＜차별을 부르는 언어 '혐오표현'＞

[배서연]

The portal and social media are full of fake news and conspiracy theories to expressions and conspiracy theories. According to the National Human Rights Commission's 2019 Disgusting Report, disgusting expressions are those that justify, encourage, and strengthen discrimination by (i) insulting, disparaging, contempt, intimidating, or (ii) promoting and inciting discrimination and violence. The main targets of the expression‎ of disgust are women, sex minorities, disabled people, and immigrants. Recently, disgust by race and nationality has become conspicuous. People from countries that they think are economically inferior are mainly subject to discrimination and hatred. Homophobia and transgender people are not pathological phenomena, but they are ignorant or incomprehensible, and they have no scientific basis and should be treated with disgust and denial.

Disgusting expressions that incite groups and justify discrimination can develop into violent acts. Anti-intellectualism breeds hatred. Disgust breaks the peace of society and puts democracy in jeopardy. The more expressions of hatred that incite hostility among groups, the greater the anxiety that our society will be able to live in peace. 

All expressions of disgust are not subject to legal regulation. Disgusting expressions to the extent that they are simply offensive or rude are not subject to legal regulation, especially criminal regulations. However, it is necessary to regulate the expression‎ of disgust in the name of freedom of expression‎ if it causes more than just discomfort or rudeness. 

Behind the mass production of hate expressions lies the polarization of society and the logic of extreme dichotomy. If previous expressions of disgust were only directed at the minority, now even generations, sex, class, residential area, appearance, political orientation, and occupation are subject to expressions of disgust. "Extremely disgusting" has long been in fashion.

The problem is that social polarization can cause hatred, but on the contrary, the expression‎ of hatred can further fuel polarization. The polarization of employment between regular and non-regular workers and the polarization of income between rich and poor are the cases where social polarization causes hatred. On the other hand, gender polarization is the case when both jobs compete to exchange hate expressions against each other and polarization becomes serious.

When society changes, language changes as well. The flow of social change naturally changes the language, and on the other hand, language leads the social change. Just as the word "candle" was used as the word for democracy in Korean society in 2017, the language that can contain its core in the process of social change can be established as a new rule of social order.

The emergence of hate and disgust expression‎ as one of the keywords that runs through our society now makes us wonder whether exclusion is ingesting us instead of understanding and discrimination is ingesting us instead of consideration.

Therefore, raising the issue of hate expressions is not limited to the meaning of using only correct and clean words. This is a matter of discrimination and human rights caused by polarization, extreme individualism, and dichotomy that permeates Korean society.

The core mechanism of hate expression‎ is to group and brand objects. They refuse to see me as an equivalent human being while making objects different from the group I don't belong to, me and others. According to this mechanism, we come to the conclusion that the object of the expression‎ of disgust is different from mine and that they cannot enjoy the same human rights because they are not equal to me. Therefore, the issue of expression‎ of disgust is directly related to the issue of basic human rights awareness. Gender, religion, ethnicity, and disability do not mean that we are completely different from each other, but that we should be able to enjoy the same rights. In addition, hate expressions spread mainly through SNS and online communities, but online hate expressions have anonymity, supranationality, and persistence, making it difficult to keep up with the speed of regulation. It is also important to stop the expression‎ of hatred and punish the igniter, but this is why this problem cannot be solved by itself. Efforts should be made to improve the structural factors that cause the expression‎ of disgust.

First, it is necessary to raise awareness of hate expressions. It should be recognized as a serious social problem that denies human dignity and value, and thus justifies discrimination or hinders social integration. It is important to make it clear that expression‎ of dislike is an attack on a minority and a form of discrimination.

In addition, new legal regulations should be prepared for serious expressions of dislike. This is because most hate expressions are characterized by collecting objects, so there is a limit to the current law's contempt and defamation charges targeting only individuals and certain groups.

Disgusting expressions, which spread like buzzwords under the mask of humor, are now preval‎ent regardless of the subject. If we fill the seats where understanding and consideration are needed with exclusion and discrimination, the expression‎ of disgust will eventually become a boomerang that returns us to ourselves. Today, it is time for society as a whole to step up to remove expressions of disgust and disgust from keywords that run through Korean society.