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No, its worse in a lot of cases. Bruises and broken bones heal a lot quicker than emotional trauma.
Thats true with continous verbal/emotional abuse over time, especialy from somebody in authority, teacher etc.
However if your compairing a one of incident on the street then no way can verbal abuse compaire to a serious kicking
Most racist abuse isn't just confined to one incident on the street though is it?
Or another disciple from the libertarian/anarcho-capitalist Monocrat school of thought.
You would think that political and economic beliefs had nothing to do with emotions and psychology, but for some bizarre reason all self-proclaimed anarcho-capitalist libertarians also appear to claim there is no such thing as emotional harm.
I'm sure there's a reason somewhere...
Yeah, it's probably down to ideas of self responsibility. I am responsible for my own health, including mental and emotional health, and you are responsible for yours. The past is gone, and if you are choosing to remember crap from it then you are an idiot.
You lot seem to think that you're all victims of massive impersonal forces that "cause" problems, and that you need another set of massive causes to sort everything out.
Some people can take a load of verbal abuse and not think anything of it.
But a good kicking will hurt everyone. But verbal abuse is a very bad thing don't get me wrong.
By the usual suspects' way of thinking, this can only mean that there is nothing wrong with a physical attack either so long as death or permanent damage does not occur. If some people can't take physical pain it's their problem, right?
Does pain exist anyway?
That's actually a really good way of looking at it. If you have a bloke with no nerve endings and can't feel pain and you break his leg, you have damaged him, whether he feels it or not in the real world.
Same as if someone breaks two windows - in the first case the owner is furious and goes off his head, in the second the owner doesn't give two shits. In both cases you actually have a broken window to replace, and all efforts should focus around that fact, not the subjective interpretation of events from the two parties.
I am not denying that some people have such minimal self control as to be affected by words alone, just that they shouldn't be pandered to. Or possibly, shown how to have greater self control and emotional maturity.
Depends on the context. If its racist abuse in the context of a racist society then I'd argue that yes, it might well cause emotional trauma.
That abuse, racist or of other nature, can have very serious consequences and lead to illness and death is beyond any doubt.
sure, but it takes a ridiculously large quantity, certainly more than a couple of passing comments on the street.
Of course, a sense of proportion is called for and you should not treat a racist abuse uttered once by a passer by with the same severity as a severe beating or a lifetime of bullying by the same individual. But a single instance of racist abuse is still wrong and the offender should be penalised for it.
I suggest you've never been on the receiving end of it then.
No, you can't pass judgement.
I think the debate comes up when we ask who should be responsible for penalizing them.
None of us have been a starving kid in Ethiopia, guess we shouldn't discuss what should be done about famine.
anyway, to be continued, I need to make a run to the corner store. Back in about 10 minutes.
I take it you're white, yes?
Don't be absurd. While you can discuss what should be done about famine in that instance, what you can't do is to pretend to know what its like to be a starving kid in Ethiopia.
and speaking of which, I must not have been the only one who saw that show on A&E last night. While I was walking to the store, a couple of idiots leaned out a car window and shouted at me "DON'T KEEP THE HATE ALIVE!"
So the only experience of racism you've had is a couple of comments shouted at you while being the majority in a culture? Do you not think that if you were the minority in a culture, you may have felt differently?
If you were a minority in a majority culture I think you'd see it differently. The only thing I can compare it to is being half Irish in the UK growing up in the 70's. That was minor but very unpleasant.
You can either -
A) Be called a few names
or
b) Have your teeth kicked in
Who in their right mind is going to pick A or say that A is worse than B?
More hand-wringing soft as shite left wing crap.