Hatred, Dignity, and Freedom of Expression

2021 ◽  
pp. 244-295
Author(s):  
Matthew H. Kramer
Keyword(s):  
First Amendment ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Moral Principle ◽  
The Political ◽  
American Constitution ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
Main Target ◽  
The Usa

In his 2012 book The Harm in Hate Speech, Jeremy Waldron has argued sustainedly in favor of hate-speech laws like those that have been enacted in most of the European liberal democracies and in Canada and the Antipodes. His main target is the American position on hate speech, for in the USA any laws along the lines of those just mentioned would be violative of the First Amendment to the American Constitution. This chapter maintains that the gist of the American position is not only a corollary of the First Amendment but also a corollary of the moral principle of freedom of expression. Even more strongly, the chapter contends that the hate-speech statutes championed by Waldron are profoundly demeaning for any country wherein they are adopted. The adoption of such statutes both ensures and presupposes that a system of governance has failed to meet its responsibility to bring about the political and social and economic conditions under which every member of a society can be warranted in harboring an ample sense of self-respect.

scholarly journals USE OF CYBER HATE IN THE ELECTORAL CAMPAIGNS BY THE MAINSTREAM POLITICAL PARTIES OF PAKISTAN

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 325-332
Author(s):  
Ayesha Siddiqua
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
The Political ◽  
Electoral Campaigns ◽  
General Elections ◽  
Cyber Ethics

Purpose of the study: The purpose of the study is to examine the use of cyber hate by the Pakistan’s mainstream political parties. The issue of poll rigging in Pakistan’s General Elections 2013 is examined through discourse analysis of the related tweets. The study also aims at comprehending the extent to which cyber ethics were violated during the digital electoral campaigns. Methodology: Discourse Analysis of the tweets generated from the official Twitter handles of PTI and PMLN leaders was conducted to examine the use of cyber hate by the Pakistan’s mainstream political parties. Violation of cyber ethics was explored through the qualitative interviews of 8 purposively selected social media managers of PMLN, PPP, and PTI. Main Findings: The findings indicated that party leadership/politicians used the elements of cyber hate which included abusive language, provocation, and character assassination against their opponents during the digital electoral campaign in general and regarding the poll rigging issue of Pakistan’s General Elections 2013 in specific. Resultantly the tweets using strong adjectives and metaphors on the political opponents were more frequently re-tweeted and attracted more favorites. Applications of this study: The study can be helpful in various cross-disciplinary areas that focus on the examination of the usage and impact of social media and cyberspace as a medium for hate speech dissemination. The study can significantly contribute to areas related to cyber ethics, digital electoral campaigning, freedom of expression, and political opinion building. Novelty/Originality of this study: The study’s originality lies in its attempt to unfold the foundations of digital electoral campaigning in Pakistan and how cyberhate was used as a pivotal tool for advancing the political narratives in a fragile democratic society.

Governmental Self-Restraint and Individual Self-Respect

2021 ◽  
pp. 114-159
Author(s):  
Matthew H. Kramer
Keyword(s):  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Strong Sense ◽  
Economic Conditions ◽  
The Political ◽  
Individual Self

This pivotal chapter presents a novel justificatory foundation for the principle of freedom of expression. It elaborates a Stoical ideal of ethical strength as self-restraint, and it contends that a key element of the realization of that ideal by any system of governance lies in the system’s compliance with the principle of freedom of expression. Through arguments based on some of the ideas in Matthew Kramer’s 2017 book Liberalism with Excellence, the chapter then shows how the compliance with that principle by a system of governance crucially affects the levels of self-respect that are warranted for the members of the society over which the system presides. As a consequence, that compliance is essential for the fulfilment of the system’s paramount responsibility to bring about the political and social and economic conditions under which every member of its society can be warranted in feeling a strong sense of self-respect.

What The Slants’ First Amendment Case at the Supreme Court Actually Won

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Tam
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Supreme Court ◽  
First Amendment ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
Legal Theory ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
Personal Account ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
Person Account

This is a first-person account of the First Amendment case that rocked the nation. Much has been written about The Slants’ trademark case, which was decided at the Supreme Court, from NPR to Rolling Stone, but nearly everything published focused on the Washington Football team’s name and fear about a floodgate of hate speech. This article provides the argument for freedom of expression using an equity lens, moving it from abstract legal theory to a personal account of what the legal system and its procedures are actually like for those who wish to create social change.

