WORDS ARE NOT VIOLENCE

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WORDS ARE NOT VIOLENCE A 🧵 Words are not violence.

They are powerful. They can change worlds. That does not make them violence.

"The pen is mightier than the sword." It doesn't say "the pen is more violent than the sword." The word chosen is mightier.

It's natural that we equate "mightier" with "more violent". Violence is committed by the strong upon the weak. Strength = might. Therefore, might = violence. We even state so much with "Might makes right."

But there are other things that are mighty. Grace. Love. Forgiveness. Compassion. They are seen as "soft" qualities, but they are anything but.

It takes true strength -- true might -- to show someone grace. To choose love over fear. To forgive trespasses. To have compassion for all beings.

The pen is mightier than the sword. That does not mean it is more violent. Or at all, unless you're going to pick up a pen and stab someone with it. (Don't do this.)

This does not mean we should discount the power of words. As a species we rely on our linguistic powers for everything. The language centres of our brains allowed us to form civilizations.

We became most populous animal on this planet because of our words. Words create empires as surely as they can destroy them.

Fiction transports readers across the universe -- to worlds so different, we can travel there only in our minds. A heart may not change when it faces facts and figures, but poetry can melt the coldest ice.

Words create slogans that drive politicians to victory. Words create propaganda that divides and conquers nations.

But words are not violence -- any more than carpentry is violence. It's used as easily to build a house as it is a crucifix. It's a tool: neutral until put into someone's hands.

To say words are violence is to remove our ability to think and reason from the equation. It is to remove our agency, to resign us to nothing but kneejerk reactions and seeing everything as an attack.

If we accept that words are violence, then we must also accept censorship. Violence must never be tolerated, after all.

Yet censorship itself often leads to true violence. It is not the words that are violence, but the very silencing of them. Do people say hateful things? Yes. Censorship won't stop that (it will only drive it underground).

People also say things that are not hateful, but upsetting or offensive. Nowadays people see no delineation between hateful speech and offensive speech.

So speech that is offensive is classed as hateful, and hateful speech is violence. Because violence must never be tolerated, the response is "words are violence and these words should be stopped."

No. The response to speech you don't like, whether or not it's truly hateful, should not be to cut out the offender's tongue. The response should be your own words to refute it.

The answer to hearing speech you do not like is not to restrict free speech. It is to fill the space with BETTER SPEECH. To refute, to dismantle, to shine a light on what you dislike and point out all its flaws.

Sunlight is the best disinfectant. When you cover things up is when they fester. Let people say what they will of you. You know better, and you have the power to speak better.