On 2006/02/07, at 18:51, Wendy Lyon wrote:
> practically speaking, impossible to separate. You aren't allowed to
> shout "fire" in a crowded theatre because a panic would just about
> *inevitably* result from it - there would not be time for people to
> consider the accuracy of such an exclamation. Advocating Nazism, as a
> general rule, does not have those kind of immediate and unpreventable
> effects.
I am not sure it would have take much time to the Japanese to check their facts with the fires that led to Tokyo burning in 1923. The rumor had it it was the Koreans and the result is that 1000s of them were slaughtered by the Japanese mob.
Racism and racist speech _do_ lead to immediate and unpreventable effect. And if you don't "believe" so, just check recent history (Yugoslavia, Rwanda, to name only a few easy references).
Speech is a very special category of activity because it creates the mental conditions that automatically lead to actions. Hate speech generates heinous feelings and hate crimes.
JC Helary