The Huffington Post, self-anointed grand inquisitor of hate speech infractions, has now fully embraced odium with a new article titled “Why I Hate President Trump.”
In his piece, Rodney Wilson proceeds to enumerate 23 reasons justifying his hatred of Donald Trump, from the political to the profoundly personal.
One can only wonder how hate has suddenly become acceptable, especially hate directed at the democratically elected President of the United States. By extension, hatred is also acceptable toward the tens of millions of “deplorable” Americans who voted for him.
Hate speech is a label usually reserved for conservatives who express moral objections to certain types of behavior. To preach the biblical teaching that homosexual relations are immoral and sinful in the eyes of God, for instance, will quickly be smacked down as “hate speech” despite the fact that no hate is involved or expressed.
The Huffington Post itself has said that Christians who oppose homosexual practice on biblical grounds are guilty of “blatant bigotry wrapped in religious rhetoric” in an article titled “God’s Word or Hate Speech?”
Similarly, to protest abortion as the murder of an unborn child endowed with the same dignity and rights as all other human beings is denominated as “hate” for aborting women, even though the protesters express nothing but love for both mother and child.
These and other cases of moral disapproval pale before the explicit hate speech now embraced by the Huffington Post. It has suddenly become appropriate—and fashionable—to explicitly and unapologetically espouse hate.
Not many years ago, the Huffington Post published an essay titled “The Case for Censoring Hate Speech.”
In his article, Sean McElwee claimed that hate speech “aims at two goals.” The first is an attempt to “tell bigots that they are not alone” and the second is to “intimidate” the ones targeted.
“Those who claim to ‘defend free speech’ when they defend the right to post hate speech online, are in truth backwards. Free speech isn’t an absolute right,” he wrote. Apparently, however, for the Huffington Post, hate speech is only a problem when other people do it.
In another similar piece titled “Hate Speech—A Threat to Freedom of Speech,” the Huffington Post argued that we all benefit “if we foster an environment where everybody is able to express their opinions without experiencing hate speech.” Does that everybody include the President? Obviously not.
In her piece, HuffPo writer Solveig Horne called “upon the media to take responsibility in this matter,” accusing certain media outlets of providing “a platform for hate speech.” She also underscored “the importance of combating hate speech” as a way to nudge society toward greater civility.
That was then, this is now. The Huffington Post has now offered itself as a platform for those who want to scream their hate from the headlines.
Physician, heal thyself.
Follow Thomas D. Williams on Twitter Follow @tdwilliamsrome
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