Hate speech is speech or expression that denigrates a person or persons on the basis of (alleged) membership in a social group identified by attributes such as race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, age, physical or mental disability and others. Although those who take that position acknowledge the odious nature of the messages of hate speech, they maintain that state censorship is a cure that causes more harm than the disease of bigoted expression. When aimed at historically oppressed minorities, hate speech is not merely insulting but also perpetuates their oppression by causing the victims, the perpetrators and society at large to internalize the hateful messages and act accordingly. Victims of hate speech can not enter the open marketplace of ideas as equal participants to defend themselves, because hate speech, in conjunction with a broader system of inequality and unjust discrimination that burdens the victims, effectively silences them. They fear that a principle of censorship will lead to the suppression of other unpopular but nevertheless legitimate expression, perhaps even of the criticism of government, which is vital to the political health of liberal democracy. Typical hate speech involves epithets and slurs, statements that promote malicious stereotypes and speech intended to incite hatred or violence against a group. Although those who take that position acknowledge the odious nature of the messages of hate speech, they maintain that state censorship is a cure that causes more harm than the disease of bigoted expression. Typical hate speech involves epithets and slurs, statements that promote malicious stereotypes and speech intended to incite hatred or violence against a group. Hate speech, they argue, is not merely the expression of ideas, but rather it is an effective means of socially subordinating its victims. Although those who take that position acknowledge the odious nature of the messages of hate speech, they maintain that state censorship is a cure that causes more harm than the disease of bigoted expression. For example, the Nazi swastika and the Confederate battle flag (of the Confederate States of America) have been considered hate speech by a variety of people and groups. The traditional liberal position regarding hate speech is to permit it under the auspices of freedom of expression. Hate speech is speech or expression that denigrates a person or persons on the basis of (alleged) membership in a social group identified by attributes such as race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, age, physical or mental disability and others. That is particularly true, they claim, because the social groups that are commonly the targets of hate speech have historically suffered from social marginalization and oppression. Hate speech is speech or expression that denigrates a person or persons on the basis of (alleged) membership in a social group identified by attributes such as race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, age, physical or mental disability and others.