[kristopolous]

> should Kathy Griffin have been deplatformed when she showed a picture of her holding the severed head of a likeness of Trump

She was. Fired almost immediately.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/kathy-griffin-fired-cnn...

> When Hillary called 1/2 of Trump supporters "deplorables" isn't that hate speech?

She apologized as soon as it happened

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basket_of_deplorables

> anti-vax people should be executed or at least left to starve to death (Chomsky said something like this)

Incorrect. He called for classic quarantining which is exactly what happened before vaccines.

https://www.independent.co.uk/tv/news/noam-chomsky-calls-for...

> Hate speech is hopelessly vaguely defined

Incorrect! Most organizations have reached wildly close consensus on the matter

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hate_speech

[rgoulter]

> > Hate speech is hopelessly vaguely defined

> Incorrect! Most organizations have reached wildly close consensus on the matter

That wikipedia article indicates: """Hate speech is "usually thought to include communications of animosity or disparagement of an individual or a group on account of a group characteristic such as race, colour, national origin, sex, disability, religion, or sexual orientation"."""

There was a bill in Florida which: """The legislation would prohibit individuals from making people “feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress on account of his or her race, color, sex, or national origin.”""" https://edition.cnn.com/2022/01/19/us/florida-education-crit...

Absent any other context, "hate speech is animosity/disparagement towards ... race" is consistent with what the bill protects against: "don't make people feel distress on account of race". The concerns are ostensibly in the same direction.

I suspect those opposed to the Florida bill would really prefer a more narrow interpretation of 'hate speech', and those in favour would prefer a broader interpretation.

[kristopolous]

It's not. Public libraries aren't considered hate groups anywhere but in the current propagandists wild imaginations.

That legislation is about weaponizing existing tools to whitewash history and in the context of the Florida "stop woke act"/"don't say gay" bill follows a lineage of curtailing and restricting education in some wild "satanic panic" style attack on the manufactured issues of CRT and "wokeism", specifically as spearheaded by the Florida GOP

This is part of that legislative agenda and is meant to remove topics such as civil rights, women's rights, LGBT history and labor struggle from school curriculum.

You're free to ignore that and pretend otherwise but you're not fooling me.

[rgoulter]

> That legislation is about weaponizing existing tools

Right.

It seems entirely reasonable to be concerned that if 'hate speech' is applied too broadly, it can be used to silence political opponents.

[akomtu]

Don't forget drag shows. The such bad Florida has an issue with those too.

[joenot443]

> She apologized as soon as it happened

She apologized for using the word "half", not for calling Americans deplorable.

Apart from that one, it sounds like you have it all figured out. The part I think you're missing is that many people are bothered that hate speech coming from those privileged enough to be holding the majority view is forgiven with a forced apology, whereas other hate speech will send you to jail.

More than ever, it really just seems "hate speech", for Americans at least, is better defined as "speech coming from people with views I hate". It's seemingly impossible to separate American party lines from their definition of hate speech.

[kristopolous]

No matter where you go, hate speech is pretty much defined the same way

Take the UN for example

https://www.un.org/en/hate-speech/understanding-hate-speech/...

It's certainly a concept and as such needs comprehension to understand it.

People failing to grasp the concept write it off as being nonsense in the same way people write off everything else they fail to take the time to understand.

Hate groups which are always built on lies and propaganda seek to confuse the issue. They're kicking up dust. There isn't any actual confusion, only that which they've manufactured.

It's classic fear, uncertainty and doubt.