Comment by corrral
4 years ago
The first (harm) is about as mild as it gets, and the second is a common usage.
Webster's 1913:
> 2. Injury done to that which is entitled to respect, reverence, or observance; profanation; infringement; unjust force; outrage; assault.
> We can not, without offering violence to all records, divine and human, deny an universal deluge. - T. Burnet.
It's a bit more poetic a use, but it's not escalatory in the way you suggest.
[EDIT] Further, my point is (and I think that was clear?) that computerization necessarily does these things if you treat the computer as correct and humans as suspect, not that anyone's doing this on purpose.
I'm not sure why you're quoting the dictionary, I didn't say you are incorrect, I said the rhetoric is escalatory, and it is.
"I'm going to shoot you" is escalatory. It doesn't matter that I could have been talking about photographing you.