Paul Rosenberg – Hate speech” of course is a fairly silly term, since intent doesn’t necessarily follow the literal meaning of words. Let me give you an example:
I once sold a house to a gay couple. The one of the pair I dealt with happened to be a really decent guy with a good sense of humor. At the walk through our conversation went something like this:
James (laughing): So, Paul, you don’t mind selling your house to a couple of fags?
Paul (also laughing): Nah, it’ll make the neighbors happy. You guys are always neat and stylish, aren’t you?
I assure you, there was no hate involved in this conversation. James started the joke and I joined in with him. And while I don’t normally call people “fag,” in this case I played along because it was just that… playful. Using “fag” this way diffused tensions rather than caused them.
That said, I’ll play along with the political term “hate speech” today, because the term, “conspiracy theory,” as it’s so often used, really does have aggression and hate built into it. Continue reading