Hate-speech laws: consistency with national and international human rights law

Legal Studies ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 453-485 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominic McGoldrick ◽  
Thérèse O'Donnell
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
The Political ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Anti Semitism ◽  
International Human

Racism has climbed the political agenda at national, European and international levels. Reports from national and international non-governmental organisations (NGO’s) and inter-governmental organisations have focused considerable attention on racism and xenophobia and document an increase in racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and race-related activities. As racism has climbed the political agendas, so there has been a substantial increase in the number of national, European and international legal instruments devoted to it. In particular, race-related restrictions on freedom of expression (‘hate-speech’) are increasing and seem likely to continue to do so. Such restrictions give rise to controversy in terms of constitutionality, legal policy and consistency with European and international human rights law. There are also differences of views between the policies of NGO's on restrictions on racist speech.

Freedom of Expression as Self-Restraint

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew H. Kramer
Keyword(s):  
Moral Responsibility ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Economic Conditions ◽  
The Political ◽  
Legal Restrictions

Freedom of Expression as Self-Restraint rigorously expounds the principle of freedom of expression, and provides a novel justificatory foundation for it. Under that principle, a system of governance in any society can legitimately prohibit various modes of communication but cannot ever legitimately prohibit them qua modes of communication. As the book argues, such a principle is absolute in that it is exceptionless; it imposes general duties that are binding always and everywhere on every system of governance. In addition to injecting a new level of philosophical sophistication into the debates over these matters, the book supplies a novel justification for the principle of freedom of expression. It ties that principle to an ideal of governmental self-restraint, and it shows how that ideal connects to the paramount moral responsibility of every system of governance: the responsibility to bring about the political and social and economic conditions under which every member of a society can be warranted in harboring an ample sense of self-respect. In short, compliance by a system of governance with the principle of freedom of expression is integral to the fulfillment of that paramount responsibility. Kramer lengthily engages with arguments by feminists in favor of legal restrictions on pornography, and with prominent arguments in favor of banning the advocacy of hateful creeds. While accepting that some types or instances of pornography and hatemongering can properly be proscribed, he maintains that most types and instances of those modes of communication are morally protected by the principle of freedom of expression.

FREE SPEECH IN THE AMERICAN FOUNDING AND IN MODERN LIBERALISM

2004 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 310-384
Author(s):  
Thomas G. West
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
First Amendment ◽  
Free Speech ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
Freedom Of Speech ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Political ◽  
Individual Freedom ◽  
American Founding

It is widely believed that there is more freedom of speech in America today than there was at the time of the founding. Indeed, this view is shared by liberal commentators, as one would expect, as well as by leading conservatives, which is more surprising. “The body of law presently defining First Amendment liberties,” writes liberal law professor Archibald Cox, grew out of a “continual expansion of individual freedom of expression.” Conservative constitutional scholar Walter Berns agrees: “Legally we enjoy a greater liberty [of speech] than ever before in our history.” This shared assessment is correct—from the point of view of the political theory of today's liberalism—but it is incorrect from the point of view of the political theory of the American founding.

scholarly journals Sound and Fury: When Opposition to Facilitated Communication Functions as Hate Speech

2011 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Stubblefield
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
The Political ◽  
Communication Tool ◽  
Facilitated Communication ◽  
The Face

<p>Keywords</p><p>facilitated communication, hate speech, freedom of expression, human rights, civil rights, oppression</p><p>Abstract</p><p>The focus of this paper is the political aspects of the controversy over the use of FC as a communication tool and the ways in which anti-FC rhetoric oppresses FC users. In the face of studies that have validated the authorship of FC users, and given the growing number of former FC users who now type independently, continued anti-FC expression functions as hate speech when it calls into question, without substantiation, the intellectual competence of FC users, thereby undermining their opportunity to exercise their right to freedom of expression.</p>

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