engleski

The Limits of Free Speech: Language-Based Intolerance

Proponents of absolute freedom of speech maintain that every message needs to reach its addressee, no matter how offensive it may be, even if it includes hate speech. Fear of some imaginary or real arbiter has opened the way for all sorts of mystification and manipulation of language. Misuse of the literal semantics of "freedom" and "democracy" has doomed all other readings of these concepts. Since limits are by definition the opposite of freedom, the expression "limits of free speech" is an oxymoron. Free speech presupposes freedom both on the plane of expression and on the plane of content of the language sign, so any limitation on free speech on the expression plane reduces the choice of expressive means and unavoidably leads to thought control. Politics of whatever sort seeks to shape language and the space for public communication so as to be able to control them. When there is only one language in that space, it is at least totalizing, if not totalitarian. Further, some linguistically intolerant individuals may view pronunciation itself, in addition to the language and culture to which it belongs, as inferior. Analysis of a variety of narratives, particularly indoctrinated and dogmatic ones, evokes Orwellian Newspeak. Analyzing hate narratives brings out the misuse of freedom and the constant debilitation of sense in language, as well as the fact that media (Hoffmann & Bublitz 2017) and some other sources of information intentionally create ''parallel realities'' (Jakubowska-Branicka 2016). The paper offers a brief critique of the theoretical frameworks dealing with the concept of language-based intolerance. The paper also offers recommendations for socially engaged research.

free speech, hate narratives, linguistic intolerance, discourse analysis

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