# What exactly is hate speech? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [October 29, 2009, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-hate-speech/515624 "2009-10-29T16:37:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 8
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2009, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-hate-speech/515624/8 "2009-10-30T13:56:55Z")
If you see such, **Zoe** (or anyone else, of course), please hit the REPORT POST button (the little ! in the red triangle in the upper right corner of the post) and let the mods decide. There’s often a fine line between a “friendly joke” about (say) a mental illness, vs hate-speech directed against the disabled. Anyhow, please REPORT it and let the mods decide. As **Liberal** has noted, it should be possible to hold civil discussion with people whose ethics are different from yours. A racist, bigot, anti-semite, homophobe, whatever-else who can engage in civil discourse without insulting other posters (or groups) should be able to converse on these Message Boards. Who knows, someone might find the right words to talk them out of their bigotry? --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-hate-speech/515624)._