For the so-called “Competence Centre Hate on the Net”, hate speech is:
“linguistic actions or actions in image form (e.g. memes) against individuals and/or groups with the aim of injuring, devaluing, intimidating, or threatening on the basis of their belonging to a marginalised group in society or, increasingly, also on the basis of their political engagement for democratic values.” 191
With their “fight against hate speech and disinformation”, woke activists want to control societal discourses.192 This repressive tactic is not new, as the concept of hate speech developed from new-left theory. The political ideas of the new-left philosopher Herbert Marcuse were formative here. Marcuse saw it as necessary to suppress any potentially harmful utterance in order to protect society from the threat of an allegedly immanent fascism.193 Politically impartial tolerance (“repressive tolerance”) is regarded as intolerance towards progressive movements, while partisan intolerance (“liberating tolerance”) is understood as proactive self-defence against the right and conservatives.
Just as with Marcuse, from a woke perspective the question of tolerance is about the effects: utterances are considered harmful hate speech if they can be interpreted as support for systemic oppression.194 The accusation of hate speech functions similarly to the accusation of blasphemy, in which certain utterances are also to be sanctioned because of their alleged effects.195
The term hate speech is often used without filling it with content. To be able to recognise hate speech, one needs an intuitive consciousness, especially with so-called microaggressions. Microaggressions are statements that can be interpreted as discriminatory only in speculative interpretation (see Safe Spaces).196 According to the definition, hate speech concerns only marginalised persons (see epistemic violence).