The city of Boulder, Colorado is considering a hate speech hotline, reports David Harsanyi of the Denver Post:

There’s a famous joke that goes like this:

What’s the difference between a Rottweiler and a Jewish mother? Eventually, the Rottweiler lets go.

Now, some Jews may find that joke offensive. I don’t. But if you’re insulted, and you live in Boulder, you’re in luck. Soon enough, you may be able to report me to the authorities.

Tuesday, the Boulder City Council will take up the matter of allocating public funding for a “hate hotline,” which would give residents an opportunity to report incidents in which Boulderites use tactless language.

The trouble with government regulation of hate speech is, who determines what constitutes hate?

In my research on college campuses for the upcoming film Indoctrinate U, I’ve found case after case of students and professors being punished under “hate speech” codes simply for expressing mainstream political opinions. In academia, those opinions—typically conservative ones—have been redefined as “hate” by administrators, who use speech codes to suppress opinions that they don’t like. The problem is common enough that groups like the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education were created solely to combat the persistent abuse of tools like speech codes.

Speech codes in the form of goverment-enforced hate speech laws are far more troubling. Governments have the power to fine people and throw them in jail. City governments that are now condemning people for their opinions may one day decide to enact harsher penalties for what some consider hate speech.

Although Boulder’s proposed rat-out-your-neighbor-for-offensive-language hotline doesn’t rise to that level, it certainly seems like a step in that direction.