Hate speech as moral narrative

Abstract

This chapter provides a theoretical framework on the moral dimension of anti-immigrant hate speech. Based on classic references in the social sciences and their application into contemporary contexts, this work discusses the function of fear and hatred as producers of social ties. It argues that these elements allow the constructionand legitimation of strong and practically instantaneous moral ties in groups characterized by a fragile, threatened, or incipient sociability. Therefore, these resources operate by mobilizing collective identifications based on the enunciation of a "we". This "we" is surrounded by threats which it is compelled to oppose radically, drastically, and inflexibly to ensure self-preservation. Along theselines, the ´ecstasies of hatred´ become central in a world where the notions of "inside" and "outside" are tensioned in an unsolvable paradox: States reveal themselves incapable of regulating inflows and outflows within the framework of a neoliberal "order" that requires them, simultaneously and in a contradictory way, to open and close their borders and boundaries.