| We don’t really need to worry about harm versus offense, it’s enough to ask, is there harm to a person in such-and-such a situation? We should also recognise that the reasonable apprehension of harm is often an allowable basis for an action in law. For example, to assault someone is to present them with a clear threat of harm, whereas battery is to actually carry through with the harm. Defamation (libel, slander) is recognised to be a problem for a similar reason. If someone presents misleading and disparaging things about me to the public, of course people are free not to believe it and it may be that nothing will happen; but I very reasonably fear damage to my career and social status. We recognise defamation as a crime even when no harm has been demonstrated to occur. Does hate speech cause harm? Not directly, since sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me. Like defamation, however, it can mislead to a point where people reasonably expect injury to their career or social standing; and like assault, it can constitute a threat of bodily or other harm. Many of the people who push agendas of hatred are little interested in the outcome of the democratic process or in dialogue with the people they hate — they just want those people excluded (or deported or worse). We live in a time, unfortunately, where we aren’t all working together with a good solid understanding of “public dialogue”, “harm” and “the threat of harm”. People feeling bad is not harm; but often that is close by. The absence of injury does not mean we can ignore the possibility of it. On the other hand, though, if we can’t see a concrete harm that (a) has occurred or (b) is clearly in the offing — if all there is, is some hurt feelings — then a restriction of speech would constitute an offence against a person’s rights. |