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I really wonder how the battle against the nebulous "hate speech" became so widespread almost instantly in the Western world. It's nice on the surface (who lik

I really wonder how the battle against the nebulous "hate speech" became so widespread almost instantly in the Western world. It's nice on the surface (who likes "hate"?) but I think it causes too much self-censorship and a weakened society in the long term.

Silverback_VII 4y ago
hate speech is simply a magic wand that is used to silence inconvenient voices. The same people who wield the wand are also pushing the world to the edge of destruction.
codeptualize 4y ago
It's because generally people want everyone to just be able to live their lives and not get discriminated, bullied, or even physically harmed for who they are, what they believe in, where they come from, or who they love. Things you can not influence, things you can not change, things that do not harm others. The intolerance towards intolerant is necessary for that to happen, which explains the battle. People censoring themselves to not be hateful might honestly be a good thing, maybe they should figure out where those thoughts come from and if they should reconsider them. I would advocate for them to get help, therapy, social support, whatever they struggle with. I think being caring and empathetic strengthens society in the short and long term.
krapp 4y ago
> I really wonder how the battle against the nebulous "hate speech" became so widespread almost instantly in the Western world. Because some asshole Austrian speechified a country into burning down half of Europe and killing millions of Jews, and after a whole ass world war the Western world - the parts that actually had to rebuild their societies from the ashes, not the US, for whom the war and Nazism in particular were more business opportunities than anything - decided that even free speech needed to have limits. edit: of course the US has limits on free speech as well, just not for "hate speech" per se.
- conradfr 4y ago
  So a war that ended almost 80 years ago is responsible for the battle against "online hate" that started like two years ago?
  - krapp 4y ago
    Contrary to popular belief, human culture didn't begin on Twitter. The battle against "online hate" is just the current generational manifestation of a conflict that, yes, has its origins in the ideologies and cultural shocks of World War 2. Particularly where the meme-complexes of modern anti-Semitism and fear of "cultural Marxism" in academia, gender roles and homophobia are concerned, many of which were established either by the Nazis directly or the initial right-wing political shift in the US following the war. Today's redpillers, anti-wokists and the like are just rehashing beliefs that were old hat in their grandparents' time. Even the culture war over transgender identity isn't new - there was an episode of All in the Family about it in the 1970s. I mean go look up any of George Carlin's old bits on political correctness and they would fit in perfectly in a modern day context, despite being made before the WWW was so much as a gleam in Tim Berners' Lee's eye. You'd just have to update the technological referents.

Silverback_VII 4y ago

hate speech is simply a magic wand that is used to silence inconvenient voices. The same people who wield the wand are also pushing the world to the edge of destruction.

codeptualize 4y ago

It's because generally people want everyone to just be able to live their lives and not get discriminated, bullied, or even physically harmed for who they are, what they believe in, where they come from, or who they love. Things you can not influence, things you can not change, things that do not harm others. The intolerance towards intolerant is necessary for that to happen, which explains the battle. People censoring themselves to not be hateful might honestly be a good thing, maybe they should figure out where those thoughts come from and if they should reconsider them. I would advocate for them to get help, therapy, social support, whatever they struggle with. I think being caring and empathetic strengthens society in the short and long term.

krapp 4y ago

> I really wonder how the battle against the nebulous "hate speech" became so widespread almost instantly in the Western world. Because some asshole Austrian speechified a country into burning down half of Europe and killing millions of Jews, and after a whole ass world war the Western world - the parts that actually had to rebuild their societies from the ashes, not the US, for whom the war and Nazism in particular were more business opportunities than anything - decided that even free speech needed to have limits. edit: of course the US has limits on free speech as well, just not for "hate speech" per se.

conradfr 4y ago
So a war that ended almost 80 years ago is responsible for the battle against "online hate" that started like two years ago?
- krapp 4y ago
  Contrary to popular belief, human culture didn't begin on Twitter. The battle against "online hate" is just the current generational manifestation of a conflict that, yes, has its origins in the ideologies and cultural shocks of World War 2. Particularly where the meme-complexes of modern anti-Semitism and fear of "cultural Marxism" in academia, gender roles and homophobia are concerned, many of which were established either by the Nazis directly or the initial right-wing political shift in the US following the war. Today's redpillers, anti-wokists and the like are just rehashing beliefs that were old hat in their grandparents' time. Even the culture war over transgender identity isn't new - there was an episode of All in the Family about it in the 1970s. I mean go look up any of George Carlin's old bits on political correctness and they would fit in perfectly in a modern day context, despite being made before the WWW was so much as a gleam in Tim Berners' Lee's eye. You'd just have to update the technological referents.