The Coddling of the American Mind

[Fuffy Baith]

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.

yea we don't need to teach law students about rape laws and legal words. It's not like they want to be a lawyer? Oh wait. If you want to be a lawyer then you have to be sort of comfortable with uncomfortable things. If it's something that is a really bad trigger for you, then maybe you need to change your major or career.

I personally have a problem with this trend of everyone needing to be PC because everything offends everyone. Racial slurs and calling people bad names is one thing. But stop trying to change the way other people talk because you don't like it. All you can do is politely ask them to stop when they are talking to you, but there's probably tons of people who it doesn't offend. And stop pretending that these things don't happen or the past didn't occur. We learn about the past, so that we don't repeat it. If you don't talk about things like slavery or the Holocaust then more likely people will forget about it, the more likely it could happen again. At some point I question whether or not we even have the freedom of speech.

 

[thrasherpix]

It's late and my mind is being random...but I just got to wondering...did anyone here ever grow up with wildly inappropriate jokes as children (their being so inappropriate was sometimes the only thing that made them funny to us kids). As I have known people (invariably adults) to become upset when I've given examples, I'll just say that just one example are the "grosser than gross" jokes, some of which make South Park look tame. Because I'm wondering how many people who need to be "protected" once laughed at jokes like that (or at least simply disdained the teller or the joke rather than being upset--since getting upset would mean you'd get more of the same, perhaps many pretended to not be upset).

I also wonder if any loved 50 Shades of Grey...especially the novel. It was a best seller. Heck, Twilight isn't much better.

Hmmm...that name Edward...another random thought, it makes me think of Victorian times. There's the stereotype of posh men needing to cover their nose and mouth with rags at time (though given the intense filth and pollution common at the time, this may have been a sensible precaution) and of ladies as absurdly prone to hysteria and the vapors who needed to be shielded from the vulgarities and filth of life (even if it was relatively easy to legally buy opium for common troubles at the time). Would they consider this sexist? Would they consider that completely different from men and women who need to be protected on college campuses and elsewhere?

I doubt there's any way to ask. I am genuinely curious, but even if that's all I showed, I expect I'd get a very negative reaction for even asking. I suppose I could teach how those with PTSD learn to manage and even overcome symptoms, but that would probably engender hostility rather than gratitude.

Oh! I just recalled a blog/comic by someone who I think is hilarious, let me see if I can find it...
 
THIS is what I'm reminded of (not that I think kids should be allowed to hit others like that):

Hyperbole and a Half: PLEASE STOP!!

IMO, this isn't one of the best ones (though entertaining enough), but this is the specific one I remembered. It's been awhile since I looked at that so I'll be looking to see if there's anything new in a moment. My favorite ones (that I recall) are Spiders Are Scary and The Scariest Story though I haven't reread them yet (and haven't looked at this blog in years, that I recall).

 

[Ethan Reigns]

@Fuffy Baith

I share your opinion of PC and remember, as the originator of PC would have said, you are not an American, you are a Yankee imperialist running-dog. Chairman Mao was the beginning of the PC movement and look at what he accomplished - 10,000,000 dissenters killed, on a par with the Stalinist purges. Political Correctness forces people to editorialize what they say in accordance with someone's view of the world even when they don't believe the official story.

 

[Iwearthecheese]

It's all well and good deciding what is 'correct' and appropriate when you're a liberal making up the PC laws to suit your views.
And then you turn around and other people- the next generation in fact- are deciding to be offended by things you didn't TELL them to be offended by!

Liberals reaping what they sow.

 

[AnthonyCordova]

"making the campus a safe space" is just code for organizing the nature of the experience and the dialogue there etc. in a way that actively reinforces and legitimizes the ideology and interests of the people who possess ownership of those places. We can recognize this clearly enough when it happens in other places, but we often fail to recognize or acknowledge this process when it happens in "friendlier" places. I myself enjoy the atmosphere of academic environments, but you should never allow your pleasure of agreeable places or things to disguise the obvious facts.

As far as this issue of the "censorship", so to speak, of discomforting and unsettling things in the classroom, I would say that this falls into the rather large category of issues and questions that our society (i.e. Americans) refuses to engage in directly and honestly and which as a consequence perpetuate difficulties that remain frustratingly unresolved. We like to believe that we actually are having these discussions in the kind of direct and honest way that would resolve them, but truthfully, on most of these issues I have in mind, we actually are not. We touch on them, or pass over them and mention them, or we engage them in a way so as not to put our image of ourselves in any serious danger, or whatever...all the while never truly resolving it. Time and again, that was my experience at University (not just in the world at large). I enjoyed the university experience as a whole, but after a while I noticed that it really wasn't any different in certain very important respects than what I have come to notice quite often these days in the wider world around me. A lot of talk is happening but the basic issues are not being challenged and addressed. And most people seem to think that the solutions always fall down expected orthodox paths, and that it is simply a matter of converting the ignorant over to their side to fix something. It is hard to put into words right now, especially since I am about to go to sleep, but I don't get the impression of an actual dialogue really; I get the sense of one side trying to strong arm another side into place.

I'll come back to this tommorow. Sleep beckons me...lol.