What is Hate Speech? Anything Jews Hate to Hear
"The truth hurts."

by Edgar J. Steele

Edited by RePortersNoteBook.com

January 9, 2004

"Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of speech..." -- US Constitution, First Amendment (1791) "Freedom of speech means that you shall not do something to people either for the views they express, or the words they speak or write." -- Hugo Black, US Supreme Court Justice, "One Man's Stand for Freedom" (1963)

"The truth hurts." -- Proverb

Free speech is a funny kind of concept. Used to be, free speech was anything that didn't physically hurt others. Don't yell "Fire!" in a packed theater, for example, unless there really is a fire, of course. Truth always won out then.

Then laws developed about libel and slander, where words could hurt one's ability to make a living or move freely in the world. Again, truth always won out -- if you called someone a whore and could prove they had sex indiscriminately, you went free.

Now we see speech laws morphing into bans on "hate speech." Problem is, the further into the rhetorical woods we go, the murkier the visibility becomes.

And truth no longer provides a defense.

Hate speech is hurt speech. The truth hurts, in other words. And, like a sword, it can hurt in both directions.

"It Wasn't Arabs" has developed a life of its own, it seems. It began as a personal rant, then developed into a laundry list of complaints which can be laid at the doorsteps of Jews around the world. Here is an excerpt:

It wasn't Arabs who sued to remove "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance - it was Jews.

It wasn't Arabs who sued to remove the Ten Commandments from that Alabama courthouse, had Judge Moore removed from the bench and now seek to disbar him -- it is Jews.

It isn't Arabs who sue to remove nativity scenes from public venues -- it is Jews.

It isn't Arabs who erect menorahs in public venues in place of crosses -- it is Jews.

It wasn't Arabs who sued to remove group prayer from public schools -- it was Jews.

It wasn't Arabs suing to remove decorative lights from schools at Christmas - it was Jews.

It isn't Arabs who refuse to allow children to say grace over their school lunches -- it is Jews.

Nearly one hundred points like these, delivered just like these. And it has gone around the world again and again. Glad to see I am making a difference in the fight against tyranny and injustice.

Never mind that everything in it has been proven true, time and again. What matters is that some Jewish feelings got hurt. The truth hurts. But it shouldn't hurt the truth teller. Unless the truth being told is about Jews, goes the new/old conventional wisdom, then the rules are different, just as we see around the world, day after day.

Recently, in "Tell a Joke, Go to Jail" --- I wrote about a law which had been passed by Hungary's democratically elected Parliament which stipulated a two-year prison term for "someone who publicly insults a Jew."

What's more, if the insult amounted to an expression of "hatred," the sentence went up to three years! Fortunately, at the last moment, Hungary's President declined to sign the bill. It will be back, though, and it will be passed eventually:

Think about it for a moment: two years in prison for publicly insulting a Jew in Hungary! Regardless of intent.

Now my essay, "It Wasn't Arabs," has some Canadian Jews in high places hyperventilating. "Free speech does not mean hate speech, and I think this article clearly is hate speech," said Nisson Goldman of the CJC. That is CJC, as in the Canadian Jewish Congress. They are the guys that are demanding Mr. Hussain be prosecuted for publishing my essay!!!

US President Harry Truman, who presided over the end of WWII and its aftermath: "The Jews, I find, are very, very selfish. They care not how many Estonians, Latvians, Finns, Poles, Yugoslavs or Greeks get murdered or mistreated as D[isplaced] P[ersons] as long as the Jews get special treatment. Yet when they have power, physical, financial or political neither Hitler nor Stalin has anything on them for cruelty or mistreatment to the under dog." (Harry Truman's personal diary, 1947.)

Consider the following from Jewish scripture: "Extermination of the Christians is a necessary sacrifice." (Zohar, Shemoth).

Hate speech laws in action, ladies and gentlemen. They are coming to America next.

-Ed

"I didn't say it would be easy. I just said it would be the truth." - Morpheus