Hate Speech [ˈhāt spēch]
noun
1. speech intended to denigrate, disparage, or insult
an ethnic, racial, sexual, or social group or any member of such a group
As much as it may surprise some of my newer readers to
know this – I do occasionally watch Fox News. For although I understand that
they skew the news to support their ultra-right viewpoint, it still
occasionally contains a hint of actual un-adulterated fact… “the wheat among that chaff,” as it were.
The problem is that you have to go through an awful lot of
chaff to get to the wheat. Some of that chaff is mighty hard to swallow. This morning,
on Fox and Friends Weekend, a guest told Tucker Carlson that people who commit
radical acts “infect” the group that they are with. He actually espoused the
closing of mosques if any member EVER commits some heinous act.
After my initial shock, I began to see the logic in his
argument. So to his list, I add the following:
- Eric Rudolf, when he bombed abortion clinics and gay bars in Atlanta to protest the “homosexual agenda” was a member of the Christian “Church of Israel” and admitted to having religious motivations for his terrorist actions – Let’s close the Christian Churches.
- Timothy McVey, when he blew-up the bomb that destroyed the federal building in Oklahoma City, was a practicing Catholic – Let’s close the catholic churches, they have had radicalized members.
And we need not look too much further to find other
heinous actions taken in the name of religion. ANY religion! But why
stop at religion? Why not tar whole masses of other people because of one
person they probably never knew and/or had contact with.
- Let’s close Harvard, and the University of Michigan because Ted Kaczynski (you know – the Unibomber) attended and/or taught there.
- Let’s shut down the congress – Anthony Weiner sent dirty pictures of himself, so the whole lot of them must be perverse.
- Heck! For that matter – all of Fox News must be as hateful, racist, and Islamophobic as their guest this morning was. As long as we are splattering everyone with the same tar and feathers, what’s good for the goose… Let's close-down Fox News for being racist hate-mongers.
That’s the problem with Hate Speech; it is not in line
with the teaching that the speakers of the vitriol claim to believe in. For
example, Fox claims to be all for the constitution (witness the number of times
they defend the gun-rights crowd – case in point, their support for Racist
Rancher Cliven Bundy in his battle not to pay land use fees), but any time
anyone wants to make a point not in line with theirs (a First Amendment right)
they are shouted down or dismissed as “un-American.”
Wherever you are today, I hope that you will think before
you spew hate and vitriol. It may be okay for Fox News, but it is NOT
acceptable in polite society.
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