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sapinker's profile
Steven Pinker
Steven Pinker
Steven Pinker
Verified account
@sapinker

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Steven PinkerVerified account

@sapinker

Cognitive scientist at Harvard.

Boston, MA
pinker.wjh.harvard.edu
Joined January 2010

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    Steven Pinker‏Verified account @sapinker 18 Jul 2017

    Feelings in response to speech are irrelevant: Speech conveys *content*, which may be upsetting, but we're the better for hearing it.

    12:00 PM - 18 Jul 2017
    • 270 Retweets
    • 672 Likes
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    37 replies 270 retweets 672 likes
      1. New conversation
      2. MC Pastoret‏ @brittyknows 18 Jul 2017
        Replying to @sapinker

        How does one separate feelings from perception?

        1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
      3. Katiahamza‏ @Katiahamza 18 Jul 2017
        Replying to @brittyknows @sapinker

        You can't. The point is that what you feel about what someone says is not a good enough reason to take away their freedom to say it.

        1 reply 1 retweet 12 likes
      4. Katiahamza‏ @Katiahamza 18 Jul 2017
        Replying to @Katiahamza @brittyknows @sapinker

        Always with certain exceptions. Slander for example.

        1 reply 0 retweets 3 likes
      5. Edmund Wisty #StopBrexit‏ @WistyEL 19 Jul 2017
        Replying to @Katiahamza @brittyknows @sapinker

        A slanderer has the right to speak, and the obligation to pay a penalty for each malicious falsehood.

        1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
      6. Katiahamza‏ @Katiahamza 19 Jul 2017
        Replying to @WistyEL @brittyknows @sapinker

        Yes. I put it badly. Slander is not about the feeling response or the absence of a right to speak but about the content of what is said.

        0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
      7. End of conversation
      1. New conversation
      2. Josef Addleman  🦑‏ @JosefAdd 18 Jul 2017
        Replying to @sapinker

        Strongly disagree. Emotional response is not so easily separated from expression, and some responsibility should be borne by speaker.

        3 replies 0 retweets 6 likes
      3. Josef Addleman  🦑‏ @JosefAdd 18 Jul 2017
        Replying to @JosefAdd @sapinker

        If natural language were perfect and formal, the separation would be easier. But communication is messy, at both sending and receiving ends.

        0 replies 0 retweets 3 likes
      4. End of conversation
      1. New conversation
      2. User Error‏ @engin_eer 18 Jul 2017
        Replying to @sapinker

        Feelings in speech as not irrelevant to either the listener or the speaker. Speech also conveys "content" but also generates affect.

        1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
      3. User Error‏ @engin_eer 18 Jul 2017
        Replying to @engin_eer @sapinker

        2. Being able to generate emotional responses in listeners & discern the emotional state of speakers in a core human capability.

        1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
      4. User Error‏ @engin_eer 18 Jul 2017
        Replying to @engin_eer @sapinker

        3. However being able to manage our emotional responses to the speech of others is part of being an adult.

        2 replies 0 retweets 3 likes
      5. User Error‏ @engin_eer 18 Jul 2017
        Replying to @engin_eer @sapinker

        4. I have wanted to kill numerous people as a result of their speech (esp. my accountant) & yet they remain unharmed.

        1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
      6. User Error‏ @engin_eer 18 Jul 2017
        Replying to @engin_eer @sapinker

        5. So despite the emotional power of words, we should only restrict them under extreme circumstances.

        0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
      7. End of conversation
      1. Lips Manlis‏ @LipsManlis 18 Jul 2017
        Replying to @sapinker

        We have to trust people to evaluate that content on its mertits. "Safeguarding" people from challenging ideas is misguided, anti-progress.

        0 replies 0 retweets 5 likes
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      1. New conversation
      2. David Shipley‏ @DavidCShipley 18 Jul 2017
        Replying to @sapinker

        Even if some people aren't the better for it the societal and personal downsides of limiting speech that upsets some people are far greater.

        1 reply 2 retweets 2 likes
      3. 1 more reply
      1. New conversation
      2. la tafiole sucree‏ @latafiolesucree 18 Jul 2017
        Replying to @sapinker

        So you're OK with verbally abusive parents? You don't see that as a form of emotional violence with long-lasting negative effects?

        1 reply 0 retweets 2 likes
      3. Maxwell‏ @SafeguardMxWll 18 Jul 2017
        Replying to @latafiolesucree @sapinker

        Wiio's 2nd law again people; If a message can be interpreted in several ways, it will be interpreted in a manner that maximizes the damage.

        1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
      4. Mattias Martens‏ @MattiasInSpace 18 Jul 2017
        Replying to @SafeguardMxWll @latafiolesucree @sapinker

        Seems more like reductio ad absurdum to me. The proposition that we are always “better for hearing it” does not hold in general, as claimed.

        1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
      5. Maxwell‏ @SafeguardMxWll 18 Jul 2017
        Replying to @MattiasInSpace @latafiolesucree @sapinker

        If you interpret everything literally in a strict sense, then maybe so, but that's not how human speech works most of the time

        1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
      6. Mattias Martens‏ @MattiasInSpace 18 Jul 2017
        Replying to @SafeguardMxWll @latafiolesucree @sapinker

        It's not about taking things literally or strictly. Speech can be harmful even to the most generous interpreter.

        1 reply 0 retweets 2 likes
      7. Mattias Martens‏ @MattiasInSpace 18 Jul 2017
        Replying to @MattiasInSpace @SafeguardMxWll and

        Returning to the original example: is the child of abusive parents at fault for failing to find the beneficial content in that abuse?

        1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
      8. Mattias Martens‏ @MattiasInSpace 18 Jul 2017
        Replying to @MattiasInSpace @SafeguardMxWll and

        Yes, it's an extreme example, but Pinker's argument about the harmfulness of speech is AFAICT an equally extreme one

        1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
      9. Maxwell‏ @SafeguardMxWll 18 Jul 2017
        Replying to @MattiasInSpace @latafiolesucree @sapinker

        I doubt Pinker meant to make an absolute statement, which is why I'd give him the benefit of the doubt here. Anybody speaking enough

        1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
      10. 2 more replies

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