What’s next — Dislike Speech and Dislike Crimes?
The threshhold for Hate Speech keeps making new and more ludicrous lows, as the outrageous saga of the Ham Sandwich of Hate illustrates. It occurs to us that condemnation of Dislike Speech may be just around the corner, soon to be followed by its criminalization in the new category of Dislike Crimes. When you think about it, there isn’t that much difference between Hate Speech and Dislike Speech.
It is pretty easy to imagine people who dislike like Christians, Jews, Muslims, atheists, Hindus and others because they think what they believe is ridiculous and have no respect for it. It is easy to imagine people who dislike whites, blacks, asians, and others for no good reason at all. It is easy to imagine people who dislike gays or straights or all of traditional society or all that freedom and license have wrought. What happens when the disliker shows his dislike by tossing a sandwich at someone, or by flipping him the bird, or by shouting nasty words at him, or by cutting him off in traffic? If hate crimes proliferate, dislike crimes may not be far behind. And then perhaps there will be precious little free thought, let alone free speech.