TRIGGERnometry - Why We Should Abolish Hate Speech Laws - Andrew Doyle

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00:00:30.000 Since when did it become the business of the state to audit our emotions?

00:00:35.780 In effect, this is precisely what's happening, by means of the various hate speech laws that have been implemented throughout Europe in recent years.

00:00:42.840 In Ireland, the imminent criminal justice bill would represent one of the most draconian forms of hate speech legislation yet produced.

00:00:50.880 And how is hatred defined in the bill?

00:00:52.900 Well, the following is a direct quotation.

00:00:54.920 Hatred means hatred against a person or a group of persons in the state or elsewhere on account of their protected characteristics or any one of those characteristics.

00:01:05.780 So, hatred means hatred.

00:01:07.800 Glad we cleared that up.

00:01:09.180 This kind of circular definition is what we've come to expect from legislators when it comes to this most nebulous of concepts.

00:01:14.760 In his book, Censored, Paul Coleman helpfully includes all of the existing legislation on hatred from across Europe.

00:01:22.300 And in doing so, he reveals that no two governments are able to agree on its meaning.

00:01:26.420 In 2012, the European Court of Human Rights concluded that there is no universally accepted definition of the expression hate speech.

00:01:34.380 And a manual published by UNESCO in 2015 accepted that the possibility of reaching a universally shared definition seems unlikely.

00:01:42.900 When it comes to the statute books, one would have thought that precision and detail would be of paramount importance.

00:01:48.960 After all, we've seen how vaguely worded legislation is wide open to exploitation.

00:01:53.620 Consider, for instance, how trans rights activists are now claiming that the reference to sex in the Equality Act 2010

00:02:00.480 connotes a sense of gender identity rather than, you know, the biological designations of male and female.

00:02:07.560 If the state is empowered to imprison its citizens on the basis of hatred, surely we need to know what that means.

00:02:15.040 Hatred, like any other emotion, cannot be legislated out of existence.

00:02:18.820 Will we be seeing laws against envious speech on the statute books?

00:02:23.240 And what about codes against wrath or pride?

00:02:26.120 If the government were to prohibit narcissistic speech,

00:02:28.600 most of the flag-waving, pronoun-declaring gender ideologues would have to be incarcerated. 0.96

00:02:33.600 And while this would doubtless create a much more sane and serene society,

00:02:36.940 it would also involve the obliteration of our fundamental values.

00:02:40.460 As for hate crimes, there is no need for mind-reading in order to determine the appropriate punishment.

00:02:46.200 If I am physically assaulted,

00:02:47.800 it makes little difference to me if the assailant was motivated by homophobia.

00:02:51.680 I would prefer the sentence to reflect the crime itself,

00:02:54.120 not to be moderated according to speculations about the perpetrator's private thoughts.

00:02:59.960 The state should have absolutely no license to probe inside our heads

00:03:03.920 any more than employers should insist on compulsory unconscious bias training.

00:03:09.080 In a free society, we are entitled to think and feel as we see fit.

00:03:13.280 And so long as that does not interfere with the liberties of others,

00:03:15.860 that includes the right to hate.

00:03:18.020 But even if one were to accept the premise that the state must crack down on hateful thoughts,

00:03:23.160 which I most assuredly do not,

00:03:25.640 hate speech legislation is wholly ineffective.

00:03:28.780 Censorship of hateful ideas does not cause them to disappear.

00:03:32.100 It drives them underground, where they confess to unchallenged.

00:03:36.180 Moreover, hate speech laws are easily weaponised by activists

00:03:39.280 seeking to silence their political opponents.

00:03:42.120 For example, in the UK, we have seen people arrested for misgendering,

00:03:46.220 that is to say, for accurately identifying the sex of another person.

00:03:50.380 The journalist Caroline Farrow was investigated by police for six months

00:03:53.600 after an appearance on Good Morning Britain.

00:03:56.140 According to a complainant,

00:03:57.700 Farrow had referred to another contributor's female identifying child

00:04:00.760 with a male pronoun during a conversation that took place off air.

00:04:05.300 And although such instances have not led to convictions,

00:04:08.460 we all know that the process is the punishment.

00:04:11.840 As one who has received my fair share of abuse online,

00:04:14.260 I understand that free speech has its downsides.

00:04:17.580 But I choose to ignore those of the obnoxious and hateful ilk,

00:04:21.040 rather than call for them to be censored.

00:04:23.380 The price we pay for living in a free society

00:04:25.580 is that unpleasant people are going to say unpleasant things.

00:04:29.540 But their right to do so is precisely the same right

00:04:32.860 that allows us to counter them.

00:04:35.660 If we attempt to silence even our most abusive critics,

00:04:39.240 we are essentially surrendering our principles at their behest.

00:04:42.240 No doubt the trans-identifying individual 1.00

00:04:44.620 who was described as a faggot with tits in a recent case in Spain 1.00

00:04:48.360 didn't relish the experience. 1.00

00:04:50.840 But it should concern us all that the state has intervened

00:04:53.080 and sentenced the woman who posted the offending words

00:04:55.580 to six months in prison,

00:04:58.000 suspended on condition of the payment of a €3,850 fine.

00:05:03.080 In addition, she's been banned from employment in teaching and sports

00:05:05.780 for three and a half years.

00:05:07.520 This is the very definition of authoritarian overreach.

00:05:10.180 Those who are sceptical of gender identity ideology

00:05:12.980 are particularly susceptible to the misapplication of hate speech laws

00:05:15.820 and there is no way of knowing

00:05:17.640 which other beliefs will eventually be criminalised.

00:05:20.280 Once a state has outlawed hatred and failed to define it,

00:05:24.740 the law becomes a cudgel to beat anyone

00:05:27.380 who holds heterodox points of view.

