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Persuasive Speech On Hate Speech

Decent Essays
Imagine walking down the street and then out of nowhere a person shouts obscenities at others based on the way they look or because of what they affiliate with. This person may feel as if they have just been both verbally and emotionally attacked. With the current state of hate speech laws, there is nothing that could be done to punish the instigator of the hate speech. Hate has a strong connection to United States history. Slaves were a result of being hateful to those who were different, and Jim Crow laws were a consequence of a hatred for those who were different also. As much time has passed since then, America has gotten more progressive although there are still people who are hateful of others for they way they are. Hate speech laws are necessary in the United States and should be passed because passing them would create and foster a more tolerant society, help to decrease the negative risk associated with them, and prevent violent acts of hate which tend to be preceded by hate speech. Opposition to all forms of hate speech laws are quite passionate. People who are adamant against hate speech laws affirm their beliefs through the First Amendment. Believing that the First Amendment protects all types of speech, no matter how terrible, these people go about calling others “snowflakes” just for protesting hate speech. Instead of actually understanding the harmful effects that have been proven by researchers they instead trivialize the effects (Neilsen 10-11). This type of resistive thinking is incorrect because most people do not understand that no right is absolute. Speech nowadays is already limited in some places, so passing a hate speech law today would not change much, and would instead allow people who commit repeated hate speech to be culpable. Critics of hate speech laws also feel that passing laws against it will instead imperil speech that counters it. These critics believe that hate speech laws are counter-intuitive and will harm any current efforts to protest hate speech (Arthur 16). Believers in this ideology are wrong because any judge or person would have the common sense to differentiate between hate speech and speech that counters hate speech. Also people are able to use context, to
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