I personally don't believe in hate speech or hate crimes. As I said, I think words only have the power one choses to give them. And every crime is a hate crime...I don't care if someone killed you because you were gay, black, they wanted your money, you were screwing their wife, or your dog barked at night. It's murder, plain and simple. We have a law for it. We have a punishment for it. Who cares what the motive was?
Up until this point, Charles, I was in agreement with you. However, when it comes to hate speech and hate crime, there is a difference. The motive of hate crime is to
intimidate, and not just the direct victim of the crime but all those who are part of the class the victim is (or too often was) a member. The individual identity of the victim in a hate crime is unimportant, but the class membership is vital in these cases.
Again, this relates back to my reasons for using words other than hate to describe dislike. There are so many other words that fit what I want to say in a better fashion. Similarly, to say that "every crime is a hate crime" is overly simplistic. Theft, such as shoplifting, is not what I would call a hate crime. Jaywalking can be considered a crime, but who or what is the object of hate in such a case? Is smoking in a non-smoking area a hate crime? Of course not.
Is getting mugged a hate crime? Not necessarily, and not usually. The mugger is out for financial gain, with no thought about his victim. But I have been attacked, and left with a broken nose and shoulder, where the attackers made no demand for money. They did call me a "g*ddamn mother****ing faggot."
There are people out there in the world who hate, and derive great pleasure from that hate. And the sooner we get around to realizing that hate is a
pleasurable emotion to those who feel it, the sooner we'll start dealing realistically with the problem.
