Strawman alert: In @washingtonpost @PENamerica's @SuzanneNossel attributes to @JonHaidt & me a position no serious person actually has, that "Speech cannot cause harm by itself." 1/6 washingtonpost.com/outlook/five-m… 1/1
It relies on the old misrepresentation of the saying "Sticks & Stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me" as if it means "words don't hurt." Here is what I've actually written on that saying: 2/6
"The saying has NEVER meant words don’t hurt; rather, it’s a mantra intended to help children cope with that pain & to put the opinions of others in perspective." Indeed, the saying would never have come into existence if words could NOT, in fact, hurt. 3/6
The saying is designed to help children be LESS hurt by speech (in a democratic "culture of dignity," it's an important cultural adaptation. See @CampbellSocProf). I discussed this in a review of a great book by @emilybazelon named Sticks & Stones: huffpost.com/entry/emily-ba… 4/6
We explored this topic further in this piece from @TheAtlantic: 'It's a really bad idea to tell students words are violence', theatlantic.com/education/arch… 5/6
I've been happy to work PEN and Suzanne in the past defending #freespeech & I am happy to do so in the future, but please don't attribute to us foolish arguments we do not have just so you can knock them down with ease. 6/6
