Violent speech defined (8 posts)

Topic tags: definitions, violent speech
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  • Profile picture of sunflame sunflame3p said 4 months, 2 weeks ago:

    What does verbal violence constitute? ”We” agreed that we’re against it, but we didn’t define it very clearly.

    Some think that anything resembling aggressive speech is violent (e.g. ”Fuck the Police” or ”No Justice, No Peace”). They equate this type of speech with hate speech and bullying.

    Others take a more narrow definition, limiting violent speech to speech that openly advocates for violent actions (e.g. ”Pull them from their horses”). They believe this allows for a more aggressive tone and a more clear expression of anger and disgust.

    I believe that an open and frank discussion about this and perhaps eventually some proposal to define violent speech should come out of this. Thoughts?

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  • Profile picture of sunflame sunflame3p said 4 months, 2 weeks ago:

    Position #1
    Some think that anything resembling aggressive speech is violent (e.g. ”Fuck the Police” or ”No Justice, No Peace”). They equate this type of speech with hate speech and bullying.

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  • Profile picture of sunflame sunflame3p said 4 months, 2 weeks ago:

    Position #2
    Others take a more narrow definition, limiting violent speech to speech that openly advocates for violent actions (e.g. ”Pull them from their horses”). They believe this allows for a more aggressive tone and a more clear expression of anger and disgust.

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  • Profile picture of sunflame sunflame3p said 4 months, 2 weeks ago:

    Now, what I’d like to see is that people can directly vote on a position (if they are comfortable doing so), as well as comment and be part of the discussion about which position (or how we better define those positions, or additional positions) until we have a working definition that we can use.

    Working defintion:
    Violent speech is speech that incites or condones physical violence.

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  • Profile picture of Effie effie2p said 4 months, 2 weeks ago:

    How is “F**k not profanity? How is F**K the Police not targeted profanity? Do you really believe families and elderly will join marches and rallies where F**K the Police is chanted?

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  • Profile picture of wesley wesley said 4 months, 2 weeks ago:

    I have to agree with that. I didn’t want to bring my older daughter to the Police Brutality March because I knew that was going to be said. That being said I did bring my younger daughter because I knew she couldn’t understand that. But to agree with Effie’s point it does alienate people, especially people who aren’t sure about what we are doing if there is chanted profanity.

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  • Profile picture of sunflame sunflame3p said 4 months, 2 weeks ago:

    Both of you are arguing against a specific utterance, when the entire thread is an attempt to define violent speech, not rail against some specific example of such as you see it. Without a working definition, your anecdotal comments are not really helping solve the debate between those who want to say “Fuck the police” and those who don’t. So, in the interest of sticking to the subject, anything to say?

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  • Profile picture of jimn4 jimn41p said 4 months, 2 weeks ago:

    Our species responds not just to the speech of the actor but appearance of how those acts are spoken. So I’m not sure how trying to isolate speech-acts that are violent and then saying: “Okay, here is a list of things its not okay to say” is even a useful exercise because all speech must be put into context.

    So let me ask, and maybe its cause i’m not understanding the usefulness of this, what is the purpose of isolating violent speech from nonviolent speech?

    The bigger issue that Effie and Wes appear to want to link your thread to is about actions that will harm the ability of the movement to grow. I agree with their concern but maybe if it was more clear of the end goal of clearly defined violent speech it’d be more productive way of addressing both concerns.

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