HATE SPEECH IS FREE SPEECH
While hate speech is disgusting, it IS still free speech and should be protected for the following 4 reasons:
The definition of hate speech is 100% arbitrary. Which of the following are hate speech? “Christianity is misogynist.”, “Young people are garbage”, “Jews control the media”, “Islam is inherently violent” “It’s wrong to be a gay or a ‘tranny’”, “White people are disgusting”, “The Holocaust was great”, “F**k all Americans”, “Judaism is a false religion.” Is any non-positive observation about any group hate speech? If you ask 10 people what hate speech is, you’ll get 10 different answers. Any definition of “hate speech” is arbitrary and just made up by someone. (example: “denigrating a whole group of people”)
Second, hate speech usually backfires on the haters. I’m confident the ‘God Hates Fags’ people who boycott soldier’s funerals have done more to set back homophobia than help it.
Third, hate speech can act as a release valve. If some vile skinhead goes to a rally and spews some hate, he will think he’s accomplished something. If he has to hold it all inside, he may be violent more often.
Fourth, hate speech gives authorities a good idea who is dangerous. Timothy McVeigh, who bombed the Oklahoma City Federal building in the 1990s, showed up at the Waco Texas Branch Davidian siege long before he bombed anyone, and was talking all sorts of craziness there. If someone has a bigotted hate-filled ideology, like a White supremacist or a Muslim Salafist/Wahabist, it’s actually a good that they can preach their hate, because the authorities will then know to keep an eye on them.
Should any speech be censored? Yes, speech that calls for illegal violent action. You can say “I hate Jews” but you can’t say “Go kill Jews.” The first is vile, but it’s still just an opinion, the second is an order. The other time speech should be censored is in the case of persistent unwanted harassment of individuals, like a stalker calling an ex girlfriend 30 times a day. But hurt feelings about an opinion are not a good enough reason to censor.
TL;DR The definition of hate speech is arbitrary, it usually backfires on the haters, it can sometimes reduce violence, and it gives the authorities a good idea of who the crazies are. If you want free speech, you have to accept hate speech too. All ideological opinions of a country’s citizens should be protected.
izzy806
discoholicmusic
turnnoffyourmind
pixelskylines
romaincrisis
gamechangershow
