Is It ‘Just An Opinion’, Or Is It Violent Hate Speech?

The assassination of right-wing podcaster and political influencer Charlie Kirk has left the internet divided. Some argue that with the amount of hate and bigotry Kirk spread over the course of his career, it shouldn’t be expected of people, especially the groups of people his rhetoric often targeted, to care. Others are appalled at the lack of empathy shown for Kirk, and are outraged by the fact that some would try to justify a man being killed for simply “having different political beliefs”. 

A very interesting question arises out of this divide. Has our definition of a “political belief”, or an opinion, changed? And should those opinions and beliefs be dismissed as just that? Or is it time we acknowledged that those political opinions and ideologies are actually at the root of policies, laws and governments around the world. They were never “just opinions”, they directly affect people, and very often hurt them. 

It’s becoming more important now than ever that we remind ourselves of the difference between opinions, which we are all entitled to, and hate speech, which we aren’t. It is perfectly natural to have a different opinion, and that doesn’t stop with politics. In fact, facilitating different viewpoints is how democracy works. Our political beliefs include things like what party we support, where we think government funding should be focused, and whether we think military spending should be a priority or not.

 

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Political beliefs shouldn’t be an excuse to be racist, homophobic or misogynistic. Discrimination against entire groups of people should never be dismissed as somebody’s political opinion. If we continue to blend bigotry in with politics, the world will become more and more dangerous and uncertain for millions of people. Human lives should not be reduced to a political opinion, and the more we let that happen, the more people get hurt. 

You might think that a simple ‘opinion’ can’t have that big of an impact on anyone, and you might choose to prioritise free speech, but that is an incredibly privileged position to have. Just because you are not affected by bigotry, does not mean that other people are not. For example, the ever-growing hostility towards immigrants in Ireland started as nothing but a harmless opinion. A simple ‘belief’ that immigrants are stealing our jobs, hurting our women and children, ruining our culture.

If you are a white person, born and raised in Ireland, you can most likely go about your day without being even remotely affected by these baseless opinions. You might brush them off as nonsense, maybe you might even agree with them. But the same can’t be said for the immigrants or other minorities living in this country today. The growing hostility has led to an increase in hate crimes and violence against innocent foreign people across the country, including women and children, the two groups that these anti-immigration mouthpieces are so hell bent on protecting.

Thoee are real people who are suffering real consequences of somebody’s ‘political beliefs’. It is their right as humans to feel safe and protected from harm. Unfortunately, more and more people consider that less of a fact, and more of a point to be debated through the guise of politics. Human rights are separate from politics. You should not be able to ‘debate’ whether or not someone has the same rights as you do. Simple as. 

In recent years, we’ve seen public figures such as Charlie Kirk, Andrew Tate and Conor McGregor rise to fame off the back of their bigoted and hateful ideologies, which they usually trumpet to young and impressionable boys. Then it goes beyond social media, to politicians with immense global influence, such as Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu, who are banking on this new wave of normalised hate speech and bigotry to get away with heinous crimes against millions of people.

 

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We all have the right to free speech, and we’re all entitled to have our own opinions about anything. However, when you use that right to spread hatred, dehumanise entire groups of vulnerable people, and often go as far as inciting violence against them, you are going beyond ‘speech’. If we do speak about race, gender and sexuality in politics, then why isn’t what these public figures are doing considered political violence? Just because these people aren’t pointing a gun at someone, doesn’t mean what they’re doing isn’t dangerous. Language is a very powerful weapon, and we are watching it be used to incite riots, hate crimes, wars and genocides around the globe. It’s never ‘just an opinion’. 

In Ireland, the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act of 1989 is implemented to protect citizens from hate speech and to hold people accountable. This law states that it is an offence to communicate threatening, abusive or insulting material that is intended, or likely to, “stir up” hatred against a group of people because of their race, colour, nationality, religion, gender, ethnic or national origins, or sexual orientation. 

It’s great that legislation like this exists, but it needs to be utilised more efficiently if we really want to put a stop to rampant hate speech. Today, social media is the main source material  for political discourse, and people are often  exposed to unchecked bigotry, misinformation and incitement to hatred and violence. Legislation needs to be focused more on these platforms, where bigots build massive fan bases through their ideas without facing any consequences or even being fact-checked, while users become almost desensitised to violent language and hatred. It is the responsibility of the government and social media companies to make sure platforms are closely monitored, and that instances of hate speech are taken seriously, with their perpetrators held accountable before they can manipulate or hurt other users. 

Although it may seem like common sense to a lot of us, the difference between exercising your right to free speech and using that right to incite hatred or violence against people should be taught in school, to help the next generation understand how to hold people accountable without infringing their right to free speech. 

Ultimately, we owe it to each other to create a world where we all feel safe and respected, and this doesn’t mean we aren’t entitled to our own opinions. The problem starts when we treat human lives as a debate point, and allow people to spread misinformation, hatred and violence. Bigotry is not a political opinion.