazi salute is used as a suppossed freedom of speech issue in this thread. A news article about that was actually one of the first results in the google search for "thought crimes" [1].

[1] http://dailycaller.com/2017/08/07/chelsea-handler-wants-thou...

Maybe the meaning changed in the US. I'm not from/in US. I just use English.

The only country that was mentioned was Thailand, so I thought that "the country" would have a clear meaning.

I think it's called "hate crimes" nowadays.

I guess that's the framing you choose if you want to lock people up.

Practically nothing. Things that feel wrong will happen no matter what you do in all countries. The best option is just to live with the fact.

Germany arrested chinese tourists for making nazi salute. Should we do something about germany too?

Do chinese and germans deserve free speech too or just thais?

Edit: @0xfeba

> That argument is convincing only on the shallowest level.

Only if you are pro-censorship and have no appreciation for principles.

> Germany arrested, fined, and released those tourists.

Are you saying it's good or bad?

> Thailand has given dissidents lengthy prison sentences.

But that's the law.

> How about we worry about Germany's speech laws after we free people who are stuck in retched prisons for 10 years?

How about we worry about both? How about we worry about free speech and principles.

Talk about shallowness. The german law allows for imprisonment for 3 years for nazi salutes. If the chinese got 3 years and the thai got 3 years, would you think both are equally wrong?

You don't seem to have an argument so you are just nitpicking. I don't remember you being outraged that the chinese tourists were arrested. I remember you celebrating german law.

That argument is convincing only on the shallowest level. Germany arrested, fined, and released those tourists. Thailand has given dissidents lengthy prison sentences. How about we worry about Germany's speech laws after we free people who are stuck in retched prisons for 10 years?