About hate speech
(This is a fan blog, so anything shown here is my personal view and not official words of Terese Nielsen unless otherwise specified)
If you haven’t heard yet, Terese Nielsen seems to be deep into alt-right and pro-Trump politics, and thus a part of the Magic: the Gathering community wants Wizards of the Coast to stop commissioning art from her. [1] Mrs. Nielsen herself released her statement on the matter, embracing her ideology and saddened about the situation. [2]
The Hate Speech Dilemma
Tension arises between equality and free speech when hate speech is allowed and protected. Finding the best regulation of hate speech has been a long-running problem in social sciences. The competing concerns that make this controversy so difficult include both abstract, constitutional, and philosophical factors and intensely concrete, practical ones. [3]
Even though the judgments about Mrs. Nielsen beliefs are moral ones, we shouldn’t fall into the trap of thinking that only moral issues arise. In the United States of America, hate speech is allowed under the first amendment, but in many other countries hate speech is tightly regulated by law. [4] It’s not complicated to imagine a world where what Mrs. Nielsen did would be illegal.
Call Out Culture
A lot of things have happened on the last thirty years since Massaro wrote “The Hate Speech Dilemma”, one of those being call-out culture. The decentralized and multicultural nature of the internet has been a problem in regards to online regulations, not just the ones related to hate speech. Because of this, moral judgments about online speech have been outsourced to the public opinion, just like what happened with Mrs. Nielsen.
There are many possible criticisms to call-out culture and to the absence of online hate speech regulations but we have to accept the reality we live in. While a sector of the Magic: the Gathering enfranchised community is offended because commissions to Mrs. Nielsen haven’t stopped and Wizards of the Coast hasn’t released an official statement, we have to understand that this is just a moral judgment since what Terese Nielsen did isn’t illegal on the USA. In addition to that, the moral judgment was made by people who have no decision power so ultimately Wizards of the Coast can do whatever he wants with this situation, both cutting all ties with Terese or ignoring the issue.
Conclusion
I think that there are even more competing concerns in this debate. One, how the artists’ ideology influences their artistic creation. Two, how people from historically oppressed social sectors might be more vulnerable to radical political views of artists being disclosed (or trigger culture, but I dislike that terminology). I would love to read more about these topics but I’m not informed enough to write an essay about them.
My final point would be similar to the one made by Matt Sperling on his article about merit and affirmative action on the MPL: [6]
Whichever side of this debate you naturally land on, I hope you recognize that the other side of the debate is not going to just be crazy people with no basis in reality. This is a difficult and complex topic over which reasonable people can and have disagreed.
Bibliography:
[1] Proof about social interactions with alt-right and pro-Trump movements https://twitter.com/wizardbumpin/status/1030090494179721217
[2] Her official statement https://twitter.com/tnielsenart/status/1113126515816882176
[3] Toni M. Massaro - Equality and Freedom of Expression: The Hate Speech Dilemma
[4] Hate speech laws by country https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hate_speech#Hate_speech_laws_by_country
[5] About call-out culture http://theconversation.com/stop-outsourcing-the-regulation-of-hate-speech-to-social-media-114276
[6] Matt Sperling and merit https://www.channelfireball.com/articles/the-latest-change-to-the-magic-pro-league-means-were-going-to-have-to-get-better-at-talking-about-merit/
