Speech is violence, if it causes chronic stress, argues Lisa Feldman Barrett, a Northeastern psychology professor, in The New York Times. After all, chronic stressors “can make you sick, alter your brain—even kill neurons —and shorten your life.” Violent protests prevented right-wing commentator Milo Yiannopoulos from speaking on the Berkeley campus. Photo: Ben Margot/AP Advocating distressing ideas isn’t “violence,” counter social psychologist Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukiano

Violence by masked anarchists led Berkeley officials to cancel a speech by Milo Yiannopoulos, a right-wing commentator. (The publicity has made his upcoming book, Dangerous, a best-seller.) The Daily Californian has published five commentaries arguing that violence was justified as a form of self-defense. Violence helped ensure safety of students, argued Juan Prieto. Nina Dang argued that “asking people to maintain peaceful dialogue” with those who don’t think their “lives ma