“Hate speech” laws trick people into accepting a world in which some folk are qualified to have an opinion and the rest aren’t. In this world, who is talking is more important than what’s being said. Having an opinion is the sole purview of those who are credentialled to have an opinion. Language becomes elite.

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Nathan Smith is a former business journalist and columnist at the NBR. He also worked as the chief editor at the New Zealand Initiative policy think tank. He is now a freelance writer and copy editor.