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The comments in this thread are incredibly disappointing. Hate speech is already a crime in Canada, as many others have pointed out. As someone who has experie
by xyzzy_plugh 5y ago
The comments in this thread are incredibly disappointing.
Hate speech is already a crime in Canada, as many others have pointed out. As someone who has experienced a lot of American and Canadian culture and lived in both places, I think this is A Good Thing overall.
Canada is not America. The two countries have different histories and different charters. This isn't a slippery slope. For christ's sake it's a fine even.
The article subtitle hits the nail on the head:
> The proposed law would likely run afoul of the First Amendment in the U.S., but despite popular misconceptions Canada is actually its own country.
Hate speech is a pretty strong form of speech. It's typically not even telling racist jokes or making sexist remarks. It doesn't typically encompass civil debates or policy opinions. You're always free to speak your mind, you just shouldn't use those words to harm others.
I've yet to hear any argument for why there should be a forum for hate speech, either in the physical world or on the internet.
- closeparen 5y agoThe recognition of structural oppression in more and more places increases the likelihood that an opinion or argument in favor of some random thing, is also an opinion or argument in favor of the oppression of a marginalized group. And I think you will have a hard time claiming that that isn’t hate speech.
- lodovic 5y agoIt is very easy to suppress inconvenient opinions by labelling them as controversial or hate speech. If you're only free to speak when nobody is listening, it's not freedom of speech.
- xyzzy_plugh 5y agoBut that's not what is happening here. Hate speech charges are a serious crime and often see lengthy court time. If you cannot express your inconvenient opinion without being hateful towards or potentially harming a group of people, then that is a problem.
- gameman144 5y ago> Hate speech charges are a serious crime and often see lengthy court time. I think this is part of the objection, too. The opposition to online hate speech laws seems to be reflective more of an increase in the scope of existing hate-speech laws, which I assume the parent thread would also oppose. > If you cannot express your inconvenient opinion without being hateful towards or potentially harming a group of people, then that is a problem. The issue here is that hate speech is a constantly moving target. We're okay with muzzling speech that we consider too far, until something that we don't consider too far gets muzzled as well.
- nick_ 5y agoTotally agree. It may help to remember that a tech nerd community might produce great insight on tech content, but nothing novel on social matters.