Word Weapons

"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me."

This is a common childrens saying and is often taught to kids to help them cope with being called names and bullied.

I must admit, this phrase and its message is not true. It's utter nonsense, to be honest.

Words can be weapons. They are weaponized all the time. Just look at racial slurs and hate language. 

For the sake of decency, I'm not going to write any of them. I'm sure my audience knows most of them anyways. The N word. The "other" F word. There is such a thing as attack language. Some words, when used in a certain way are like hitting someone in the face. 

Rarely do you see a fight start without the exchanging of language first.

When you know what a word means, or what a phrase means, and they are used against you as an attack, they will affect you. Its not so much the word itself as it is its meaning. Meaning, or understanding, is what does the mental damage. The word or phrase just activates that meaning in your mind. 

Coming from a position of economic or social vulnerability also amplifies hate speech when it is used against you. Vulnerability of the body often leads to vulnerability of the mind.

Words have histories, and attackers prey upon a persons understanding of meaning and history when they weaponize certain phrases or words against someone.

I like to think a lot about psychological warfare. Quite frequently this is a topic that comes up in conversation a lot. 

Psychological warfare can include the weaponization of words. It is also the weaponization of information, whether that be words, images, or ideas. In a sense, what psychological warfare does the most is weaponize "meaning" or understanding. It uses an individual or culture's understanding of the meaning of words, images, and symbols either against them or for the interests of particular objective or goal.

Words do have power.

That's undeniable. 

Words are how we describe ideas and concepts.

Words are how we describe our histories and culture.

Words have meaning, and when a person or group understands that meaning, those words will have an effect on their minds.

Describing complex ideas, inducing an understanding of new concepts or powerful ideas and beliefs, and giving meaning and "substance" to ideological constructs can very much be used as weapons to target someone's mind.

We do it all the time.

Ideas can change the world, for better or worse, because ideas can conquer minds, even more so than the person who sourced and spread them. 

Ideas are described and constructed through words and language. 

This is why words can be weapons.

It's because ideas are weapons.

They target, cut into, and even take over the minds of human beings.