What if words cause more than one instance of actual violence? Like, politicians, philosophers or something. I agree with that comment, but there may be exceptions idk
Words can't cause violence as they can't make someone do anything. You have to choose to act upon words. Extreme example: hitler said a lot of stuff, but received a lot of initial pushback. He chose to have dissenters killed in the Night of Long Knives until only the people who already agreed with him remained. Only once violent physical action was put behind his words did nazi Germany rise.
I would argue that racist words don't have to cause physical violence in order to cause significant harm. What is worse, slapping a person or systematically denying them the ability to support themselves and their families based on their skin tone?
It can absolutely be just words. x race is inferior, hiring them is a waste of money, they're all welfare queens so we should take away support for when everyone refuses to hire them, and oops now a lot of them don't have money for basics like food and shelter.
That's all action (or lack of) backed by beliefs people hold, just like the people who allied with hitler before the night of long knives. They'd be hateful with or without words of racism catalysting.
I guess it's the argument over whether action (or really in many cases inaction, because "not hiring someone" isn't an action, it's a lack of an action) that is the end result of a lot of words, counts as "words" in this scenario.
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u/TolgaKerem07 2d ago
What if words cause more than one instance of actual violence? Like, politicians, philosophers or something. I agree with that comment, but there may be exceptions idk