We’re on a dark path: Most Americans say speech equals violence:
We all learned as children that sticks and stones may break our bones, but words will never hurt us.
Yet most Americans, and especially Generation Z, have apparently forgotten this basic lesson.
An alarming new survey released by the nonpartisan Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression revealed that a huge chunk of the US population actually believes that words can be a form of violence.
Only 20% of Americans surveyed flatly rejected this notion.
Meanwhile, 80% agreed, at least to some extent, that “words can be violence.” Most disturbingly, fully 45% said they “mostly” or “completely” agreed with this suggestion.
That’s right: Nearly half the country strongly believes words and violence are interchangeable, an idea more popular among Gen Zers, women and Democrats, less so among Republicans, independents, men and Generation X.
Perhaps the split isn’t that surprising. After all, many of the college campuses where young people are forming their worldviews basically do treat words as violence, with their speech-policing safe spaces, trigger warnings and free speech zones.
No shock, then, that so many Americans have internalized this message.
But surprising or not, it’s truly disturbing.
No matter how widespread it may be, this belief simply isn’t true — ask anyone who’s ever been punched in the face.
It’s actually insulting to victims of real violence to conflate their experience with that of having your feelings hurt by mean words.
That’s not to say words can’t cause harm or stress; of course they can.
But so can getting assigned a difficult task at work, or receiving an F on an exam — and those things certainly aren’t violence.
Besides, who gets to decide which opinions and words are so offensive that they somehow morph into an assault?
That’s a power so inherently subjective that it will inevitably be unequally and unfairly applied, if we allow the bright line between words and violence to be blurred.
Free speech is a fundamental concept that’s central to everything that makes America what it is. For so many of our citizens to so profoundly misunderstand this is itself concerning — and an indictment of civics education in this country. --->READ MORE HERE
The Left’s Open Declaration of War on Free Speech:
Leftists are becoming increasingly totalitarian in their antipathy for freedom of speech. It’s an obstacle to their desire for power, so it must be crushed.
An exaggeration, you say?
Just listen to what high-profile leftists have been openly saying about denying you your right to information on both sides of the political equation.
Former presidential candidate and Obama Secretary of State John Kerry has gotten the most attention recently, mainly because of how bluntly he railed against our most fundamental freedom. But former Clinton Secretary of Labor Robert Reich has been just as repressive—and more detailed. And Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has been her usual self as she demands censorship without much specificity.
Kerry made his comments at a World Economic Forum panel on green energy on Sept. 25. A conservative comedian trying to satirize the views of the haughty ruling class could not have come up with better material.
As Kerry put it, “The dislike of and anger over social media is just growing and growing and growing, and it’s part of our problem, particularly in democracies, in terms of building consensus around any issue,” Kerry lamented, apparently referring to abhorrence of freedom by members of his ilk. “It’s really hard to govern today!” The problem, he said, was that the internet and social media have liberated people to choose from different sources of information, adding competition. Little over two decades ago, the country was held hostage to the views of the journalists working at three networks and a handful of national newspapers.
Kerry pines for those days. “The referees we used to have to determine what’s a fact, and what isn’t a fact, have been eviscerated to a certain degree, and people self-select, where they go for their news, or for their information, and you get into a vicious cycle,” said the man who came within 19 Electoral College votes of becoming president in 2004. “So, it’s really, really hard, much harder, to build consensus today than at any time in the 40 to 50 years I’ve been involved in this.” --->READ MORE HERE
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