Is it Freedom of speech Or Hate Speech?

We live in a world where freedom of speech is appreciated, where it is encouraged for the people to speak up, about their problems, about their insecurities and what not. Freedom of speech is such a powerful word in itself that it doesn’t need any explaining to do. We hear the phrase and get what it means when someone says freedom of speech. What does it actually mean? It means to be able to express yourself fully and completely without any hurdles. It means to be able to tell people what is that you really think is and what is going around that bothers you, it means your opinions about several things, from the bloodshed of innocent lives on the basis of their ethnicity to standing against the mafias around the world, from speaking about the cruelties to protesting against the wrongs.

And now there is another phrase known as “Hate speech”. What does hate speech means? If you go and search “Hate speech definition” you would get the following one,

“Abusive or threatening speech or writing that expresses prejudice against a particular group, especially on the basis of race, religion, or sexual orientation.”

Now as you read it you may realize that most of the time, in the name of freedom of speech what you are actually doing is promoting hate speech. Calling out someone on the basis of their religion, orientation or their race is not freedom of speech from any angle. (Sorry to burst your bubble) hate speech provokes the hatred towards any particular group or individual and sometimes people are doing it just for fun but I am going to burst that bubble of yours too. Hate speech in no way and under any phrase cannot ever be regarded as “humor/joke”. And if you are doing it then your sick little mind needs to be checked and treated because clearly you are in desperate need of a doctor.

I appreciate freedom of speech as much as anyone else on this Earth does. But, have we ever drawn a line between freedom of speech and hate speech? Have we ever looked at the fact that most of us in the tagline of freedom of speech actually use hate speech and when someone tries to complain we simply call them a backward human being. We have gone so far that it is now impossible to tell the two apart. It feels like they were two colours that are now mixed and can never be separated.

I have many examples from the lives around me to cite here. The first and the most prominent one is the “freedom of speech” according to them and “hate speech” according to me against the Korean boy bands, especially BTS. Now I have seen almost one third of the population around me mocking the boy band in the name of freedom of speech by giving such statements “they are too girly”, “they look gay”, “how can girls like them?” And many more comments just recently I saw a guy posting, “Dhinchak Pooja has better lyrics than BTS.” This is the same Dhinchak Pooja who had been trolled in the past and had been the subject of these sick people’s jokes and what not.

It’s okay to not like their music, it’s okay to not think that they are handsome, it’s okay to not listen to them, it’s even okay to not even give them a chance by listening to their songs (they won’t die if you don’t listen to them.) what not okay is to go around and post hateful statuses about them, what not okay is to unlike their music videos while the song is paused on 0:00, what not okay is to call them gay just because you can’t look as flawless as they do, what not okay is to call them out for being different than you. Everyone is different, dude don’t be jealous if they are having fame at such a young age. A girl commented that these dudes are so obsessed with the boy band and after that she wrote it’s okay to catch feelings for them, we girls won’t judge you at all.

And ever since that I feel like maybe all those people so keen on hating BTS are actually using the defense mechanism because deep down they like them and are obsessing over them so much. You cannot like them all you want but next time before uploading the status or commenting somewhere that they look gay, keep in mind that it is not freedom but hate speech.

Another example that we have around is going around commenting about other people’s beliefs, their religious views. Disrespecting someone’s God other than your own doesn’t give you freedom of speech it is just hate speech and nothing else. Mocking a specific religious act just because your religion or sect doesn’t believe in that is not freedom of speech but hate speech and nothing else. I won’t say anything else because I have tried to prove my point enough. For the last time, I just want to say that please before calling out someone or someone’s belief just remember that it is hate speech and not freedom of speech.

Ps; no I am not a fan of BTS if you think so, I have just listened to them once and I liked their songs I just don’t listen to them but neither do I hate them. You can be indifferent.