Hate speech is
speech that expresses
hate for a certain group of
people. (No big surprise there, huh?) Some hate speech advocates
violence against the members of the group, some does not.
But the issue gets more
complicated. Should hate speech be considered
protected,
free speech?
Conservatives and
Libertarians seem to think so. This appears to be related to the conservative belief that an
individual's actions are all
conscious choices, so even speech that encourages violence can't be said to cause
violence.
Most
liberals seem to believe that hate speech which does not
advocate violence is protected and that which does is not. This appears to be related to the liberal belief that an
individual's actions can be influenced by
society, therefore strongly advocating violence makes one responsible for it when it occurs.
Of course, there are people who feel that
disapproval is the same as hate, and define hate speech in terms of that, but that's a writeup for another node.