• Greg Clarke@lemmy.ca
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    3 years ago

    I strongly disagree with the sentiments of these tweets but why would they be considered hate speech? What an I missing?

    • Glide@lemmy.ca
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      3 years ago

      Musk over here trying to conflate gender-affirming hormone medication being taken by 16-17 year olds with the mutilation of children’s genitalia.

      This is thinly veiled hate speech. They are straw-manning those they see as “other”, for the purpose of placing themselves in a morally superior position. It is arguably defensible lies (I didn’t mean, I just meant…), functioning as a dogwhistle to manufacture outrage over imagined extremes that aren’t actually happening, all to stir hatred in the public against LGBTQ+ people and ideologies. And they cap it off with a call to action.

      This is painfully similar to how hate speech against the Jewish people started.

      • Greg Clarke@lemmy.ca
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        3 years ago

        I know this will be an unpopular opinion in this thread but this isn’t hate speech in Canada. It’s a vile perspective shared by someone with many impressionable followers but it’s not hate speech. Labeling this exchange as hate speech weakens this term and is not useful in shifting discourse or people’s opinions.