Hate Speech: What’s Up With That?
Hate
I’ve hated Barney and what he stood for ever since he first appeared on television in 1992 on the show Barney and Friends. My kids, who were 5 and 7 at the time, loved him. Worse than that, they were constantly singing the Barney song, I love you, you love me . . .
Fortunately in the early ’90s the Internet and the World Wide Web became a thing. Thus, began the backlash against Barney. A new song, I hate you, you hate me . . . a Barney spoof became popular. There was even a Barney hate group: the I Hate Barney Secret Society, which was part of a broader cultural movement of “Barney bashing,” a phenomenon that included college events and online platforms dedicated to disparaging the character.
And there we have it: in the ’90s you could love or hate Barney without fear. There were a lot of things (including people) we could hate or love without fear.
Today, in 2025, all of this has me worried. I might be at risk of arrest or even more serious consequences for engaging in “hate speech” by sharing the fact that I hate the purple dinosaur named Barney.