The reason I am personally hesitant to invoke ideas like symbolic violence is because it makes it harder to fully grasp the horrible singularity of actual violence.
Like all lenses, it both illuminates and obscures, is what I’m saying. That feels important during times like ours.
Jan 14, 2026 00:59I learned the lesson of those scholars. Physical harm, even death, can accrue from how we use language. Language gets structured into policy and infrastructure — and makes violence more possible to allow or brush aside or forgive.
But to me those are causes and effects, and we don’t need to collapse the categories. All to say, I want the word violence to carry the moral weight it needs to carry. It is profound.
