Weaponized Speech
January 26, 2015
Power Abuse
Weaponized Speech
by MARC SALOMON
While the ideal of unfettered free speech is held as sacrosanct in most of “the west,” there are certain utterances that should not be communicated publically. In general there are no laws prohibiting such speech, although sometimes hate crime law or European post-WWII anti-fascist restrictions come into play. But under certain circumstances language becomes weaponized. When this weaponized language is deployed consonant with existing power imbalances, then it becomes a tool of structural oppression whose value as free speech is eclipsed by the reality of its abuse.
There are no laws against white people calling Blacks “niggers” as a term of abuse. Blacks call themselves nigga all of the time. But when whites do so in anger in the US, then such conduct carries with it the sum total of the history of structural racism and slavery that combined with Native genocide and expropriation is the original sin of the United States. Most Americans who support the first amendment would blanche at governmental prior restraint of this diction but would just as likely shun or physically assault such a verbal assailant.
Similarly, there are no laws against using vile misogynist language by men against women. Nobody is going to jail over calling a woman a “cunt.” But using that word reinforces the history of sexist oppression by men of women in Judeo-Christian culture. Judeo-Christianity has been rendered banal to the extent that parochial proscriptions of male supremacy are largely ignored and often ridiculed. But the misogynist hangover from religion is still with us. Misogynist language is not tolerated in remotely polite company far beyond the bounds of the usual politically correct circles.
Given the sensitivity to so many on the left of center for any language that oppresses them or “the most vulnerable,” there is a glaring omission of denying similar consideration to the most other of “the other,” especially when they are the “official enemy” and subject to regular “Two Minute Hate.”
More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/01/26/weaponized-speech/
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