Comments on: I know that we’ll have a ball http://jeffaho.com/archives/election-hate-speech-crimes/ Mon, 25 Jan 2010 16:09:10 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: Christine http://jeffaho.com/archives/election-hate-speech-crimes/comment-page-1/#comment-39629 Christine Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:32:49 +0000 http://jeffaho.com/?p=102#comment-39629 Jeff, I can definitely see your argument about punishing what someone does, not what people say. My concern, that comes up in response to that thought when I'm working this through by myself, is that then it's easy to shift the crimes downstream. For example: I want to get you beaten up. If I had friends who I knew were inclined to violence (and disinclined to critical thinking), all I need to do is say enough nasty things about Sigma Chi. It's not hard to phrase things to avoid libel/slander, but it's harder to avoid hate speech. (This isn't to say that I agree with the current laws, because they basically amount to a legal punishment for someone else being too sensitive.) Jeff, I can definitely see your argument about punishing what someone does, not what people say. My concern, that comes up in response to that thought when I’m working this through by myself, is that then it’s easy to shift the crimes downstream.

For example: I want to get you beaten up. If I had friends who I knew were inclined to violence (and disinclined to critical thinking), all I need to do is say enough nasty things about Sigma Chi. It’s not hard to phrase things to avoid libel/slander, but it’s harder to avoid hate speech.

(This isn’t to say that I agree with the current laws, because they basically amount to a legal punishment for someone else being too sensitive.)

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