Is verbal assault as harmful as physical assault?

[aries]

Verbal, including rumors, insults, harassment, slander, etc, all done in bad faith and with malicious intent.

In a libertarian society, if we can expect preventing or punishing physical assault to be a duty of the government, should the same apply to such verbal assault?

[Raineyrocks]

Verbal, including rumors, insults, harassment, slander, etc, all done in bad faith and with malicious intent.

In a libertarian society, if we can expect preventing or punishing physical assault to be a duty of the government, should the same apply to such verbal assault?

I think it should be left up to the individual on the receiving end not the government.

[eques]

A government won't prevent physical assault in a "libertarian society" any more than it does now.

I'm not really clear on what would constitute "verbal assault."  "Assault" is, by definition, a physical attack.  One might be able to justify "verbal assault" as the threat of attack.

As we wend our way further from the actual definition, can words damage reputations?  Certainly.  At that point, what matters is if the words that were spoken or written are truthful and deserve to be said.

When it comes to the interactions between adults and children, emotional pain can most certainly be incurred on the part of the child by an adult, especially if the adult is someone the child trusts in some way.  I reject the notion that a parent "owns" his or her child, as that's a form of slavery.  It is the parent's job to raise that child in a healthy environment, and it is one-sided until the child is able to provide for himself.  (And, of course, as is the case with any trust relationship, a child can harm his parent in the same way.)

Threats of physical attack, unjust loss of reputation, and parental abuse are the sorts of things that would have to be investigated.

[Edit] - I didn't have a rosy childhood.  I am now, however, an adult, and I am responsible for my actions no matter what happened to me in the past.

[aries]

No doubt parents can break down children with words. I asked this question because I usually hear women say that men have it easy - we are immune to words (at least, far more so than women), and there's the threat of prosecution preventing outright attacks on other men. Girls in high schools and certainly even adult women use words like bullets against eachother, to harm eachother and tear others down. In my opinion such abuse should be punished as harshly as if there had been a physical attack, because it causes as much and often more distress.

That goes against even our current system, where rumors, repeated verbal abuse, and the like are used on a daily basis, and little, if anything is ever done. If using physical force to obtain with you want is wrong, is it not just as bad or worse to use social structure to destroy someone?

[LiveFree]

I would not treat "verbal assault" the same as a physical assault.

For instance, if some drunk stumbling along the sidewalk tells me he's going to kick my ass, I'm not going to whip out my gun and blow him away because he was threatening me.  However, if said drunk starts making good on the threat, well, one is entitled to defend themselves from the initiation of force.

Likewise, if some jerk starts falsely slandering me in public with malicious intent, and it causes a demonstrable damage to my reputation and or livelihood, I'm going to look into lawyering up and dragging his ass into a civil court to seek restitution.

Edited to add:  And Aries, if they're so bothered by mere words, perhaps they should grow up.  That line of thinking smacks of nanny-statism to me.  If you're harmed so much by words, either grow up, or get even.  I certainly don't want courts, which seem unable to determine malicious intent and actual damages in many cases, going into the subjective area of emotional distress for every little instance of female rumor mongering and chatter, as it seems you would have it.

As Eques stated, they seem rather unable to prevent, much less punish, violent physical assaults.

[aries]

^ "Grow up"? Obviously you don't understand what makes us human, do you? We don't get even, and nobody needs to grow up because they've been hurt by words. Words have meaning. Do you have friends? I bet their words mean something to you, and could hurt you.

A drunk's empty threat isn't verbal assault. Slander, spreading rumors and destructive speech, IMO, constitute assault.

[Transition Force]

With the exception of a few extreme exceptions, I don't think so. But I don't know if they'd be considered 'verbal' assaults.