When Common Sense Becomes Hate Speech, Open Discussion Disappears

Nigel Biggar, an Anglican minister, theologian, and ethicist, touched down in the colonies recently to lecture us on the wonders of free speech and colonisation. In an interview with The Epoch Times, he was asked to pin down that slippery concept known as hate speech. “Hate crime,” he explains, “is not a legal concept. It’s a catch-all for anything certain minorities find distressing. The term ‘hate’ has been stretched to include dissent and criticism, in ways that common sense, if it still exists, finds baffling.” He’s got a point. We seem to be in a world where feelings have morphed into facts, and hurt feelings can be construed as harm....