The amount of hate speech and hate crime are correlated.. If we let everything slide in words, actions will become more drastic, too. It won’t be at the same level. Trump calling for rotting out an entire country will not have exactly that effect in activists, they won’t kill a whole civilization. Because they can’t, luckily, they don’t have enough power. But it will help them conceptualize that violence is fine and accepted when serving one’s own purpose, disguised as a morally good action.
Normalizing this kind of communication without pushbacks will eventually do harm to someone. There is a definition of hate, of course, a vague one. And as so many times, the interpretation of the definition of “hate” is done by society, by their moral code and their values. “Hate” in Germany is different then in the US then in Iran.
And so is the definition of free speech.
In Germany, not everything is tolerated. The argument of hate speech leading to hate crime has lead to a code of conduct and speech that is a lot stricter and (ironically) less diverse than in the US, for example. There’s much too that, as it’s generally defined by the values and traditions that a society wants to uphold (or so it claims). Not exactly, but in a watered down version – not every opinion can be incorporated, but through free elections of representatives there is the hope for that. Which is a whole different topic.
Rules are important.
They’re guidelines. And although I’d love for humans not to need that much guidance, I do believe it’s necessary these days. Communities being fragmented and less human contact also leads to the disappearance of guidelines. Rule can help with that, giving a code to fall back on.
Until it's too much.
On the other hand, over-regulation and too many taboos inhibit free speech, and lead to the phenomenon of everyone being insulted all the time, without anyone doing anything anymore. To exaggerate. If I can’t talk to someone without them feeling attacked continuously, communication dies, too.
But that’s my comfort zone.
I probably won’t have friends like they wouldn’t fall within my spectrum of people I get along with. Nor would I fall in theirs. At least in theory, a society is based on the middle ground of values of all its members. So, they play a role in society, too, and there’s as much reason to shun them (or not) as there is on the other side of the spectrum. And they are getting their fair share, as very visible in social media and such. And that’s good.
We all need pushbacks.
The important part is not the taboo, but the pushback. Not letting it slide. The more harmful part of hate speech is not the hate itself. It’s that without pushbacks, people who read it will think that it makes sense and adopt the opinion. Lurking is a problem here. Everyone looking at those tweets and posts and all that, without saying or writing “yeah that’s not true”. Of course, you won’t convince the person who wrote the post, but you might just spark doubt in the minds of other readers who will then think twice before taking over the statement without reflecting on it.
Beware of the silent mass.
The most vocal people aren’t the problem. It’s those who listen. It’s those who let them be vocal, who don’t talk back. In the end, free speech also includes calling people out for what they say and do. It covers all opinions. Even the one to kill radically free speech and create guidelines of conduct.
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