70% of College Students Say "Speech Can Be as Damaging as Physical Violence"

Ok, I haven't looked at the actual survey, just this from Reason.

   The claim at the center of this dispute is poorly-articulated:

[S] Speech can be as damaging as physical violence.

So stated, I'd guess that [S] is true. Brainwashing (using only words) and indoctrination are probably more damaging than, say, a paper cut. Well, maybe not a paper cut...but a stubbed toe or something. I know you have to get to the point fast in surveys. Spend more than a few seconds explaining the question and the subject will probably bail. But I'll bet at least a few subjects were thinking something in the vicinity of [S].

   Champions of free speech don't have to reject [S]. [S] really isn't the claim at issue. The problem is that the left exaggerates the psychological discomfort some people experience from hearing certain kinds of speech, and conflates discomfort with psychological harm--and it does these things specifically in order to argue that those kinds of speech must be banned or otherwise controlled in order to avoid this discomfort.

   So we don't have to deny [S]. We should rather deny that discomfort resulting from intellectual disagreement is best characterized as psychological harm or "damage," and/or that the severity of the "harm"/"damage" is sufficient to permit the institution to regulate such speech. Even if some extreme examples of psychological distress caused by words can outweigh some trivial physical harms, that in no way means that you get to tell people that they can't discuss controversial topics, that they have to comply with nonstandard pronoun requests, that they can't wear MAGA hats, etc.

   That's pretty quick, but you get the idea.