I think people with all range of age with trauma should not hesitate to get psychological help and mental counseling so that they won’t have sudden break downs. It seems like people dont seek for help as much as they should because either family members/friends simply don’t know what to do, or the victims are…ashamed? Embarrased? Humilitated?
It is sad that we keep just taking half-measures. “PC” has become a negative term - it needs to come back and even stronger.
We need to have a list of approved words, attitudes and actions and make sure that there is no deviation from that.
One way to accelerate this is to get rid of tenure because that provides a shelter for unapproved ideas.
Society is coming full circle. 100 years ago, such things as “rape” and “mental illness” and even “cancer” etc. were simply not discussed in polite company.
Then came the 60’s and 70’s and Oprah and it was all blown open. And it was good, and even healing.
Now it’s all becoming hush-hush again? Really? How is it better to keep these things silent and unspoken for fear that someone might get offended?
Some people may not have adapted the nature of taking such word as “normal” words? Maybe their still in the era where things like that are such a taboo.
Didnt George Orwell write a book about this?
It ended badly.
TRIGGER WARNING: anti-PC content below.
I’ve been following the politically correct movement for a while now, and as a high school senior I’m a bit worried. I hate the excessive political correctness that seems to be overtaking campuses across the country, and the only reason I’m not terrified is because the University of Alabama tends to be more conservative - researching, I can’t find many instances of “social justice warriors” (groups of people going FAR PAST their calling to fight for rights for just about everything except white males) destroying the campus environment.
Students need to realize that in the real world, nobody cares about what “triggers” you. College, from what I heard before the SJW movement, is supposed to prepare you for the real world, right? Having “safe spaces” and “trigger warnings” everywhere only encourages “crybullies” (SJWs who claim they’re victimized by everything but lash out against anyone who disagrees in the slightest) to become more and more sensitive. For Christ’s sake, I’ve even heard of a walking-only zone being renamed because it could be offensive to people who can’t walk. I won’t even get into the false rape accusations that have ruined the lives of many innocent young men.
If you can’t handle harmful words or ideas, you should probably stay inside at home and do education online, but be careful to stray from education when you’re on your computer - you might find someone who disagrees with you! Don’t go outside, don’t talk to anyone, don’t read anything except articles from super liberal news sites such as Salon.
I hate political correctness.
TRIGGER WARNING: I am going to disagree with you (in part).
It’s great that you are contemplating all of these issues as a high school senior. Awareness is sorely lacking in many kids your age.
I share your opinion that ideas – even offensive ones – should not be regulated by a governing entity, but should be handled in the natural course of human interaction. In this way, we are organically socialized to be better, kinder, more sensitive human beings. This doesn’t work on the jerks out there, but then no sort of regulation will work on those folks anyway.
You lost me on everything else you said.
“Social justice warriors” have every bit as much right as you to voice their opinions. I’m as interested in hearing what they have to say as I am in hearing what you have to say. Are you the arbiter of what is “FAR PAST” their calling when they advocate for an issue? Do you get to decide that? Also, I think you will see that on most campuses, the extreme views (on either end of any issue) are a relatively small group of people. They are hardly destroying the campus environment, despite what the press might have you believe. Anything for a story, right? Be a critical thinker; do not just accept what you read in any publication, conservative or liberal.
If you research the issue, you may find that truly false rape accusations are probably pretty rare. Many women do not report assaults for many reasons. That said, when it does happen, it is tragic for the young man…but again, in my opinion, it is not as widespread an issue as the press might have you believe. Stretch yourself to really delve into the arguments on both sides of an issue. If you can find yourself forming arguments for the “other side,” then you have truly and fully educated yourself on an issue.
As you embark upon your young adulthood, I urge you to be open to all sorts of ideas, whether they be liberal, conservative, or somewhere in the middle. You are too young to be so entrenched on one side of any coin. Just as you bemoan the death of ideas at the hands of “social justice warriors,” you seem to be just as closed-minded as the people you are criticizing.
Life is fraught with danger. I taught my children to drive and ride a bike. These activities can result in injury or even death. They also create an ability to have greater control over their own movements and perhaps destinies. I guess I feel sorry for those who seem to think that the world should be a place where their thoughts and views aren’t challenged. Micro aggressions and trigger warnings are a form of saying I don’t wish to argue or defend my position so I wish to use a higher authority to stifle your opinion. I think there is greater emotional harm in not making a student deal with people and ideas that make them uncomfortable than leaving them in an environment that it is necessary to do so. If their psyches are so fragile that they need protecting then perhaps help of another kind is needed.
The sheer amount of hostility that so many privileged people express in these threads is ample demonstration of why these issues arise in the first place.
Honestly, as middle class heterosexual white male, I wish more people like me would show a little bit of appreciation for the difficulties faced by other people, and stop whining about attempts to address these issues. Listen more, talk less, and show some compassion and understanding to other people.
I usually don’t comment on these threads because I’m afraid I completely misunderstand them, but I’m kind of optimistic about discussions of “trigger warnings” because I think they’re just a sign that people are exposed to new ideas more now than they were in the past. (It’s not like my parents are any more open minded than the college students everyone is criticizing—they’re just closed minded in a different way.)
@prospect1
I will admit that I don’t have any real campus experience dealing with SJWs and false rape accusations. I sincerely hope that I’m wrong about how bad it is, but everything I hear tells me otherwise. I’m open to listening to the issues that people present, but the issue is the extreme measures I see reported on yes, social media and the press. Unfortunately, there aren’t many ways for me to know outside of living on campus, which will happen starting next year. I think my biggest problem with SJWs is that they are portrayed - by themselves and by reports of others - as crazy, like Black Lives Matter protesters harassing white students at a Dartmouth library and other groups demanding name changes and resignations just because they feel uncomfortable.
I’ll also admit that my post might have been extreme, but that’s because I’m passionate about this topic, and as I wrote the post, I got more and more into it. I promise I’m not as closed-minded as I seem to be, but hearing about what’s happening on campuses across America gets me worried about political correctness taking over.
edit: I just went back to the main College Discussion page and immediately saw several articles that reinforced my hatred of political correctness. Yoga is cultural appropriation, students demanding the name change of “House Master”, demanding references to Woodrow Wilson be removed, all because a few people claim they feel uncomfortable. They are constantly finding new things to target and get “outraged” about.
.
Frank Bruni touches on a lot of these issues in his latest New York Times column, “The Lie About College Diversity,” which has been widely circulated:
Am I the only one who thinsk that people who are recently being uber PC are self-proclaimed “liberals” who are in fact ignorant, sheltered privileged kids?
^^ No, and I wouldn’t blame you for thinking so, given the tenor of recent news coverage. Doesn’t mean that that matches the reality, but then again, a lot of the interpretation of the “phenomenon” is dependent on the preconceived notions of the person doing the observing.
My opinion: subjects and ideas should be fine, but bad language should be fucking disallowed.
I mean, people need to be exposed to things, but that doesn’t mean shitty language that is just fucking stupid should be used to express it.