4 out of 5 Americans believe words can be violence. Here’s why I’m wrong

Anyone who confuse speech with violence he’s probably never been punched in the face. I’ve been many times and I have to tell you: It hurts in a way that no insult could.

Unfortunately, not everyone understands this. In a disturbing new poll, my organization, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, found that 80 percent of Americans at least slightly agreed that “words can be violence.”

But it’s even worse than that. Nearly half of Americans say the phrase “words can be violent” either “mostly” or “completely” describes their thoughts.

Supporters of former President Trump argue with anti-Trump demonstrators outside during a campaign rally at Madison Square Garden on October 27, 2024 in New York City. (Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images)

I know full well why this is not only wrong, but a real threat to our democracy.

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The scariest moment of my life happened in my sophomore year of high school. I remember the exact date: March 14, 1991. I came out of school to see one of my friends covered in blood.

He had argued with a child and beaten him badly. Apparently the kid had been bullied too many times. It struck, stabbing my friend close to the sternum. I was pretty sure my friend was going to die – and if the knife had gone in at a slightly different angle, he would have.

This was not a battle of words and this almost cost my friend his life.

Whether or not we have experienced violence personally, we are all uncomfortably close to the bloodshed unparalleled in the 20th century – the trenches of World War I, the bombings of World War IIThe Holocaust, The Great Leap Forward and more.

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The violence is real and it is horrific.

That is why it is an insult to anyone who has ever suffered from it to claim that the words can even be compared. I’m not saying words aren’t powerful and powerful. I wouldn’t be doing the work I do defending free speech if I believed that. Words have the power to change the world.

And I’m not saying physical pain is all that matters either. I have been very open about my own struggles with depression and suicidal ideation. But words do not draw blood or break bones, and this difference is extremely important.

FIRE has been tracking this “words are violence” phenomenon on campus for years.

We have seen the argument fully supported in the violent response to the conservative provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos in 2017, when a student paper at UC Berkeley—the school where the free speech movement was born—published article after article claiming that Milo’s hate speech called for violent retaliation.

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That same year, Northeastern University psychology professor and author Lisa Feldman Barrett wrote an op-ed in The New York Times arguing that because words and violence can both cause a stress response, there is no clear distinction between the two.

In 2021, an editorial in the Case Western Reserve University Observer reasoned that protesting outside an abortion clinic is “inherently violent.” In 2022, Cornell students interrupting an event Ann Coulter shouted, among other things, “Your words are violence.” Just last year, the pride office at the University of Colorado Boulder warned that misbehaving could be “considered an act of violence.”

But if you’re among the 8 in 10 Americans who agree that words can be violence, please consider this: Words remain the best alternative to violence ever invented.

In July, an alleged assassin’s bullet came within a fraction of an inch of killing one of the two major presidential candidates. The life of a firefighter and father was tragically ended – and shortly after, the shooter was also killed. All this happened in front of supporters and even children.

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That alone should remind us that speech—even horrible, hurtful, hateful speech—is not violence. Violence is a very different thing. And when that violence becomes politicalall bets are off.

One of the basic differences between a liberal democracy and authoritarian states is that we do not resolve our differences through violence. We do it democratically with words. We must preserve this at all costs.

Tensions are high in the nation right now, which is why it’s even more important to remember the difference between words and actions. People understandably heat up in the final days of an election, but confusing gun words ensure violence. That’s a recipe for disaster, especially when six in 10 Americans fear violence after Election Day.

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We must remember in these tribal times that the bright the line between action and speech it is one of the best things mankind has ever devised. As an unknown thinker adored by Freud once said: “Civilization began the moment someone threw an insult rather than a stone.”

If most Americans forget this distinction, it will hurt much more than we expect.

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