Chris Mahan recently wrote:
The reason why I say that hate
speech is not destructive is that
speech itself is strictly communicative.
which begs the question, what do you mean by
"communicative?" I assume you mean that the only thing it
does is to describe or express something else, but has not force in and
of itself. If this is what CM means, he is mistaken. Some
propositions are indeed expressive or descriptive (e.g., "I feel
sick" or "the house is blue" -- in the first case the
proposition describes how I feel, in the second case it describes the
house. In both cases the proposition is about something
else). But some propositions are performative -- statements which
are in and of themselves actions. J.L. Austin provides some pretty
common examples: when someone says "I name this ship The Queen
Elizabeth" it is the very pronouncement that accomplishes the
naming. Similarly, when one says "I bet you ..." it is
the act of saying so that constitutes the bet. Or when someone says
"I promise," it is the very act of speaking that accomplishes
the promise. You can call these statements
"communicative" if you like -- what is important is a major
distinction between these kinds of statements and statements like
"the house is blue."
The question is, what kind of proposition is "Jewish concentration
camps" (meaning, concentration camps run by Jews) I think the answer
is, both. It is a descriptive statement that can be either true or
false (and in the case of the camps WHEELER was referring too,
false). But I believe it is also a performative statement, and it
is in this sense that it is hate speech, and destructive.
Some people have suggested that what makes it hate speech is its
potential to incite physical violence. I think this is valid (and a
valid legal principle: threatening someone may be punishable, at least in
the U.S., or may not -- courts decide in part from weighing how likely
the threat could lead to physical violence). But the argument of
"hate speech" is that performative statements are in and of
themselves violent. One example is the power of speech to
intimidate (and although threats may be purely verbal, they can still be
actionable for this reason). This was established in the United
States by the 1942 Supreme Court decision Chaplinsky versus New
Hampshire, which is the basis for some hate speech legislation in the
U.S. (and available on the web). Another is the power of speech to
stigmatize (this is in effect the argument MacKinnon and Dworkin made
against pornography -- the very act renders women sexual
objects).
The ACLU opposes hate speech legislation on two grounds: first, it
considers hate speech one of the prices a society must pay for a general
right to freedom of speech, and second, it believes the best response to
hate speech is more speech. I happen to sympathize very
strongly, or just plain agree, with both of these. I do not think
the state should limit free speech. WHEELER, for example, has a
right to say whatever anti-Semitic thing he wants to, to anyone who wants
to listen.
The question is, do I have to listen? Do you, do we have to
listen? And, more importantly, does Wikipedia have to be a medium
through which anyone spews hate speech? I don't think so.
And I think that anyone who construes this argument against hate speech
on Wikipedia as censorship is seriously distorting the situation.
Wikipedia is a community, not the state. Just because a person has
a legal right to do something does not mean we are obliged to
collude. For example, people have a right to advertise but we do
not allow advertisements on Wikipedia. Advertisements do not
benefit our project, and only mislead people as to the nature of our
project. The same goes for hate speech. If I thought it were
possible that hate speech on Wikipedia could lead to the improvement of
an article, for example, I would defend it. But I don't think it
leads to the improvement of articles, and only appropriates our space to
hateful purposes.
Steve
Steven L. Rubenstein
Associate Professor
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Bentley Annex
Ohio University
Athens, Ohio 45701