Should 'hate speech' (racism, something-phobia etc...) be legal?

I see my time here more about correcting error and misinformation and encouraging critical thinking and reason rather than "winning".

Discussions should yield mutual progress and not argue for the sake of it.

No they shouldn't.

Ok. I think they should.

Now you're just arguing for the sake of it.

I say yes. You have a right to live your life how you want. You don't have a right to live a life without being offended. If someone says something offensive you need to get over yourself and deal with it. Running to the police and demanding companies take action to ban stuff you dislike is the wrong response.

I say yes. You have a right to live your life how you want. You don't have a right to live a life without being offended. If someone says something offensive you need to get over yourself and deal with it. Running to the police and demanding companies take action to ban stuff you dislike is the wrong response.

Hate speech in relation to racism, homophobia, etc, has more to do than just offending someone. You both seem to have confused hate speech with offending people, which are different things.

Hate speech is defined in law. It's there to prevent people from using abusive language for the sake of stirring up hatred against a group of people (based on race, nationality, ethnic origin, sexuality, religion, etc) or for harassing people.

If a company bans/stops making something because people are offended by it then that is their call. Legally they aren't obliged to do so, unless what they've produced had the intention of spreading hatred.

Personally I don't think people should be able to say hateful things towards others. Racism, homophobia, etc, are not good things and should be stamped out of society. Compared to 20-30 years ago things are much better, and I'd expect that legislation like this has helped that.