What is “Hate Speech”?

Here we go again. School equals emphasis on education? Page 1 of the CVHS monthly newsletter discusses punishing students for (alleged) “hate speech” (regardless of intent, it says). What could go wrong here? What is “hate speech”? Let’s take a quiz!

(1) Black Lives Matter (2) White Lives Matter (3) From The River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free (4) I do not believe a man can become a woman (5) Flying the “Pride” Flag (6) Flying the Christian Flag.

Well, the “evens” are classified as hate speech and the “odds” are not. According to the Universities of Pennsylvania, Harvard and MIT, using the wrong pronoun is an “act of violence”. Calling for the death of all Jews and the destruction of the nation of Israel is “protected free speech”.

“Act of violence”? OMG. The old adage “sticks and stones...” rings true. Projectiles can send me to the ER but words never will. My generation taught me better. You can insult me, my kids, my cats, my God - it doesn’t matter. I CHOOSE not to be offended. Share convincing evidence and you’ll influence my thinking. Lies and insults will be ignored because there is no truth in them and therefore no power - UNLESS I ALLOW IT. Let’s teach our kids THAT instead of emphasizing viewpoint discrimination.

The problem is who defines “hate speech”. Truth is not hate speech (well, it wasn’t until recently) and is testable. Opinions are neither right nor wrong (and cannot be proven either way). In practice, this policy will likely be used to silence opposing viewpoints (regardless of its noble intent) on a campus where all visual cues proclaim a progressive ideology and dissent is silenced.

–Stacy Spink, Castro Valley