5 ms·
When I was a kid my teachers used to say to me "sticks and stones can break your bones but words can never hurt you" when another kid said something mean. Were
by zarzavat 5y ago
When I was a kid my teachers used to say to me "sticks and stones can break your bones but words can never hurt you" when another kid said something mean.
Were they wrong? Yes, as an adult I've found that words can actually be quite hurtful. But usually from people I already know.
Strangers? I don't think strangers can hurt with words, they are strangers after all, unless they get your real identity. I think a lot of the problem people have with "trolling" is actually caused by self-doxing. When one person is anonymous and another person is under their real name, it creates a power imbalance.
Realistically, people can post on the internet from 200-odd jurisdictions, this is not something that the law could or should be preventing.
- watwut 5y agoThose teachers were very often enablers. And to add to it, had they tried to actually deal with issues instead of blaming victim or expecting the victim to just take it, the overall situation might have been better. The words in fact can hurt and always did. Men used to kill each other over who said what. Words can damage reputations and make other kids mistreat the victim too. It is easier to say the above sentence then to deal with kids verbally abuse others. It is easier to tell the victim to shut up then to teach the victim to defend himself, to undo damage to their self confidence and so on.