Some of the sources here are in German, because they were not avaliable in English. Sorry but it was the best I could do.Ketraar wrote: ↑Sun, 2. May 21, 20:46[...]
We all had our feelings hurt, it has nothing to do with free speech though. You can get your feelings hurt without any speech at all, this is unrelated. The pen is mightier then the sword is a metaphor, not to be taken literal, because literally the sword is OP in comparison to the pen, just saying.
MFG
Ketraar
You can try to downplay things all you like Ketraar, but people face discrimination and suffer from it. Try to deminish their experience by claiming this is just about "hurt feelings", but at the end of the day it really is about more than that. It is about power and who wields it.
To give a concret example: In Germany it is a punishable offense to call someone a racist (in this case a woman had to pay 1200€ for two google reviews in which she called her former teacher a racist). The second review detailed an examplary incident which happend in the school and which the writer of the review felt was racist.
You yourself have argued against total free speech when you said "It doesnt mean there should be no consequences from the speech, in some cases even legal ones (but very limited)." Well this is what you get in reality. Free speech is never free, it will always be applied selectivly. It will always be stacked against minorities. Meanwhile AfD member Andreas Winhart can say stuff like, "if an N-word[...] coughs on me in my neighbourhood I have to know if he is sick or not" and Gauland can loudly voice his wish to "dispose" of Aydan Özoğuz and then have absolutely nothing happen to him. Why?
Simple, because Germany has a problem with systematic racism. (Systematic racism meaning that structures, instiutions and the socialisation of citizen contribute to a racist status quo. Those that do not fit the 'norm' are treated worse, not because there is an active conspiracy against them, but simply because they are viewed as 'others'.) And as long as that does not change on a fundamental level hate speech laws will be necessary to protect minorities from racist attacks as they help to mitigate some of the disatvantages that come with having to live in a system that is allready rigged against them.
Or to say it in the words of Desmond Tutu: "If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor." And no, I am not being dramatic, just because I think that it is an injustice when people get punished for naming racism where it happens, but the racists get off scot free.
We can debatte all these theoretical ideas but at least in the country I live in the situation is what it is and I don't see this as just being about some "hurt feelings".