[WikiEN-l] hate speech

[steven l. rubenstein]

Chris Mahan wrote,

> > 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.
>
>
>Your assumption was incorrect.

But judging from the rest of his response, my assumption was 
correct.  Chris, you just do not understand the point.  I suggest you read 
Austin's book and perhaps take a couple of courses in the philosophy of 
language.

It looks like few people have interest in the question of hate speech, so I 
will not belabor the point.  But for everyone besides Chris, I do want to 
add one more thing, to clarify my earlier points.  One of Wikipedia's key 
policies is to respect contributors, and an important behavioral guideline 
is to avoid personal attacks.  One reason I am so concerned about hate 
speech is that I do not feel it is strictly covered by this policy and this 
guideline -- because hate speech is impersonal.  Strictly speaking, I did 
not feel WHEELER was attacking me "personally," I felt he was attacking me 
"impersonally."  It was not directed at me personally (which is explicitly 
against our policy) because it was not about me, personally.  But it was 
about Jews, so since I am a Jew it is about me, just me, impersonally.  If 
this is not clear, all I can ask is that you read any of the countless 
explanations of the rationale behind hate speech legislation or hate crime 
legislation.  The point is not that you should agree that we need hate 
speech legislation, just to understand how hate speech is different from 
other forms of rude or insulting or disrespectful speech.  Perhaps all I 
have been asking for is recognition of another reason for mediation or 
arbitration beyond the ones listed.

Steve

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