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Re:Elon Musk reopening Tesla factory despite Alameda County ... by atoav on Tuesday May 12, 2020 @08:08AM (#23153062)
Violence is an act of communication and as such always bound to the context it happens in. If someone accidentally punches you during a sports match it may look violent, but you very likely won't feel violated, because you could assume the intent to hurt is not given. If someone delivers the same punch on purpose in front of your peers, you will feel extremely violated.

Two punches, equal in their physical qualities and physical pain, one much more violent than the other. What hurts more or does more lasting damage depends on the context. There are people who have been hit as a child and have no problem with it. There are people who have never been hit physically but verbally abused who will have to deal with this their whole life.

To think violence is only violence when it is physical certainly has not much to do with how people exert force onto each other in daily life. Of course this doesn't mean that every communicative act that challenges your world view, critisises your actions, highlights you mistakes etc. automatically constitutes a violent act, although you certainly might feel bad afterwards. This is why the dictionary definition of violence has "intent" in it. If someone tells you your whole life was a lie they might not intend to hurt you with their words, even if you are devastated. If someone tells you, your hair looks shitty, they do.

Note: whether you feel hurt or not plays no role in the definition of the word violence.

Re:Elon Musk reopening Tesla factory despite Alameda County ... by hiram112 on Tuesday May 12, 2020 @12:20PM (#23155771)
The 1st Googled definition of violence:

"behavior involving physical force intended to hurt, damage, or kill someone or something."

Notice that word "physical". Liberals have tried to define the word to be associated with words or 'hate speech' in an attempt to shut down speech they don't want to hear. It doesn't mean they're correct.

Re:Elon Musk reopening Tesla factory despite Alameda County ... by JabavuAdams on Tuesday May 12, 2020 @01:23PM (#23156705)
If you want to clarify your thinking, you should consider these key questions:

1) Why is violence bad? What is it we're trying to prevent when we seek to prevent violence?

2) Are there instances of speech, which in specific contexts can, cause the same negative outcomes that we try to prevent when we seek to prevent violence?

3) Is it really true that physical violence is inescapable, while abusive speech only causes harm if the listener lets it?

Let go of left/right talking points, shallow pattern-matching, and groupism, and deeply consider these questions.

Re:Elon Musk reopening Tesla factory despite Alameda County ... by JabavuAdams on Tuesday May 12, 2020 @01:30PM (#23156824)
Well, I'm sure a nuanced argument about the boundaries between concepts can be settled by the first Google result.

I'll take your Google result and throw you this Oxford English Dictionary result, which admits a more nuanced interpretation: https://www.oed.com/oed2/00277885

Re:Elon Musk reopening Tesla factory despite Alameda County ... by hiram112 on Wednesday May 13, 2020 @10:03AM (#23166966)
That definition is the same as the one I gave. It talks specifically of "physical" violence, at least as the main definition.

When I was growing up, we always had this phrase: "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." It was usually the response to a kid complaining of being verbally teased at school, in the sense that he needed to ignore it - don't bother the teacher / parents about it unless the bullies start using their fists to hurt you.

The left has tried to redefine violence over the years in order to create the idea of "hate speech" which they want punished the same as violence.

I disagree with this idea.