Recognizing Hate Speech

[McChimp]

So let me get this strait, you are against an overt law that recognizes hate speech? Granted, there may be admin but as of now they have done nothing to prevent nations from continuing their hate speech. Their actions, so far, have been to suppress and alert moderators but nations in Lazarus continue to use hate speech. We believe the admin does very little to really combat the practice. It's mostly ignored after the fact.

If you have a problem with the way our OOC administration has handled a problem then you should take that up with NR, not try and bring it into law.

If somebody presents a threat to the wellbeing of any player then that is not the province of the court. A responsible and trusted adult must decide.

[Wymondham]

Firmly against this proposal for the reasons given by others

[Roavin]

I don't have anything to add except what was already eloquently said. Also against.

But I do have to address this one thing:

So let me get this strait, you are against an overt law that recognizes hate speech?

This is a bad faith argument. What McChimp and others are saying is that there is a different route to deal with it. You're portraying it as them being fine with hate speech. That's frankly disgusting - this isn't a conversation about the nations within the lore of NationStates gameplay, this is a conversation about players participating in the game, on a meta level. Those are the areas of offsite administration and/or NS moderators, not a part of the lore of the game.

[vedan]

CITIZENS OF LAZARUS.

THE DISCUSSION : "RECOGNIZING HATE SPEECH"

https://www.nslazarus.com/thread-1651.html

We would like your opinion regarding a proposal to recognize and enforce a law to end hate speech in Lazarus.

I'm weary of such a proposal tbh. While I would prefer people here in Lazarus wernt overtly Homophobic,Racist,Anti-Semetic, Anti-Southern, etcetera. I've also always been one for freedom of speech. To quote Voltaire "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it". If we criminalize hate speech then we run into the problem of defining what exactly is hate speech. This will open up another can of worms that I fear could easily devolve into a witch hunt. Which could permanently change the Lazarene community for the worse.

On the other note we have already closed the doors of Lazarus to the Facists. I'm not exactly sure of the exact reason why we did that, as I was not there at the time those laws were passed. But I can only imagine that facists general support of racism, totalitarianism, and worst of all genocide was likely to blame. (Plus it was probably a good PR move.) So we do already have a precident of Lazarus outlawing some types of offensive speech/imagery already. Making some broader anti hate speech laws more of a expansion of a existing tradition than the creation of a new one.

With these two things in mind I belive I shall remain neutral on this for the time being while I think things over.

[Domais]

Firmly against, think about if we pass a law banning hate speech, it opens the floodgates for further bans and limits on free speech. First they'll ban hate speech, then they'll broaden the definition of hate speach and eventually the freedom of speach that once existed will be non-existent.