Social pain and physical pain seem to be strongly linked. A dyed-in-the-wool racist may indeed experience actual pain at the sight of an interracial couple.
“Speech as a right” is exactly how this appeared to me when it was all fresh and new, which casts the conflict as a bilateral jihad. Our sacred values are freedom of speech, and not being provoked to physical violence by speech. Islam’s sacred value is not visually depicting Mohammed. Western civilization probably looks like Superhappies to them.
Social pain and physical pain seem to be strongly linked.
I’ve been offended once or twice in my life. It wasn’t painful. It caused anger. I wouldn’t call offense pleasant, but I would call it satisfying, to a certain degree. Pain generally isn’t. Mental pain and physical pain may be related, but I don’t think most offense (particularly of the generalized variety) is properly analogized.
Noticing this again, I feel I went much too easy in my other comment.
This science you cite is completely irrelevant to the dispute. My objection was not that emotional pain and physical pain are different, but that offense is not pain in any sense. That I admit emotional pain is real is quite obvious because I said that targeted racial slurs cause pain.
You cite a study to prove that emotional pain and physical pain are similar—a point that was never in contention. You then use a counterexample that simply assumes that offense is a form of emotional pain—assuming away the exact problem you are trying to address. My entire point is that the emotion of untargeted offense is distinct from the emotion of pain, which you haven’t actually addressed.
I wouldn’t typically re-comment on something like this, but the “Citing science for a tangentially related point, then following it with an unfounded assertion that is implicitly (but not actually) supported by said science,” really, really bothers me, even if you did this unintentionally.
Social pain and physical pain seem to be strongly linked. A dyed-in-the-wool racist may indeed experience actual pain at the sight of an interracial couple.
“Speech as a right” is exactly how this appeared to me when it was all fresh and new, which casts the conflict as a bilateral jihad. Our sacred values are freedom of speech, and not being provoked to physical violence by speech. Islam’s sacred value is not visually depicting Mohammed. Western civilization probably looks like Superhappies to them.
I’ve been offended once or twice in my life. It wasn’t painful. It caused anger. I wouldn’t call offense pleasant, but I would call it satisfying, to a certain degree. Pain generally isn’t. Mental pain and physical pain may be related, but I don’t think most offense (particularly of the generalized variety) is properly analogized.
Noticing this again, I feel I went much too easy in my other comment.
This science you cite is completely irrelevant to the dispute. My objection was not that emotional pain and physical pain are different, but that offense is not pain in any sense. That I admit emotional pain is real is quite obvious because I said that targeted racial slurs cause pain.
You cite a study to prove that emotional pain and physical pain are similar—a point that was never in contention. You then use a counterexample that simply assumes that offense is a form of emotional pain—assuming away the exact problem you are trying to address. My entire point is that the emotion of untargeted offense is distinct from the emotion of pain, which you haven’t actually addressed.
I wouldn’t typically re-comment on something like this, but the “Citing science for a tangentially related point, then following it with an unfounded assertion that is implicitly (but not actually) supported by said science,” really, really bothers me, even if you did this unintentionally.