At first, I did not understand why "words can be violence" caused people to get up in their feelings. It seemed rather obvious to me. But I forgot that we are in a woke/antiwoke culture war!

People were seeing this as an attempt by a woke person to silence them. They...

(1/11) https://twitter.com/roderickgraham/status/1332112870423801856

...want to maintain an artificial boundary where violence is "only" physical.

Not because this boundary is empirically accurate - research has shown that belittling, berating, demeaning causes harm. In my research being cyberbullied is linked to dropping out of HS.

(2/11)

Not because it is theoretically sound - if you tie violence only to physical harm, then what about sexual violence that can be committed without hurting anyone physically?

Moreover, one could argue that psychological pain is still *physical*.

(3/11)

Not because it's logical - if you want to call belittling, berating, demeaning "abuse", then who is to say someone can't categorize abuse into "physical" and "verbal"? And then we are back to the physical violence/verbal (or symbolic violence) dichotomy.

(4/11)

Not because it is without precedent - We use the modifier "physical" on physical violence for a reason. Because we can have physical violence, gun violence, sexual violence, and yes, even verbal or symbolic violence.

I think the main reason is because...

(5/11)

...they know that if words become publicly accepted as a form of violence, then they may be an offender! And in this situation, it is better to protect oneself than protect a potential victim you don't know.

And I get it really. I mean, if words are seen as violence...

(6/11)

...then someone can label any random thing you say on Twitter as "violence" and that has a negative moral connotation.

But verbal violence, just like physical violence is on a scale. A love tap is physical, but not demonstrably harmful and therefore not violence.

(7/11)

In the same way, verbal violence against an individual would need to be demonstrably harmful. One-off insults "Rod doesn't know anything, he is a sociologist" are not harmful.

But the father who berates his child repeatedly is causing lifelong psychological damage.

(8/11)

Or the wife who belittles her husband publicly.

Or the nonbinary kid who gets picked on.

This is emotional abuse and we can call it "violence".

The next question is how do we demonstrate harm - isn't it subjective? Well, that's a different question. Right now, we...

(9/11)

...diminish verbal violence by saying things like "sticks and stones break bones, not words", or "I can choose to view these words differently". I think this is a mistake.

You protect yourself in the midst of a culture war. But you prevent a broader understanding...

(10/11)

...of how words cause severe harm.

This slows our recognition of the verbal violence children and adults endure in their lives - leading to addiction and suicide. We need to label these transgressions accurately as violence to give it its proper moral weight.

(11/11)

Addendum:

A rejoinder to the "words are violence" idea from @StrangelEdweird - https://areomagazine.com/2020/11/02/words-dont-hurt-ideas-do/