Hate speech on Ratz. Should we tolerate it?

[Svartalf]

I want the lying politicians, the nazis and the blasphemers and the islamists and the atheists right out in the open where they can be seen and heard.

Yep, so do I, right at the other end of the firing range where I'm practicing with an M2HB and live ammo.

[charlou]

I want the lying politicians, the nazis and the blasphemers and the islamists and the atheists right out in the open where they can be seen and heard.

Blasphemy is a victimless crime.

[Svartalf]

So is statutory rape... it's still quite vigorously prosecuted, even when the minor is testifying for the defence (and no, I don't believe it's Stockhom syndrome either)

[JimC]

Dev's point included mention of a thread title being inflammatory...

Mods can edit thread titles (and of course put a little note saying why...)

So, a future post saying "Evil Jews evict arab farmers" could become "Israeli government evicts arab farmers"

[Trolldor]

It could.

But it shouldn't.

[Don't Panic]

It could.

But it shouldn't.

Yeah, it should become IDF/Mossad/Zionist conspiracy seize Arab land to construct runway for UFOs.

[Santa_Claus]

Not entirely sure what hate speech is?

But I do have some seriously f#cked up political views if anyone wants to hear them

Even I wouldn't want to live in a world run by people like me...........

[RuleBritannia]

Dev's point included mention of a thread title being inflammatory...

Mods can edit thread titles (and of course put a little note saying why...)

So, a future post saying "Evil Jews evict arab farmers" could become "Israeli government evicts arab farmers"

Mods shouldn't be changing any thread titles. The OP of the thread needs to realise that (although we shouldn't) everyone will judge a book by its cover, and a thread titled "Evil Jews evict arab farmers" will instantly turn off many people even if the evidence for such an act is valid.

[FBM]

Not entirely sure what hate speech is?

But I do have some seriously f#cked up political views if anyone wants to hear them

Even I wouldn't want to live in a world run by people like me...........

I'd love to live in a world run by people like me. However, I know that 99.99...% of the rest of the world would hate it.

Stolen from XC, who stole it from Wiki:

Under the Law of the United Kingdom, "incitement to racial hatred" was established as an offence by the provisions of §§ 17-29 of the Public Order Act 1986. It was first established as a criminal offence in the Race Relations Act 1976. The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 made publication of material that incited racial hatred an arrestable offence.
This offence refers to:

deliberately provoking hatred of a racial group
distributing racist material to the public
making inflammatory public speeches
creating racist websites on the Internet
inciting inflammatory rumours about an individual or an ethnic group, for the purpose of spreading racial discontent.
Holocaust denial is not covered under this legislation, but laws against incitement to hatred against religions were later established under the Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incitement ... ial_hatred

[mistermack]

While it's right to make illegal the incitement of race-hate, it's easy to fall into the trap of feeling guilty over it.
Race hate is a perfectly normal human characteristic, we all inherit the tendency, and it made us what we are. Our ancestors were extremely territorial, hated their neighbours ( except the odd young sexy ones ), and used to kill and eat them.
The "nicer" ones, that we aspire to be like, got killed and eaten many thousands of years ago by our race-hating ancestors, who's genes we carry.

When I was a kid, we naturally formed into gangs, and I can remember being very scared of kids from two or three streets away, if I was on my own. You have to remember we are still stone age savages, genetically.

I'm personally not in the least ashamed when a racist thought pops into my head. I simply smile and ignore it, knowing where it comes from.
.

[Coito ergo sum]

While it's right to make illegal the incitement of race-hate,

I can't disagree with you more. It is not, in my view, right to make it illegal to incited the emotion of hatred. It is right to make it illegal to incite people to immediate violent action. It is wrong to make it illegal to incite people to hate other people. The difference is that inciting people to immediate violate action is, for all intents and purposes, participation in that violent action, and inciting people to hate other people is merely causing them to think a certain way. Thought, in my view, should never - ever - be a crime, and therefore "inciting" people to think a certain way should never - ever - be a crime.

[Pappa]

I can merely shake my head in disbelief that such a law could exist in a civilized western country.

It gets worse... we have a "religious harassment" law here too.

We have you beat, we have a blasphemy law.

So do we... but nobody's been prosecuted with it for ages.

[Ronja]

Just read through all the thoughtful contributions to this topic.


On just about any other forum this discussion, whether to ban 'hate speech', would cause contention, offense and ill feeling among the participants (I've seen it a few times) ... Here it is thoughtful, respectful, peaceful ... and generously spiced with good humour.


Not only have many of you explained why we shouldn't, but all of you have demonstrated why we don't need to ban 'hate speech'.



I ♥ Rationalia

[Tigger]

Here's a thought though. What if the hate speech is tantamount to spam? We have a sub-forum here where just about every post is along similar lines. Hate speech, intolerance and usually the same subject or similar, or at least a certain similar, predictable, nauseating (IMO) theme. Is there a difference now?

[JimC]

Here's a thought though. What if the hate speech is tantamount to spam? We have a sub-forum here where just about every post is along similar lines. Hate speech, intolerance and usually the same subject or similar, or at least a certain similar, predictable, nauseating (IMO) theme. Is there a difference now?

We engage the poster, and debate him vigorously...

I assume you may mean Gawd...

I nagged and nagged him about using the word "Jews" in a perjorative sense, when he was posting criticisms of Israeli policy, many of which had a reasonable basis...

It seems to me that he has altered his language use somewhat, although the monomania remains...