Are words the same as violence?

Question

Using offensive words is an “act of violence,” according to a majority of students recently surveyed in a nationwide poll.

These numbers indicate a growing trend among college students to equate using certain words to violence. The nationwide online survey asked 1,000 college students aged 18 to 24 if “choosing to use or not use certain words can constitute an act of violence.”

A majority of respondents, 53 percent, agreed some words equal violence, with 21 percent “strongly” agreeing and 32 percent “somewhat” agreeing. Only 21 percent somewhat disagreed with the statement, 13 percent strongly disagreed, and the rest said they didn’t know.

What do you think?

MrOracle · Accepted Answer

This bullshit is the outcome of Marxist indoctrination and the constant re-definition of words that George Orwell depicted in 1984. Marxism wants to teach everyone that all interactions between people equate to one being a victim and the other an oppressor. The idea is to make everyone feel oppressed all the time, so that they vote more and more power to the government to protect them.

And redefining words - with this being an excellent example - allows them to justify violence in response to words they don't like, however they choose to define that at the time.

This is how extremist governments come to power. And of the people who actually understand what is going on and are supporting it, they believe that they will be among the elite under this new utopia. But if you look at history, you'll see that they are the first ones lined up and shot by the very government they helped bring into power.

Marxism means 0.25% are the elite, and everyone else is a penniless, powerless serf. Look at Venezuela, which brought in top Marxist thinkers from around the world to finally do Marxism right. In 20 years under Marxism, they went from the richest country in South America to the poorest by far, with people dying of hunger and lack of basic medical care. Inflation is measured in the thousands of percents. The farms that were taken from individuals and "given to the people" aren't even producing 10% of their former output.

That's what the left wants for America, and they are terrifyingly close to getting it.

Dragonpurple · Accepted Answer

Nope, not violence. Violence is physically hurting someone. If words were violent, then who decides what is violent and what isn't?

Something I say (or hear) may not be violent or bother me, but it could make someone else feel like it was violent.

Then something someone says to me, I could perceive as violent but others do not.

People saying words are like violence, want to silence the other side. They don't want to hear it, they are the people that ghost or block the other side they disagree with because it hurts them.

Just goes to show that generation has never been taught or learned the phrase. "Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me."

Granted I know that mental issues can be caused by words, but it is all in context... someone calling someone in school bad words, vs. cussing out a driver that cut you off. That other driver won't care... but classmates might have a peer factor involved. Even so, words are nothing like violence.

stupidgirlllll123 · Accepted Answer

I think words can be the same as violence. Like, words that you should NEVER say to people because they're rude, stereotypical, or just mean. A good example of words being an act of violence today would be things like racial slurs, other slurs, or things like telling somebody to shut up (not in joking way). But sometimes it depends on HOW you say things. If you call someone a bad word because you hate them, want to be mean to them, or want them to feel bad, then that would be considered violence.

Gwenhwyfar · Accepted Answer

Depends on the words

OlderAndWiser · Answer

Words are violence only in the mind of an overly sensitive snowflake.

ChrisMaster69 · Answer

Yes they can be but not as often as direct as @karaspara said about beating someone up breaking body parts.

now however imagine you are in a class of 20 and all of them tell you, they are going to kill your pet dog, your kids, they are going to throw acid over your sister, but it will be in next 12 months and carried out suddenly.

what is the effect of those words on your mental health.

Are those words violent.

Now imagine it’s a stranger in the street, he stops you, tells you he knows where you live, and he’s going to chop up your daughter, son, mother, etc.

are those words violent?

slatyb · Answer

I don't agree. Censorship is frightening whether from the right or the left. People do not have a right to not be offended. If I say that some religion is just make-believe, that may offend some believers but their only proper action is to reply civilly or to stop listening. If I use racist or sexist or homophobic language, people have a right to stop associating with me, and to bar me from premises they control, but not to stop me from speaking altogether.

Anonymous · Answer

Words are indeed a form of violence and in some cases I could actually argue that in the use of certain people words can be more dangerous than physical harm because if the person that is psychologically manipulative and analytical and used words to make a person want to do things to themselves that were fatal, there would be less chance of that person getting in trouble for what they made that person do because it could be speech or writing and they won't leave any finger prints on them, they just leave the person with a psychological urge to do as they were instructed, that is how dangerous some of them can be.

So yeah, words are definitely dangerous, in a case of weighing it with a hypothetical scenario of person who was going to attack you and he was not very muscular but he was adept in psychological manipulation, words are more dangerous in that case because while his own muscles would not do a lot, his words could send you to the graveyard.

Anonymous · Answer

Not at all but it depends what those words are exactly. I define violence as being physical harm and nothing else. You can intend to do violence but your intention doesn't mean you have harmed someone. You can hold hatred in your heart but that doesn’t mean you can't pull back from it. But in a general sense there are a lot of things that we think that we dont say and there's a lot of things that can be said that aren't done and we are all guilty but saying thoughts are violence is a miss guided way of understanding emotions and how people deal with them

DaveToo · Answer

Words can lead to violent behavior. That said, to truly experience violence one must be involved in a violent atmosphere. There's a huge difference between being bullied with words in a school hallway, and facing down an enemy with a gun that is bent on your physical destruction.

FinalFantasyBro · Answer

It depends on the specific word you used on somebody. Just imagine you call somebody a count dipshit, I don't care if you are joking or not those are fighting words, now if you say somebody smells, it might be a bit rude but I don't think it is really wrong because people do smell. It call hygiene, there are good hygiene and bad hygiene.

Inexpensivefurniture · Answer

Some words can constitute violence. I know we usually think of violence as physical, but it can also be psychological. It's just about causing harm. If we agree that verbal abuse is abuse and can be just as mentally damaging as other forms of abuse, I don't think it's hard to see how violence can be verbal

normalice · Answer

It is a grey area. Like if you hire a hit man you didn't do any violence - you just talked to someone - so what is the crime? You incited violence. Once you have that data point you should be able to extrapolate a lot of ground between that and silence.

purplepoppy · Answer

Words are a prelude to violence, they promote and justify it. They dehumanize people opening the door for violence against them. They may not be physical but they are the first step.

karaspara · Answer

Break there jaw call them a cunt and ask which hurt more

SecretsofKB · Answer

By definition, violence involves physical intervention.  That being said, words can hurt A LOT more for A LOT longer than physical violence.

exitseven · Answer

What a bunch of wussies. whatever happened to sticks and stones? I would say there is a big difference between having somebody yell insults at me and getting hit in the head with a bottle.

Sargentcaptain · Answer

I'll take being called a faggot over getting sucker punched. You have to be a particular kind of bitch to consider words to be violence.

NYCQuestions1976 · Answer

"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will leave emotional scars that will last a lifetime." 😂 Yeah the answer is still "No."

Iron_Man · Answer

They can hurt emotionally but it’s not the same thing as punching somebody in the nose

notacannibal · Answer

one makes you kill people and one makes people kill themselves

Kingofkings1992 · Answer

Words can be hurtful. To answer your question, no, they are not the same as violence.

Jamie05rhs · Answer

The lack of words is, apparently. 🤷

anylolone · Answer

Nope, not even close.

OddBeMe · Answer

No, but they’re are threats.

SomeGuyCalledTom · Answer

They're either dumb or fucking nuts.

Anonymous · Answer

no, and it does not depend on the words

Juxtapose · Answer

Eww facism.

Joker_ · Answer

Yeah

Are words the same as violence?

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