Posted on 08/16/2017 4:21:39 AM PDT by reaganaut1
The excuse we have often heard for raucous campus protests over the last few years is that they are justified as a way of countering the “violence” of speakers like Milo Yiannopoulos and Charles Murray. To prevent them from speaking is, according to this line of argument, using mere sound to eliminate the actual harm that the words of such individuals would do to vulnerable members of the campus community.
You might be inclined to dismiss the notion that words can be violence as one of those ideas so absurd that only an intellectual could believe it. In that case, here is the intellectual you’re looking for—Professor Lisa Feldman Barrett of Northeastern University.
In her recent New York Times article entitled “When Is Speech Violence?” Barrett contends that speech that “bullies and torments” ought to be prevented because “from the perspective of our brain cells,” it is “literally a form of violence.” She points to scientific findings showing that “Words can have a powerful effect on your nervous system. Certain types of adversity, even those involving no physical contact, can make you sick, alter your brain—even kill neurons—and shorten your life.”
Professor Barrett is a respected psychologist and she cites studies in neuroscience that support her statement that verbal abuse can bring on stress that causes physical damage. Let’s not question the science she cites. Let’s agree that she is correct in saying that chronic stress is bad for an individual, perhaps even life-shortening.
The problem is that there is no apparent connection between chronic stress and merely listening to someone speak, for a while, no matter how provocative his words may be.
(Excerpt) Read more at jamesgmartin.center ...
So the good professor finds words a greater threat than a bunch of large muscular cudgel-wielding hoodlums?
I'm not so sure about that. Listening to an endless stream of demonrats over the last couple of decades has sure given me lots of stress.
I and most of the folks on this forum would part ways with the author of this piece hear. I think that most of us suffer from chronic stress listening to the fake news and GOP political pronouncements of the day as well as the rantings of the left. Nothing is more stressing than listening to sell-out collaborationists like Mclame and Linda.
My my my, how often it comes back to censorship, power, and control with these people. Tell me, dear Mrs. Barrett, just who gets to decide what speech, specifically, constitutes bullying and tormenting speech?
...that support her statement that verbal abuse can bring on stress...
Well I agree there. I have never been able to listen to an entire speech by bammy, ever. Just a few sentences in and I could feel my blood pressure rising, bile in my throat...
My 90 year old father-in-law gets his blood pressure up every morning by reading the news paper. Its a good thing.
The left is having a difficult time understanding that Freedom of Speech and the Right to Assemble aren’t just for Americans we like or agree with...
Last time I was called in for jury duty the Lawyer for the Defense stated: ‘My client is accused of assaulting a man by saying words to him. Thats not assault, it a conversation.’
I looked at the floor and shook my head back and forth.
The Lawyer called me by name and asked if I disagreed with her.
“Yes, I do. Assault is using words to threaten, battery is physical.”
I was excused.
My assignment to so-called “Professor” Lisa Feldman Barrett of Northeastern University:
Wear the dunce cap, and write on the chalkboard 100 times, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.”
Amazing how something formerly taught in nursery school is disavowed on college campuses.
Mark
They condemn Robert Spencer for saying the truth about the violence committed by m*slims. m*slims are adored and given a free pass, but Spencer is trashed.
Oh, you evil person. It is never considered acceptable (by Big Law) for an ordinary citizen to remind a law school graduate about what he/she should have learned in the first semester of law school. But it is fun to do so.
So how come cranky folks seem to live the longest?
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