Against "Hate Speech"

“Hate Speech” is a misnomer, really. We should name the harmful speech in question by what it in fact does: it discriminates. The talk is an exercise in conceptual engineering: I’ll show what is wrong with the concept and term “hate speech” by identifying a number of functions this concept has been meant to serve, by arguing that extant concepts of hate speech haven’t served this function well. I will add some functions a concept of the relevant problematic speech should serve, and conclude by providing a definition of “discriminatory speech” that gives us a concept that serves these functions better.