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Hate Speech As Theater, Adam White Jul 2018

Hate Speech As Theater, Adam White

Adam White

More public and philosophical attention has recently been given to hate speech.  Hate speech does not merely hurt feelings; it is public communication that implies that the targeted group does not merit the constitutional protections assured the speaker.  Hate speech poses a riddle given the liberal commitment to freedom of speech independent of content. 

This paper argues that philosophers misdiagnose hate speech.  The novel claim is that hate speech is a tactic in a game being played by the speakers.  The game’s prize is the same kind of personal buzz felt by effective theater actors.  Winning requires manipulating the audience’s …


Crime Futures Market, Adam White Jul 2018

Crime Futures Market, Adam White

Adam White

Responding to the legally guilty is typically presented as a choice between incarceration and rehabilitation.  This paper suggests a third option: preemptive rehabilitation.  The argument presents an innovative institutional approach and a unique moral justification.  The vision is a crime futures market that transfers the risk of potential crime away from undeserving victims and into the portfolios of willing investors.  Instead of taxpayers paying exclusively for prisons, the proposal would allow young adults to sign contracts to not get involved in crime, but pay the award only upon their future success.  Because the contracts represent a future payment they are …


Term Accountability, Adam White Jun 2018

Term Accountability, Adam White

Adam White

Democratic constitutions allow citizens to hold officeholders accountable via election. Legislative elections are typically held either by the calendar or at the legislature’s own discretion, i.e., “no confidence”. But both are inferior to a third option: having citizens decide when the next election will be. This procedure, “Term Accountability”, optimally aligns policymaker motivations with citizen interests. Ideally, pathological legislatures would serve short terms while productive legislatures would serve long terms.

Our generation is familiar with contesting and perfecting constitutional practices as they pertain to citizen rights. But there is an apparent intellectual bias against institutional revision. This supports a presumption …