Blog Post #5: Speech Theory
The Promote Tolerance speech theory leaves me with many questions. This theory highlights the idea that making a law against hate speech wouldn’t be effective nor would it be beneficial to society but I’m having trouble following that idea. If a more tolerant society is a better society then that negates the idea of having laws at all. How does it make sense to say creating a law against hate speech won’t better society? Saying that it makes society more aware of what can and cannot be said if they don’t enforce a hate speech law essentially says that they wouldn’t be aware of the law at all. I see it to be this way because of how I view the way other laws are enforced. Let’s look at traffic laws for example. It’s illegal for people to run a red light. So according to how the Promote Tolerance speech theory is explained, people who are unaware of this traffic violation in turn only find out about it when they are caught. And what happens when somebody runs a red light? The law is enforced and they are given a ticket. Going back to hate speech, looking at it this way shows that enforcing a law preventing such speech will not hinder the growth of society.
Let’s look at how our society is run today. Not looking into making a law against hate speech shows that the government has little to no interest in the welfare of all of their people. They seek a chance to gain governmental funds for minuscule violations, however, they lack a sense of caring when it comes to the real issues. If they can blow off dealing with hate speech to corporate companies to set examples of people, then what is their purpose? How am I suppose to support and want to fight for a country whose government is economically centered? And yes, like many other nations ours is in serious debt. But would it really be so terrible for the government to take into consideration basic human decency, or would it take too much away from pressing issues that citizens get fined and even jailed for such as trespassing? I would love to say this country loves and would fight for all their people, but when the issue of littering gets you into more trouble with the government than hate speech does, I find it to be very difficult. Under the Promote Tolerance speech theory, the government leaves it in the hands of society to deal with and sees it to be perfectly fine. Do you agree?
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