00:05:29.760 Who is to say that a future government

00:05:31.100 might not deem it hateful to criticise its policies?

00:05:34.120 What starts with the chilling of free speech

00:05:36.700 ends with the criminalisation of dissent.

00:05:39.920 A new law in Canada, for instance, Bill C-63,

00:05:43.320 empowers the state to imprison a citizen for life 0.56

00:05:46.480 for advocating genocide.

00:05:49.440 But of course, activists and even politicians have insisted

00:05:52.140 that claiming biological sex is real and immutable 0.93

00:05:55.340 is a form of transgenocide.

00:05:58.060 In the hands of authoritarians,

00:05:59.480 these words are very slippery.

00:06:01.860 They can mean whatever they want them to mean.

00:06:04.240 And that's why we should be so worried

00:06:05.660 about free speech in Ireland.

00:06:07.360 Last year, the Irish Green Party Senator Pauline O'Reilly

00:06:09.880 made no effort to disguise

00:06:11.880 the authoritarian nature of the new bill.

00:06:14.360 That's exactly what we're doing here,

00:06:16.060 is we are restricting freedom,

00:06:17.800 but we're doing it for the common good.

00:06:20.160 Hasn't every tyrant in history made an identical claim?

00:06:23.840 In her speech, O'Reilly invoked the notion of safety

00:06:26.700 to justify state censorship.

00:06:29.380 If your views on other people's identities

00:06:31.100 go to make their lives unsafe, insecure, 0.94

00:06:33.480 and cause them such deep discomfort

00:06:35.160 that they cannot live in peace, she said,

00:06:37.660 then I believe it is our job as legislators

00:06:39.780 to restrict those freedoms.

00:06:42.540 Well, it's a common tactic of activists

00:06:44.360 to claim that certain opinions make them feel unsafe

00:06:47.460 as a means to provoke a sensorial response,

00:06:50.540 either from employers or from the state.

00:06:53.020 But this is linguistic sleight of hand,

00:06:55.100 and the strategy has been remarkably effective.

00:06:58.120 The Irish hate speech bill goes further

00:07:00.760 than most of its equivalents in European countries.

00:07:03.540 It will give the state the right

00:07:04.900 to prosecute those who cause offence

00:07:07.300 under the catch-all of inciting hatred,

00:07:11.000 and those found guilty

00:07:11.840 could face up to five years in prison.

00:07:14.620 Even more worryingly,

00:07:15.980 a citizen can be jailed for two years

00:07:17.580 simply if they prepare or possess material

00:07:21.140 that could potentially incite hatred.

00:07:24.120 So if you have a gender-critical meme on your iPhone,

00:07:28.100 that could be sufficient to see you in jail.

00:07:30.380 In the UK, hate speech laws exist

00:07:32.140 in the form of the Public Order Act 1986

00:07:34.180 and the Communications Act 2003.

00:07:37.440 3,000 people are arrested each year in the UK

00:07:39.600 for comments posted online

00:07:40.960 that have been deemed offensive,

00:07:42.860 and in some cases,

00:07:44.060 have even been imprisoned for jokes.

00:07:46.280 If we're going to tackle this problem,

00:07:48.400 we might start by repealing section 127

00:07:50.820 of the Communications Act,

00:07:52.380 which criminalises online speech

00:07:54.040 that can be deemed grossly offensive.

00:07:56.660 Of course, no attempt is ever made

00:07:58.140 to define grossly offensive in the legislation,

00:08:01.340 so anyone can be vulnerable.

00:08:03.620 In Scotland, the situation is even graver.

00:08:06.220 When First Minister Hamza Youssef was Justice Secretary,

00:08:09.300 he was instrumental in the passing

00:08:10.620 of the Hate Crime and Public Order Act,

00:08:12.800 and disturbingly, these new laws

00:08:14.500 can see citizens prosecuted for words

00:08:17.020 that they have uttered in the privacy

00:08:18.660 of their own homes.

00:08:20.380 I'm reminded of a speech by William Pitt,

00:08:22.200 the elder delivered in the House of Commons

00:08:24.160 in March 1763.

00:08:26.200 The poorest man may in his cottage 0.83

00:08:28.400 bid defiance to all the forces of the crown.

00:08:31.700 It may be frail, its roof may shake,

00:08:33.900 the wind may blow through it,

00:08:35.320 the storm may enter, the rain may enter,

00:08:38.080 but the King of England cannot enter.

00:08:40.620 All his force dares not cross the threshold

00:08:43.400 of the ruined tenement.

00:08:45.000 Evidently, these sentiments would not be echoed

00:08:47.940 by the SNP.

00:08:49.520 Given that hatred and offence

00:08:51.200 are entirely subjective concepts,

00:08:53.340 we should be resisting any attempt

00:08:54.700 to codify in law restrictions against them.

00:08:57.420 No two figures of authority

00:08:58.660 will interpret these terms in the same way.

00:09:01.160 And as human beings with frailties and biases,

00:09:04.500 they will doubtless be tempted to wield

00:09:06.260 such laws against their detractors.

00:09:08.800 If the state is willing to dispense

00:09:10.740 with our right to free expression,

00:09:12.480 there can be no guarantees for any of us.

00:09:14.300 Hate speech laws are an affront to human liberty.

00:09:18.720 It's time to ditch them for good.

00:09:21.460 This video is available as an article on my substack,

00:09:24.500 and this and other articles will be available there first,

00:09:27.740 so make sure to head on over there now and subscribe.

TRIGGERnometry - April 12, 2024

Why We Should Abolish Hate Speech Laws - Andrew Doyle

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