Talk of making ‘nerd’ a hate crime in the U.K. is why hate speech laws are a bad idea

On Friday, I caught a little bit of flack for calling Star Wars fans “nerds” on Fox News.

This was, of course, not surprising to me. I knew my comments would piss some people off — after all, how could I forget receiving a barrage of death threats over joking about the franchise back in 2015.

Now, nothing on my current Twitter feed even comes close to the level of vitriol that I received a few Novembers ago. However, one person shared an article that shocked me even more than any of the murder threats or calls to throw acid in my face: Apparently, a British psychologist had actually, recently, earnestly suggested that what I had just said should be considered a hate crime with legal consequences.