The Coddling of the American Mind

[vellavu]

How Trigger Warnings Are Hurting Mental Health on Campus

In the name of emotional well-being, college students are increasingly demanding protection from words and ideas they don’t like. Here’s why that’s disastrous for education—and mental health.

Something strange is happening at America’s colleges and universities. A movement is arising, undirected and driven largely by students, to scrub campuses clean of words, ideas, and subjects that might cause discomfort or give offense. Last December, Jeannie Suk wrote in an online article for The New Yorker about law students asking her fellow professors at Harvard not to teach rape law—or, in one case, even use the word violate (as in “that violates the law”) lest it cause students distress. In February, Laura Kipnis, a professor at Northwestern University, wrote an essay in The Chronicle of Higher Education describing a new campus politics of sexual paranoia—and was then subjected to a long investigation after students who were offended by the article and by a tweet she’d sent filed Title IX complaints against her. In June, a professor protecting himself with a pseudonym wrote an essay for Vox describing how gingerly he now has to teach. “I’m a Liberal Professor, and My Liberal Students Terrify Me,” the headline said. A number of popular comedians, including Chris Rock, have stopped performing on college campuses (see Caitlin Flanagan’s article in this month’s issue). Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Maher have publicly condemned the oversensitivity of college students, saying too many of them can’t take a joke.

 

[Buffy Summers]

Absolutely agree - the kowtowing to college students on campus nowadays has gotten out of hand, and it's not helping them be better people.

There is certainly a place and need for trigger warnings, but this goes beyond that.

 

[Bluebird]

This sounds ridiculous. Banning words and ideas you don't like? Maybe you could say it's acceptable somewhere else but at a college where you're supposed to learn? Why bother going to college if words challenge you so?

 

[Skanky Vamp]

It's been going on since the 90's but really ramped up in the aught's to the point it is today. But it's also reflective as society as a whole. It's also not just an American thing.

 

[Athena]

It's not just limited to the US. I can very easily see that sort of thing happening here too. I don't agree with mollycoddling or hand-holding. The big wide world is tough and full of bad things, much worse than a word that may or may not cause offence depending on your point of view.

I appreciate there are people in this world who have been through something, but there is always someone else who's been through worse.

We might as well ban language full stop, just in case. 🙄

 

[Blaze]

I agree to an extent. But then again last year at my school a prof tried to used this excuse that students were just too oversensitive to his lecture and that he should be allowed to say the N word in class, or gay slurs. I agree that we can't sugarcoat things, like removing words such as "violates". But there's also no need to use racial and gay slurs, unless those slurs are an integral part of the lesson (like a history class). Basically if it's part of the class material, it should be taught.

 

[Buffy Summers]

I don't think anyone would disagree that slurs shouldn't be used in class. But when you use "political correctness" (for lack of a better phrase) in order to shut down any point of view but your own, that's a problem. As is creating a large group of people who don't know when something is actually offensive, that just get up in arms over every little thing rather than focusing on things that matter (and that's not a problem unique to college students).

Also, on college campuses specifically, you're not teaching people how to deal with other viewpoints, and more importantly, people who are dicks in the real world. It is not against the law (unfortunately) to be a dick. You will encounter these people in life. You can't get the president of your company fired every time someone you work with is an ass or says something you don't agree with. Now, if that person threatens you, or discriminates against you, that is a totally different story. But people should not be taught that if they complain they will get their way, even if they are in the wrong. And that's what's happening. The lunatics are in charge of the asylums.

But the whole university system is screwed up here - students are being preached to instead of taught with teachers using their classes as political sounding boards. It's not about giving students the education they need anymore.
 

Mr. Pole: Unfortunately?!?! WTF?!?! You want me incarcerated?

Yes.

😛

 

[Skanky Vamp]

teachers using their classes as political sounding boards. It's not about giving students the education they need anymore.

Totally agree!! And for the cost of it there is no place for that type of thing.

 

[Priceless]

It's happening in the UK too. There is a movement to make universities 'safe spaces', limiting freedom of speech in case it upsets someone/anyone.

 

[brinkster130]

When did being offended or uncomfortable by something become such a horrible thing? It's like people want to live in a special bubble.

IMO, the US (and probably the whole world really) isn't doing a great job with treating (and society understanding) mental health issues - but this seems to be a step backwards. Like sweeping things under the rug because it's tough to face....which clearl, won't make things better.

 

[GwenRaiden]

My trigger is actually trigger warnings. I combust into a rage.

 

[thetopher]

Being offended by other people's opinions and learning to deal/disagree with them is part of maturing and growing up.

These people should maybe try doing that.

 

[Ethan Reigns]

Sow the seeds of political correctness, reap the harvest of Generation Wuss.

I recall one company I was at where the Human Resources person was always politically correct in her speech, using terms like person of colour in place of non-white, but she successfully kept the office white because she was a full-blown racist. Think about who benefits from political correctness: would 5'2" Johnathan have gotten more dates by being vertically challenged rather than being short? Does a person of colour get the job a black person would not have gotten? No, and that's a hell no, not even close to reality. The only "benefit" is that it is coded speech that identifies the speaker to a listener with the same views. The company hired on a new CFO whose first action was to fire this HR person and nobody missed her.

