What exactly is hate speech?

amen, brother. amen.

hate speech is speech that the majority doesn’t want to hear.

always keep in mind that hate speech is free speech.

Hate is a human emotion. It doesn’t evaporate if it isn’t spoken or typed. I fear much more that someone would censor my ability to express my feelings than I do that someone might hate me.

Indeed. Hate speech is.

Ha, I have to remember that one!

I find it interesting that there is a website called Dictionary.com which has a definition that my dictionary at home doesn’t…

Who decides on the definition of something like “hate speech” at dictionary.com? Do you think someone had to have a meeting about it?

You know what "hate speech"is?

Its our “masters” in Washington DC saying “I don’t like what you’re thinking, boy”!

I disagree, Hermann.

We start by recollecting that First Amendment Free Speech is NOT unlimited. You can’t shout “Fire!” in a crowded theater. You can’t make libelous statements about another person (well, not without legal consequences.) If you tell someone how to go about committing a murder, you can be held as an accomplice. You can’t stand on a street corner waving a hangman’s noose and yelling, “Let’s lynch all the blacks!”

The latter is clearly “hate speech.” Granted, there’s lots and lots of grey, but the existence of grey does not deny the existence of black and white.

Dex wrote:

True, but irrelevant in my opinion. What’s relevant is that it’s a threat.

Per Libertarian’s note does true “black and white” hate speech only exist when a direct threat is linked to the speech (as in your example) or can simply saying “xxx’s (race, creed, sexual preference groups etc. etc.) are just no damn good” also fall under the category of hate speech if no threat is expressed in the statement?

If you’re looking for a definition of “hate speech” you might be interested in s. 319 of the Canadian Criminal Code, which creates two offences respecting hatred:

Ah, the list again. Unfortunate for midgets and homosexuals.