That’s true, but every term you could use to describe misleading, counterfactual or just basically horrible statements can also be used as a rhetorical weapon without regard to whether it’s actually applicable in a given case. Lies, propaganda, fake news, twisted facts, hate speech, political correctness—you can use any of them to shut the door on argument. “Bias” is used like that often—“you’re just biased!”—but we still have to deal with bias as a real thing.
That said I’m not sure “Dangerous speech” is a useful new term itself. It’s very vague, and it has an Orwellian ring to it, and it seems like it would derail many discussions of the actual content of the speech into arguments about definitions of “dangerous”. If anyone wants to defend the utility of it, go ahead and I’ll hear it, but I’m usually only in favour of introducing new terms when they actually fill a gap. We already have terms like “lies” and “hate speech” and “incitement to violence” and what have you, so I’m not sure what “dangerous speech” would add.
“Inciting violence” is a lot better than “hate speech” because it’s a lot less flexible and less open to reinterpretation.
I actually think that “fake news” is less bad than “dangerous news”, because you can classify almost anything you disagree with as “dangerous” and kind of be correct, but there are some things that one cannot classify as “fake” without opening oneself up to a severe counter-attack.
That’s true, but every term you could use to describe misleading, counterfactual or just basically horrible statements can also be used as a rhetorical weapon without regard to whether it’s actually applicable in a given case. Lies, propaganda, fake news, twisted facts, hate speech, political correctness—you can use any of them to shut the door on argument. “Bias” is used like that often—“you’re just biased!”—but we still have to deal with bias as a real thing.
That said I’m not sure “Dangerous speech” is a useful new term itself. It’s very vague, and it has an Orwellian ring to it, and it seems like it would derail many discussions of the actual content of the speech into arguments about definitions of “dangerous”. If anyone wants to defend the utility of it, go ahead and I’ll hear it, but I’m usually only in favour of introducing new terms when they actually fill a gap. We already have terms like “lies” and “hate speech” and “incitement to violence” and what have you, so I’m not sure what “dangerous speech” would add.
“Inciting violence” is a lot better than “hate speech” because it’s a lot less flexible and less open to reinterpretation.
I actually think that “fake news” is less bad than “dangerous news”, because you can classify almost anything you disagree with as “dangerous” and kind of be correct, but there are some things that one cannot classify as “fake” without opening oneself up to a severe counter-attack.