Posted on 04/08/2014 12:29:49 AM PDT by Olog-hai
A team of academics in Catalonia have come up with a monitoring tool for xenophobic speech, something they say could be used at EU level too.
Ricard Zapata-Barrero, professor of political and social sciences at Barcelona’s Universitat de Pompeu Fabre, and his colleague Gema Rubio Carbonero thought up the tool as a way for political parties to assess their own speeches and for civil society to scrutinize politicians.
“Xenophobia is a construct,” says Zapata.
He explains that political parties seek to divert public attention from the economic crisis by raising emotions and negative attitudes towards issues such as immigrants and the European Union. …
(Excerpt) Read more at euobserver.com ...
I wonder if it flashes “double plus good” when your speech doesn’t have anything it thinks of as being hateful in it.
A. What is “hate speech” is subjective and questionable and easily manipulated politically.
B. People shouldn’t be imprisoned for speech, even if someone, somewhere is offended. All speech of import will offend somebody. If someone is inciting immediate violence, OK, but short of that high threshhold, it should be the old adage “sticks and stone may brake my bones, but words can never harm me.
C. How long before the liberal thought police will have completely taken over our judiciary and gutted our First Amendment Constitutional freedoms of speech?
At that time I was a very active Libertarian and we were joining cause with the Trots and other Marxists groups in a common effort to oppose the draft. I don't recall what prompted this fellow to speak out on the subject of "hate speech" and to declare it ought not be allowed (amusing coming as it did from a Marxist), but speak out he did.
At the time I thought it a queer notion given we had free speech; plus I wondered who got to judge whether some particular utterance was "hate speech" or not. Him?
I point this out because that was some 40 years ago and now prohibitions against "hate speech" are all the rage (as seen here). The Left always plans long-term and is patient, patient, patient. We on the Right seem always to be in defensive mode. Always.
Oh, please. We here in the USA have known for the last five years at least what hate speech is defined as. If you disagree with BO or the other one, you are specifically designated a racist, probably a “homophobe”, and a Tea-Party terrorist in the making. The IRS will of course confirm that when a presidential EO is issued. If no one questions his word, that is.
You mean they invented Berkeley Students?
Sounds like a tool that only a totalitarian could make good use of.
Barcelona university invents weapon for measuring thought crime
Is their “tool” calibrated for the differences in languages, colloquialisms, and “street slang” found between the various languages of the world?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.