By Teaching Children to Be Silent, We Raise Adults Who Dare Not Speak. Hate Speech Is Not about Hatred, but the Right to Speak.
AI-assisted translation from the Greek. Greek original
The Prohibition of Description: When the Truth Cannot Be Spoken
In everyday life, you do not need to be an orator or a politician to encounter the prohibition of truth. A child may say something they see, only to be told immediately that they must not say it.
- “Mum, that lady is fat.”
- “Don't say things like that!”
- “But… she is!”
- “It's not right to say that.”
- “So she isn't?”
And somewhere around that moment, the child begins to learn that telling the truth is not always allowed.
The Distinction between Truth and “Permitted Truth”
Society does not reject truth itself, but truth when it is stated plainly.
Consider the difference:
- Being fat is not socially unacceptable.
- Saying that someone is fat is socially unacceptable.
This is not simply a matter of politeness. It is a broader mechanism of linguistic control.
➡ Describing reality becomes an insult.
➡ Silence becomes a sign of respect.
➡ Truth is punished when it does not follow the codes of social convention.
How Does This Relate to “Hate Speech”?
The concept of “hate speech” rests on precisely this pattern: you are not forbidden to think something; you are forbidden to say it.
- You are not forbidden to observe something.
- You are forbidden to express it unless it follows certain rules.
And in this way, people are trained to fear their own language.
➡ You are told to respect the other person, not by questioning the truth but by avoiding stating it.
➡ You are forced to filter not only how you speak, but whether you should speak at all.
➡ And in the end, you internalise a fear—not of hatred, but of truth itself.
The Child as a Mirror of the Contradiction
A child says what they see because they have not yet learned to fear their own words. They have not learned that certain truths are socially “unacceptable”, not because they are false but because they are uncomfortable.
And when the child is scolded, they do not simply learn not to offend. They learn that honesty can be dangerous.
➡ This is how self-censorship is born.
➡ This is how the prohibition of description is built.
➡ This is how society learns to pretend it does not see what it sees.
And all of this begins with something as simple as a child saying “fat”.
The Rhetoric of Silence
Contemporary hate speech is not about hatred.
It is about controlling what may be said.
- Whether something is true does not matter.
- What matters is whether you are allowed to say it.
- And if you do say it, you must accept that you will be labelled “aggressive”, “divisive”, or “problematic”.
What, Ultimately, Is Hatred?
Might hatred lie not in the wording, but in the way we teach people to be ashamed of their own words?
Might real hatred lie not in the word “fat”, but in being forced to fear speaking?
Might society be protecting no one from offence, but instead preparing them to live in constant doubt as to whether they can tell the truth?