Free Speech, Hate Speech, or Mental Anguish?
So I had this pretty awesome debate on Yahoo Answers a couple days. Ok, actually today but I am not posting this until later. Anywho it was on what constitutes as Free Speech, if Hate Speech is included, and the inclusion of Mental Anguish in all of these. ( I am capitalizing these terms like names so that they don’t get lost in the mix)
Ok so basically my opponent claims Hate Speech is not included in Free Speech and that Hate Speech cannot cause severe Mental Anguish to where someone would kill themselves. I, naturally, vehemently oppose this position. But I think it’s a great topic because eventually the lines get blurred.
Free Speech – being able to say whatever you want. People can talk about their dislike for the government, on various religions, and whatever else that they want. People DO have to bear the burden of what their Free Speech entails. If I were to call someone a “fag” in front of a group of liberals, I better be prepared for the backlash.
Hate Speech – calling someone detrimental names based upon their religion, heritage, sex, sexual orientation, race, and even disabilities. For the most part Hate Speech is considered Free Speech. If it wasn’t then the KKK would never be able to rally. And again, people must bear the burden of the backlash for their hate speech.
Mental Anguish – for sake of this post we will focus only on verbal mental anguish. This is the act of repeatedly torturing someone with the use of Hate Speech and Mind Games.
Now for the most part you cannot sue someone because they called you a “kike”. That is basic Hate Speech and people are free to express themselves that way. However, at some point Hate Speech contributes to Mental Anguish. My opponent argued that one using Hate Speech cannot coerce someone into suicide. Well on one hand, my opponent was correct. If Hate Speech was solely used than no one cannot coerce but more often than not Hate Speech isn’t used alone. In alot of cases there is Physical Abuse. How about the homosexual boy tied to a fence, beaten, and left to die? You can’t tell me that Hate Speech was never a part of that. Or how about the girl who committed suicide after a grown woman made a fake page and tormented her?
My thing is is that Hate Speech more often than not leads to a form of Abuse. So can you make it illegal to use Hate Speech? And where do you draw the line? If you call me a dumb blonde (for those that have met me, there is blond under the Miss Clairol) can I sue you since it hurts my feelings and therefore constitutes as Hate Speech? Or must it be accompanied by some form of Abuse (which is the current state of things anyway)? If we draw the line and make Hate Speech illegal we have now limited our Free Speech thus making it not exactly Free any longer.
Comments, thougts, ideas????
hmm.
first, hate speech can’t drive someone to suicide. a mentally healthy person will reject or avoid hate speech long before they feel compelled to commit suicide.
imo, hate speech is the line between stating beliefs or opinions that are derogatory to a group (free speech)and senseless vitrol (hate speech).
if i were to say that homosexuals defy God and will be punished for their acts, that’s free speech. if i were to say that jesus hates faggots, that’s hate speech. i’m not making a point or stating a belief, i’m just being ugly.
as far as mental anguish goes, that’s a toughie. i’m more easily anguished than others. i think you would have to show that a normal and healthy person would be driven to make life changes (move, quit a job, etc.) to prove mental anguish.
can’t we all just get along?
Oh yes I agree with your point on mentally healthy people. Unfortunatley none of us can tell who is mentally healthy or not without spending alot of time getting to know that person. But yea, it would take alot to break someone down if you could be successful at all. In case with children (and I speak from personal experience) it can be done more effectively than say with a stable 40 year old adult. My opponent in this debate was an “all or nothing” kinda guy. He views the world as black and white with absolute no shades of gray. Poor thing.
And yea, we could. The question is, do people want to?