While the term is clearly overused, I think it is not entirely useless. One useful method is to focus not on the victim but on the speaker. Does the speaker sound like someone bringing others down just to feel better about himself? For example, Murray’s The Bell Curve was attacked a lot for its alleged racism, but it was not actually hate speech, the tone was that of a deeply concerned and frightened and reluctant admittance of human differences. However just go on reddit and you find many examples of people engaging in cheap potshots of racism or sexism largely as a way to comparatively feel better about themselves. If a racial or gender oriented comment sounds like something said by a gamma male in a proverbial parental basement to feel comparatively better, it is hate speech. /r/fatpeoplehate is a good example, if you count the various kinds of insults “butter slugs” “butter golems” etc.
If it sounds strange, then let me remind you that hate is an emotion. It is something felt by people. So hate depends on not whether it had or had not hurt the victim, but whether the perpetrator felt it or not. So offensive speech (victim angle) can still not be hate speech (perp angle) and vice versa.
but it was not actually hate speech, the tone was that of a deeply concerned and frightened and reluctant admittance of human differences. However just go on reddit and you find many examples of people engaging in cheap potshots of racism or sexism largely as a way to comparatively feel better about themselves.
Note, how you’ve just conflated “hate speech” with “racism” and “sexism”. Yes, hate is an emotion (at least that’s the original meaning of them word) and like all emotions there are rational and irrational reasons to feel it. However, as the term is commonly used today “hate speech” has almost nothing to do with “hate”. You mention that it’s inappropriately applied to situations where there is no actual hate. On the other hand you’re still implicitly restricting it to situations where the target is an official victim group.
If a racial or gender oriented comment sounds like something said by a gamma male in a proverbial parental basement to feel comparatively better, it is hate speech.
This is incomplete because it ignores the possibility of countersignalling—”you’re so inferior that I don’t even need to use swear words at you to demonstrate hate”.
Gammas almost by definition aren’t going to be counter-signaling anything.
He did not say it was said by gammas. He said that it resembles something said by gammas (but was said by other people). These other people could countersignal.
You seem to be making the mistake under discussion by conflating being superior to someone with “hating” him.
No, I’m not. I didn’t say that feeling superior is hate; I said that feeling superior affects how one expresses hate. Someone who feels superior might express hate using nice words, if his status is such that it is clear that he is not using the nice words to actually be nice.
My point is that I don’t think “hate speech” is a well defined concept. In practice it winds up cashing out as “speech I disagree with”.
While the term is clearly overused, I think it is not entirely useless. One useful method is to focus not on the victim but on the speaker. Does the speaker sound like someone bringing others down just to feel better about himself? For example, Murray’s The Bell Curve was attacked a lot for its alleged racism, but it was not actually hate speech, the tone was that of a deeply concerned and frightened and reluctant admittance of human differences. However just go on reddit and you find many examples of people engaging in cheap potshots of racism or sexism largely as a way to comparatively feel better about themselves. If a racial or gender oriented comment sounds like something said by a gamma male in a proverbial parental basement to feel comparatively better, it is hate speech. /r/fatpeoplehate is a good example, if you count the various kinds of insults “butter slugs” “butter golems” etc.
If it sounds strange, then let me remind you that hate is an emotion. It is something felt by people. So hate depends on not whether it had or had not hurt the victim, but whether the perpetrator felt it or not. So offensive speech (victim angle) can still not be hate speech (perp angle) and vice versa.
Note, how you’ve just conflated “hate speech” with “racism” and “sexism”. Yes, hate is an emotion (at least that’s the original meaning of them word) and like all emotions there are rational and irrational reasons to feel it. However, as the term is commonly used today “hate speech” has almost nothing to do with “hate”. You mention that it’s inappropriately applied to situations where there is no actual hate. On the other hand you’re still implicitly restricting it to situations where the target is an official victim group.
This is incomplete because it ignores the possibility of countersignalling—”you’re so inferior that I don’t even need to use swear words at you to demonstrate hate”.
Gammas almost by definition aren’t going to be counter-signaling anything.
You seem to be making the mistake under discussion by conflating being superior to someone with “hating” him.
He did not say it was said by gammas. He said that it resembles something said by gammas (but was said by other people). These other people could countersignal.
No, I’m not. I didn’t say that feeling superior is hate; I said that feeling superior affects how one expresses hate. Someone who feels superior might express hate using nice words, if his status is such that it is clear that he is not using the nice words to actually be nice.