4 of 5 Americans believe words can be violence. Here’s why they’re wrong

Anyone who confuses speech with violence has likely never been punched in the face. I have been many times, and I have to tell you: It hurts in a way no insult ever could.

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

But it’s even worse than that. Nearly half of Americans say the phrase "words can be violence" 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 Oct. 27, 2024, in New York City. (Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images)

I know intimately why this is not just wrong, but a real threat to our democracy.

AGE OF RAGE VS. FREE SPEECH: WE'VE BEEN HERE BEFORE AND HERE'S WHAT HAPPENED

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

He had picked a fight with a kid and had been badly beating him. Turns out the kid had been bullied a few too many times. He snapped, stabbing my friend close to his 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 that almost cost my friend his very life.

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

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Violence is real, and it is horrible. 

That’s why it is an insult to anyone who has ever suffered from it to argue that words can even compare. I’m not saying words aren’t potent and powerful. I wouldn’t do the work I do defending freedom of speech if I thought that. Words have the power to change the world. 

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And I’m also not saying physical pain is all that matters. I’ve been very open about my own struggles with depression and suicidal ideation. But words don’t draw blood or break bones, and that difference is critically important.

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

We saw the argument made full-throatedly in the wake of the violent response to 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 arguing that Milo’s hate speech demanded violent retaliation. 

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

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

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

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In July, a would-be assassin’s bullet came within a fraction of an inch of killing one of our two major presidential candidates. It tragically ended the life of a firefighter and father – and shortly after, the shooter was killed as well. All this happened before the eyes of supporters and even children.

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That alone should remind us that speech – even horrible, hurtful and hateful speech – is not violence. Violence is a very different thing. And when that violence turns political, all bets are off. 

One of the core differences between a liberal democracy and authoritarian states is that we don’t settle our differences with violence. We do so democratically with words. We must preserve this at all costs. 

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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 get understandably heated in the final days of an election, but confusing words for weapons ensures violence. This is a recipe for disaster, particularly when six in 10 Americans fear post-Election Day violence. 

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We must remember in these tribal times that the bright line between action and speech is one of the best things humankind has ever devised. As an unknown thinker adored by Freud once said, "Civilization began the minute someone hurled an insult rather than a stone." 

If most Americans forget this distinction, it’s going to hurt way more than we expect. 

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