>The pen is mightier than the sword because a pen will move armies with swords.

And that is exactly what the right words will do. If it's seen as socially acceptable to insult someone, then it's not far from that to having it be socially acceptable to commit physical violence against them. Historically, that's the way it's always worked. I've never once seen or read about an instance of a marginalized group where the insults stopped at racial or ethnic slurs.

You really have to measure these things against the numbers involved though. One person using racial slurs is just one person being a fool. One person with thousands of followers might be a problem.