I don't think I can remember the last time I used the term "hate speech" without air quotes. I really just associate the term with what Salman Rushdie calls "the 'but' brigade." "I believe in free speech 'but.'" This especially applies to those (at least in the USA) who pretend that hate speech and free speech are different things.
Of course, I'm not denying that hateful speech exists. That would be absurd. The out and proud racists on the right seem to be getting louder and the quietly racist leftists who think that people should act their race are growing in number.
That said, if hate speech and free speech were different things, we wouldn't have free speech. From a strictly legal standpoint, hate speech isn't a thing in the USA. As it stands, hate speech laws would be unconstitutional. I think that that's a good thing. I don't like hearing Nazis spout a bunch of monosyllabic, eugenic claptrap; but, I like knowing precisely who they are.
What's more, one only needs to look at how people toss around the term "hate speech" in this country and couple that with a short look at the European nations that do have hate speech laws, which is pretty much all of them. Ben Affleck went on his famous rant on Real Time with Bill Maher when Sam Harris dared to talk about the human rights violations and the subjugation of women in the Muslim world which Affleck called "Gross and racist." Harris was never going to go to jail for his comments in this country; but, anywhere in Europe, there would be a chance. A woman in Austria faced jail time for saying that Muhammad "liked them young." in reference to his child bride Aisha. Austria also jailed David Irving for his Holocaust denialism even though Irving didn't actually say anything on Austrian soil. While the French were all chanting "Je suis Charlie" the French government ironically arrested Dieudonne, a comedian who made hateful jokes about the shooting along with some anti-Semitic comments.
People here are already throwing the term "hate speech" around capriciously to include criticism of ideological groups that some people deem "protected." Our saving grace as a nation is the First Amendment.
If Frank Zappa was right, as I believe he was, when he said that "The United States is a nation of laws, badly written and randomly enforced." the same certainly goes for any nation with hate speech laws.
