Words are supposed to hurt. That’s considered a legitimate way of fighting things out.

And what did it replace in the historical scene? It replaced actual violence.

Words are supposed to be free so we CAN actually fight things out, in the battleplace of ideas, so we don’t end up fighting them out in civil wars.

If we try to legitimately ban anything can hurt someone’s feelings, everyone is reduced to silence.

— Greg Lukianoff, head of FIRE, speaking on Stossel (2009)