Survey: 91 Percent of College Students Think 'Words Can Be Violence.' That Could Feed Real Violence.
But there's a silver lining—sort of.
J.D. Tuccille | 12.10.2025 7:00 AM
Of all the stupid ideas that have emerged in recent years, there may be none worse than the insistence that unwelcome words are the same as violence. This false perception equates physical acts that can injure or kill people with disagreements and insults that might cause hurt feelings and potentially justifies responding to the latter with the former. After all, if words are violence, why not rebut a verbal sparring partner with an actual punch? Unfortunately, the idea is embedded on college campuses where a majority of undergraduate students agree that words and violence can be the same thing.
Most Believe Words Can Be Violence
"Ninety one percent of undergraduate students believe that words can be violence, according to a new poll by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression [FIRE] and College Pulse," FIRE announced last week. "The survey's findings are especially startling coming in the wake of Charlie Kirk's assassination—an extreme and tragic example of the sharp difference between words and violence."
The survey posed questions about speech and political violence to undergraduate students at Utah Valley University, where Kirk was murdered, and at colleges elsewhere—2,028 students overall. FIRE and College Pulse compared the student responses to those of members of the general public who were separately polled.
Specifically, one question asked how much "words can be violence" described respondents' thoughts. Twenty-two percent of college undergraduates answered that the sentiment "describes my thoughts completely," 25 percent said it "mostly" described their thoughts, 28 percent put it at "somewhat," and 15 percent answered "slightly." Only 9 percent answered that the "words can be violence" sentiment "does not describe my thoughts at all."
https://reason.com/2025/12/10/survey-91-percent-of-college-students-think-words-can-be-violence-that-could-feed-real-violence/
