Definitions HQ

A State (n.) presupposes ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠kinship, and kinship presupposes the state; acts done in the name of one take place in the idiom of the other.

A State (n.) in ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠constraining speech produces speech: a public figure of the self-censoring homosexual, a picture of obscene black sexuality, the burning cross as emblem of protected speech.

A State (n.) steals ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠the mother's love for her son: it applauds the boys it sends to war and reinstates itself as the source of all valuation, absorbing and jettisoning the woman at once.

A State (n.) produces ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠hate speech — not the slurs themselves, but the category, which cannot exist without its ratification; it draws the line between the speakable and the unspeakable.

A State (n.) in ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠its military dimension names the homosexual compulsively while denying him the power to name himself — fearing the excessive power of the name once unshackled from the prohibitions that spawned it.

A State (n.) resignifies ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠only and always its own law; to hand it hate speech is to hand it the task of misappropriation — it will restage the slurs as state-sanctioned speech.