Comment on Should hate speech be protected under freedom of speech laws?
daniskarma@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 week ago
I think it should. People should me able to say what they want. Even the most stupid or hateful things. They are thinking them anyway, it’s not like hat it’s going to disappear with a ban on hat speech. Hate speech is the expression of the hateful thinking but not the root.
otp@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
This isn’t true.
Think about how much more common certain kinds of rhetoric have become since Trump became president.
People (especially those with power or influence) saying things not only increases the likelihood that others will believe it, but makes it easier that these people will find validation and reinforce their beliefs.
You can be okay with that, but it’s wrong to deny that it happens.
daniskarma@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 week ago
I think it is mostly because people feel more free to express those thoughts because the president of the US share those thoughts.
But they thought like that to begin with, that’s why they voted for him.
I think it’s an uncomfortable truth, but people genuinely think like that not because they have been brainwashed or because propaganda. The same our political thoughts are based their political thoughts are based too.
I think it’s important not underestimate the opponent, because then we won’t really understand why it rose to power. I think it’s a mistake thinking that baning hate speech will prevent something like Trump getting elected. I live in Europe where hate speech is mostly banned. Still the turn to the far right is growing even faster and more right than the US. People don’t say nasty things in public, political representatives don’t say those things in public. Because there’s laws against that. But people think nasty things and say them in private all the time. Because they have developed a political thinking around that. And it’s not that simple as “they became radical because a political representative said a bad thing on twitter” they developed those political thoughts the same we all developed our political thoughts.
otp@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
There’s definitely a lot more to it, but research tends to show that hate is learned, not innate. Making the spreading of this kind of bigotry illegal won’t make it disappear, but it will make it harder to platform. And without a platform, it becomes harder to spread. Not impossible. But harder.
freely1333@reddthat.com 1 week ago
But Trump became president partially because of the backlash to the Obama era language and tone policing.
otp@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
I think that’s a bit cherry-picked. I can’t even remember tone-policing being a defining part of Obama’s presidency…
freely1333@reddthat.com 1 week ago
It was pretty common on Reddit around that time with people saying you were trans phobic if you didn’t want to sleep with trans people.