Now students need "safe spaces" because they feel endangered by new ideas. Here's the thing - a school should be a place of dangerous thoughts. And as for safe spaces, there used to be washrooms marked "white" and "coloured" in the former slave states which were safe spaces for each race. My generation thought that was a bad idea. But Generation Wuss has as its greatest imperative, the right to create, maintain and defend the bubble of narcissism and explode in self-righteous indignation that anyone could actually assert different views from their own.

There have been laws passed making it a crime to deny the Holocaust. I would rather not have any prohibition, because such a statement would immediately let me know I was listening to a wacko. Nazi record-keeping was meticulous and the evidence, both physical and documented is irrefutable. Recently, a law put before parliament in the Province of Ontario failed to pass that would have criminalized any objection to actions of the modern State of Israel as being anti-Semitic. Guess what, guys, the Arabs are also Semitic. You don't hear about anyone defending their rights.

 

[RomanticSoul]

Boy am I glad I'm past school or college age. This soudns insane. Nice way to stop people from entering adulthood. Good grief.

 

[Skanky Vamp]

Nice way to stop people from entering adulthood. Good grief.

I believe the sole purpose of college today is to stop people from entering adulthood but that is probably another topic.

 

[thrasherpix]

Yeah, I thought this was exaggerated at first and didn't believe it until people I trusted told me about it. I still can't fully accept that this is going on at a gut level, it's too surreal. It seems the very opposite of learning to use one's mind, and encourages the idea that authority is always right and that you should tattle on those who say things you don't like rather than using one's own mind. And people are going into debt (sometimes to become overqualified for available jobs, but still have to pay back the loans) to learn how to remain children dependent on a mother/father to tattle to? If I were into conspiracy theories, I'd say political and corporate elites cooked this scheme up to train people to depend on them to police all thoughts and resolve all disputes (thus giving them a lot more power).

I should probably mention that I used to go to a PTSD support group so it's not that I don't understand triggers. I still think this is insane. (But to be extra clear, name calling should not be tolerated, assuming it's done as a personal attack rather than say a book report on Huckleberry Finn in which "politically incorrect" terms are academically examined, hopefully within proper context.)

As for the article itself, I only got to "How we got here." I definitely want to read that, but don't have a lot of time left for the computer at the moment.

 

[ILLYRIAN]

Allow free speech, free speech for everyone, but don't use words that might offend. Yup, when that generation runs the world I hope I'm not around.

thrasherpix,
so you went to a PTSD support group did you? As you say it isn't that you don't understand triggers.
I have no idea and I dare say there are other people here who don't know what PTSD means, any chance of someone letting me know what it means.

But it isn't a real problem is it, if it was how would politicians or hopeful politicians be allowed?
So the students are complaining about not being taught as they would like to be taught. And in forty years time that same argument will be used against them.

 

[November]

Last year was the last time I was in uni, and kinda hopefully the last time ever. The mental health movements in universities in Australia are over the top, and has been for over a decade. To a pleb like me, it seems they grasp on to the newest buzz and make a fuss for the generation. Insulting anyone who holds a different view to what they learned in books.

So when new "science" is revealed about mental health, they grasp it like its the bible. When really we know jack shit about the brain and messing with it with drugs and outdated therapy is causing permanent disability.

I deleted most of my media accounts last year, because over and over I saw children upset that someone said a word they dont like or they are triggered by a facial expression. It was terrible for MY mental health! Seeing distress over and over in simple real life. No wonder we're scared of the world with posts being shared "educating" us about mental health by people who have had no more than simple anxiety (which everyone has).

Honestly I agree with an above poster - I am triggered by people claiming to be triggered.

Is not every emotion and action triggered in some way? Must be true, I learned that in a psychology book!





So funny that this is one of the first threads I read when I come back. Half the reason I left was because of this type of coddling of mental health.

 

[thrasherpix]

But it isn't a real problem is it, if it was how would politicians or hopeful politicians be allowed?
So the students are complaining about not being taught as they would like to be taught. And in forty years time that same argument will be used against them.

I don't understand what you're asking (or saying). I can't even tell if the question you asked is intended to be sincere or rhetorical.

That aside, PTSD = Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. And I couldn't tell if you were asking what triggers were (in a PTSD context), so I won't say other than sharing my uncertainty at what you meant to communicate (and the spirit you intended). If you are asking then I can give a brief definition and description of it.

 

[ILLYRIAN]

thrasherpix,
if there is something you don't understand, and you want to know, ask.
Thanks for posting what PTSD means there's no point trying to say the causes of it as some people will react in different ways to the same trigger.

I agree with OccaQuokka in that some folk say they know how the brain works, they get upset when you say they are not as correct as they thought, I told that to the head of a hospital department that dealt with brain injuries. He was not impressed.