Over at the NY Times, Judith Shulevitz runs an op-ed entitled In College and Hiding From Scary Ideas, which is about how colleges and college kids do all they can to, well, hide from scary ideas. The op-ed is written “softly”, since it goes against the grain of the hardcore Liberalism typically on display at the NY Times. It starts off with a discussion on an incident at Brown University, where many students and administrators were Very Concerned over a debate
So when she heard last fall that a student group had organized a debate about campus sexual assault between Jessica Valenti, the founder of feministing.com, and Wendy McElroy, a libertarian, and that Ms. McElroy was likely to criticize the term “rape culture,†Ms. Byron was alarmed. “Bringing in a speaker like that could serve to invalidate people’s experiences,†she told me. It could be “damaging.â€
Ms. Byron and some fellow task force members secured a meeting with administrators. Not long after, Brown’s president, Christina H. Paxson, announced that the university would hold a simultaneous, competing talk to provide “research and facts†about “the role of culture in sexual assault.†Meanwhile, student volunteers put up posters advertising that a “safe space†would be available for anyone who found the debate too upsetting.
The safe space, Ms. Byron explained, was intended to give people who might find comments “troubling†or “triggering,†a place to recuperate. The room was equipped with cookies, coloring books, bubbles, Play-Doh, calming music, pillows, blankets and a video of frolicking puppies, as well as students and staff members trained to deal with trauma. Emma Hall, a junior, rape survivor and “sexual assault peer educator†who helped set up the room and worked in it during the debate, estimates that a couple of dozen people used it. At one point she went to the lecture hall — it was packed — but after a while, she had to return to the safe space. “I was feeling bombarded by a lot of viewpoints that really go against my dearly and closely held beliefs,†Ms. Hall said.
Rape and sexual assault are certainly not anything to joke about (and I’ll avoid mentioning that college campuses are hotbeds of liberalism, which seem to have lots of problems with rape and sexual assault). Yet, this is just one example of Leftists going into Weepy Mode, acting like hothouse flowers at the mere drop of a divergent opinion, or even the possibility of a different opinion. Most will refuse to even listen to the opinion before going into weepiness and outrage.
Safe spaces are an expression of the conviction, increasingly prevalent among college students, that their schools should keep them from being “bombarded†by discomfiting or distressing viewpoints. Think of the safe space as the live-action version of the better-known trigger warning, a notice put on top of a syllabus or an assigned reading to alert students to the presence of potentially disturbing material.
Here’s the part that truly peeked my interest in the opinion piece
I’m old enough to remember a time when college students objected to providing a platform to certain speakers because they were deemed politically unacceptable. Now students worry whether acts of speech or pieces of writing may put them in emotional peril. Two weeks ago, students at Northwestern University marched to protest an article by Laura Kipnis, a professor in the university’s School of Communication. Professor Kipnis had criticized — O.K., ridiculed — what she called the sexual paranoia pervading campus life.
I’m old enough to remember a time when college students would either argue back with those who are “politically unacceptable”, or simply refuse to attend, rather than shutting down debate. When ideas and thought weren’t cause for breaking down into “emotional peril”, sending supposed adults into rooms more akin to pre-school.
Nowadays, these same college students, who will brutally attack anyone on social media in a fanatical, brutal, and often disgusting manner, cannot face the real world, and need their “safe spaces” to avoid emotional distress. Wait till they get into the real Real World, and learn that no one cares about their weepiness, and to just do their job or resign. Welcome to the adulthood.
“piqued”, not “peeked”
Huh? Word doesn’t appear
The price to live in a democracy is that you do not have the right to not be offended.
Otherwise claiming to be offended would be a tool to stifle opposing views.
Sorry Phil but you appear to be a little behind the times as this claiming to be offended is happening in the liberal dens here on the west coast.
All to often method of expressing their displeasure flies in the face of good manners.
My way of expressing disapproval of these groups is to avoid the areas they inhabit (universities and big cities mostly) especially making sure I don’t spend any money in these places. I do go to these places and sell my wares and take their money but that is it.
Much rather be at a bar for bikers or loggers as they are much more pleasant places the a liberal hangout, more my kind of people.
Dear JohnAllen:
Thank you for your comment.
Yes I probably am behind the times.
However, this tactic of being offended to stiffle dissent is decades old. I remember the line used by Norm Chomski that univeristy dorms were student homes and therefore Univeristies should not post offending posters in someones home. The question then who determines what is offensive?
I now am aware of this new type of censorship happening on University campuses but don’t experience it in my day to day life.
Like you I live in the country. I am grateful that I associate with people with opposing views but who listen to each other with mutual respect.
Even if they don’y agree.
If bikers or loggers are more respectful about free speech than univeristy campuses then that is a sad state of affairs. Hopefully it is just a phase.
If not then it also likely that bikers and loggers are now older and have lived in the real world and they have discovered that nobody knows the complete truth and everyone has a right to their opinion. even those we disagree with.
I agree. College kids are too sensitive.
And I’ll avoid mentioning that the military is a hotbed of conservatism, which seems to have lots of problems with rape and sexual assault.
And I’ll avoid mentioning that churches are a hotbed of conservatism… maybe qc can get altar boys to carry pistols to defend against priests.
more child abuse at the hands of liberals ….. the left loves to abuse, warp and control the minds of the young so they will turn into good little followers and in turn be abusers also
Speaking of scary ideas…
from a prayer breakfast speech by RWNJ icon, The Duck Commander, Phil Robertson, illustrating teaching an atheist a lesson:
and from RWNJ hero, George (god wanted me to kill him) Zimmerman:
It was would be blasphemy for him NOT to kill a teenage Negro!
These are your heroes.