| > Words are not violence by definition Of course not, a crowbar isn’t a weapon until it’s used as such. I swear, entire generations have been set back when it comes to making progress on this due to that sticks and stones nonsense. It is ridiculous the idea that words somehow live in some abstract plane of existence unable to affect the real world if you just ignore them and that people don’t use words to achieve real life outcomes that hurt others. > Also note that it's trivially easy to short-circuit your argument just by someone saying you're being white-phobic or misandric. Well, now you get to explain why _this_ "whateverphobic" statement is "violence" which demands a violent response, but _that_ "whateverphobic" isn't. This isn’t the gotcha you think it is. Hate speech regardless of its target, including white men, is violence. You’re confusing the “prejudice plus power” definition of institutional racism with hate speech. > Ultimately you've just defined your beliefs as not violent, and others' as violent. I have not, in fact my position is entirely belief independent. Picking some generally agreed upon abhorrent views as example — if you want to write a missive about how people of dark skin are genetically inferior, that women are weak and a functioning society requires that they submit themselves to men, your findings that homosexuality is a disease and should be treated as one rather than accepted I’m not going to stop you because the beliefs themselves aren’t hate speech. |