FEAR DICTATORS, NOT HATE SPEECH.

I really cannot understand why a whole generation (or two) of Americans have come to misunderstand and reject the concept of constructive criticism. The cutesy click-bait orientation of young Webcasters gave rise to the now seemly stupid acronym "H8". Many of these attention seekers were gay men and lesbians, trying to resurrect a pre-Stonewall victim culture. 

A simple fact becomes quite obvious when closely examining these catch-phrase phenoms: They had nothing much to add to any conversation about anything.

Bumper-sticker vernacular is a product of social media. It was once confined to adolescent in-groups and sports fanatics. It is now found in formerly esteemed print publications. Unthinking slang words like "H8" have infiltrated the whole cultural conversation of America and The West.

Perhaps this is a symptom of the mental laziness that is a side effect of information technology. Keyboards and touchscreens have made impulsive communication easy. In fact, social media platforms have hosted races to the least thoughtful opinions on just about everything. Fake expressions like "transphobia" and "Islamophobia" are glaring examples. 

As if that weren't bad enough, the misuse of the word "phobia" is now being conflated with "H8". Some youngsters see all "homophobic" individuals as foaming hate-mongers against homosexuals. Conversely ... and here is where this gets dangerous ... those who have fragility in the area of sexuality can well be pressurized in their insecurity out of fear of public shaming for simply being sexually insecure. 

This same alienating effect of bumper-sticker rhetoric exists in conversations about religion, culture and politics. It has spread like a malignant cancer. It has infected our universities, the designated defenders of our intellectual heritage and intellectual progress. It has infected our local and national governments. Its purveyors, paid vectors of that social cancer, are our conglomerate mass media. 

And where are those who would treat this cancer with suitable interventions? 

They are few, and they are rapidly under attack by the purveyors of click-bait, such as Facebook, Twitter. YouTube and Instagram. Those who would bring intelligent dialogue and challenges to bumper-sticker propagandists are being de-platformed left and right. In other words, they are being treated like Jewish merchants in Germany in the 1930's, whose windows were smashed to impoverish them and quash the open engagement and community spirit within Jewish neighborhoods which might have resisted rising Fascist terrorists.

The irony is that intelligent spokespeople are being de-platformed by so-called Progressives. This censorship exposes their idea of "progress" as a move to totalitarian control of thought and speech, a paradoxical position by those who have created the platforms for mob trash talk in the first place.  

Bumper-sticker speech cannot be mindful and subtle. It cannot elaborate. It cannot build a rational argument for or against. It is the speech of organized religious dogma. It is the speech of decrees, bans and censorship. It is the speech of rioting mobs. It is not the speech of reason, debate and intelligent compromise. 

Is it any wonder that bumper-sticker speech is the favored format for extremist ideologies? It is favored by science-deniers, violent anarchists, neo-Marxists, fanatic Muslims, fanatic Christians, fanatic Jews, fanatic Buddhists, fanatic Hindus, dogmatic Humanists, neo-Nazis, cultural elitists, and racists of all colors. And bumper-sticker speech is also favored by those "followers" too lazy to form their own educated opinion about major social and cultural issues. 

So much of the public wordspace (social and news media) is contaminated by thoughtless bumper-sticker ideas. That is the virtual America. The real America, the America we actually function in, is not inundated in hate. The real America is not polluted by hate speech....yet.  Fear and stupidity, spread by unchallenged propaganda, can realize actual monsters by causing mass delusions and panic. This is the danger, not speech itself. 

If we all allow ourselves to become numbed into bumper-sticker perceptions of our human brothers and sisters, those with vested interests in ruling our thoughts and speech will win. Our worst enemy is not hate itself right now. Our greatest enemies are those in technology, and their converts, who wish to peddle their dogma to us by silencing those who disagree with it.