Occam's Banana
06-11-2015, 03:22 AM
h/t Bob Murphy: http://consultingbyrpm.com/blog/2015/06/potpourri-284.html
The Madness of College Political Correctness and "Trigger Words"
http://www.epictimes.com/richardebeling/2015/06/the-tyranny-of-trigger-words-and-college-safe-spaces/
Richard Ebeling (08 June 2015)
The media has been full of stories recently about the new sensitivity on college and university campuses concerning the avoidance in courses or assignments of the use of “trigger words” or phrases that may have a “hurtful” affect on students when thoughtlessly used in the teaching environment.
Student and other groups on campuses have insisted that professors provide advanced warning when a particular subject or words connected with it are likely to be discussed in the classroom so any student participants who might be offended or traumatized by the use of such words or subjects cannot attend.
In other instances it has been proposed – even demanded – that certain topics or word uses be avoided or banned because it might awaken sad, disturbing, or emotionally depressing memories or thoughts.
“Safe Spaces” to Protect from Hurtful “Trigger” Words and Ideas
One notable example happened last year at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. It had been announced that a debate would be hosted on the campus devoted to a discussion of “rape culture,” the claim that too many colleges and universities are insensitive and unresponsive to the extent to which acts of rape are condoned, ignored, or not sufficiently condemned and counteracted at institutions of higher learning.
The debaters were Jessica Valenti, founder of a feminist group that focuses on such allegations and attitudes, and Wendy McElroy, a well-known libertarian feminist who has questioned and challenged the presence and extent of such a rape culture on campuses around the country.
Both women, of course, consider all such physical acts of violence, assault and humiliation against women as intolerable in a decent, humane, and ethical society. But Wendy McElroy has argued that too many feminists use the reality of such unacceptable and immoral acts as tools to advance various ideological and political agendas that have little or nothing to do with rightly focused opposition and condemnation of such brutal and intimate acts of aggression.
Furthermore, McElroy has challenged both the existence of such a pervasive “rape culture” on college and university campuses, and how unsubstantiated accusations and charges have been used to advance those ideological agendas while in the process destroying the lives and reputations of innocent young men.
According to an article in The New York Times (March 21, 2015) a student on the Brown campus, with the support of a “Sexual Assault Task Force” of which she is a member, met with the university president and demanded an appropriate response to what – before even hearing McElroy’s presentation – was declared likely to be an argument “damaging” and traumatizing to others on campus.
The university responded with setting up a “safe space” that “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.” [emphasis added - OB]
[ ... continued at link: http://www.epictimes.com/richardebeling/2015/06/the-tyranny-of-trigger-words-and-college-safe-spaces/ ...]
The Madness of College Political Correctness and "Trigger Words"
http://www.epictimes.com/richardebeling/2015/06/the-tyranny-of-trigger-words-and-college-safe-spaces/
Richard Ebeling (08 June 2015)
The media has been full of stories recently about the new sensitivity on college and university campuses concerning the avoidance in courses or assignments of the use of “trigger words” or phrases that may have a “hurtful” affect on students when thoughtlessly used in the teaching environment.
Student and other groups on campuses have insisted that professors provide advanced warning when a particular subject or words connected with it are likely to be discussed in the classroom so any student participants who might be offended or traumatized by the use of such words or subjects cannot attend.
In other instances it has been proposed – even demanded – that certain topics or word uses be avoided or banned because it might awaken sad, disturbing, or emotionally depressing memories or thoughts.
“Safe Spaces” to Protect from Hurtful “Trigger” Words and Ideas
One notable example happened last year at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. It had been announced that a debate would be hosted on the campus devoted to a discussion of “rape culture,” the claim that too many colleges and universities are insensitive and unresponsive to the extent to which acts of rape are condoned, ignored, or not sufficiently condemned and counteracted at institutions of higher learning.
The debaters were Jessica Valenti, founder of a feminist group that focuses on such allegations and attitudes, and Wendy McElroy, a well-known libertarian feminist who has questioned and challenged the presence and extent of such a rape culture on campuses around the country.
Both women, of course, consider all such physical acts of violence, assault and humiliation against women as intolerable in a decent, humane, and ethical society. But Wendy McElroy has argued that too many feminists use the reality of such unacceptable and immoral acts as tools to advance various ideological and political agendas that have little or nothing to do with rightly focused opposition and condemnation of such brutal and intimate acts of aggression.
Furthermore, McElroy has challenged both the existence of such a pervasive “rape culture” on college and university campuses, and how unsubstantiated accusations and charges have been used to advance those ideological agendas while in the process destroying the lives and reputations of innocent young men.
According to an article in The New York Times (March 21, 2015) a student on the Brown campus, with the support of a “Sexual Assault Task Force” of which she is a member, met with the university president and demanded an appropriate response to what – before even hearing McElroy’s presentation – was declared likely to be an argument “damaging” and traumatizing to others on campus.
The university responded with setting up a “safe space” that “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.” [emphasis added - OB]
[ ... continued at link: http://www.epictimes.com/richardebeling/2015/06/the-tyranny-of-trigger-words-and-college-safe-spaces/ ...]