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"If a statement is false, that's the worst thing you can say about it. " I have to disagree with that. There are many possible things worse than being false. P

"If a statement is false, that's the worst thing you can say about it. " I have to disagree with that. There are many possible things worse than being false. People are not computers and speech does not happen in an ahistorical vacuum. It would be nice if we could debate everything dispassionately, but it's simply not the case. Let me give an extreme example. A few years ago in an English football (soccer) game, one player had his leg horribly broken in a bad tackle. He was out for about a year and a half. As he was being taken from the field, a few of the opposing fans were chanting, "You've only got one leg!" Now this was not literally true, of course, but it was to most intents and purposes. I don't think many people would think this behavior was all right. Just to be very clear, I'm citing this example to explain why I disagree with the statement I quoted at the top, not to draw a comparison with today's story. But not all examples are so obvious and concepts like 'hate speech' are introduced in an attempt to point out the sometimes subtle problems with particular examples. Of course, such concepts are like any other tool or shortcut: they can be abused as easily as used for their intended purposes.

ciupicri 14y ago
Your football example isn't too good. Football galleries yell worse things than "You've only got one leg!". They also have hooligans who destroy stuff and beat other people.
- aptwebapps 14y ago
  So? The point of the example is that being factually inaccurate is not the only possible problem with a statement.
  - ciupicri 14y ago
    What I mean is that is hardly hate speech.
    - TheZenPsycho 14y ago
      The point of the example was not to define "hate speech" it was to disagree with the assertion that "The worst thing a statement can be is false". Let's not be children by playing the game of "Well, your central point was fine but this peripheral unimportant point that only I perceive is wrong and therefore the whole post is wrong"
scotty79 14y ago
Of course statement can be worse than false: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not_even_wrong http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not_even_wrong :-)

ciupicri 14y ago

Your football example isn't too good. Football galleries yell worse things than "You've only got one leg!". They also have hooligans who destroy stuff and beat other people.

aptwebapps 14y ago
So? The point of the example is that being factually inaccurate is not the only possible problem with a statement.
- ciupicri 14y ago
  What I mean is that is hardly hate speech.
  - TheZenPsycho 14y ago
    The point of the example was not to define "hate speech" it was to disagree with the assertion that "The worst thing a statement can be is false". Let's not be children by playing the game of "Well, your central point was fine but this peripheral unimportant point that only I perceive is wrong and therefore the whole post is wrong"

scotty79 14y ago

Of course statement can be worse than false: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not_even_wrong http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not_even_wrong :-)