In College and Hiding from Scary Ideas

[OBERYN_]

"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."

I work at a school dedicated to SEVERELY special needs students. This is exactly what a room we use to soothe autistic students having meltdowns looks like.

Well, not exactly, the students who occasionally masturbate openly in public, screech wildly, eat their feces on occasion or inhale their fingers after plunging it up their anuses and vaginas like it was their last breath, don't need the coloring books or play-doh, either. These students have better emotional control than these "survivors" of bad pick up lines, bought drinks, and shoulder touches.

 

[Conscious Pirate]

“I don’t see how you can have a therapeutic space that’s also an intellectual space,” he said.

This is the key quote

 

[Alpone]

This is hilarious and true. The guys at MPC have some interesting comments too:

Anyway, the real triggering thing to these sheltered f****ts is obviously the fact that it's being framed as up for debate at all. Two speakers implies that rape culture is not in fact self-evident and needs to be proven, and you can't prove a paranoid delusion. Heather MacDonald has said some great stuff about how the universities are slowly, quietly reverting back to their older in loco parentis approach and hoping no one notices. http://mpcdot.com/forums/topic/8350-in-college-and-hiding-from-scary-ideas/page__st__20#entry200103

I find this over-sensitivity to "negativity" and "hate" common even in Millenials who are out of college. I recently had a friend who pretty much had an emotional breakdown because I gave him constructive criticism and refused to enable his self-pity/victim narrative. I'm only a couple years out of this demographic and even I find myself rolling my eyes at their constant need for "yes"s and non-stop agreement. When you finally burst their bubble and let them know the world isn't the way they think it is, expect fireworks.

To be fair, I do have cousins in their 20s and they're totally fine - open minded, willing to debate ideas, not easily offended. Ironically they were raised in the church and come from a strong republican family.

 

[RickyGP]

Other Barry, you know what is sad about your humorous comparison? Having actually checked out some My Little Pony, I can tell you that the ponies are mentally tougher than these 'safe room' attendees.

I WISH THAT WERE AN EXAGGERATION!

 

[TheWastelander]

Other Barry, you know what is sad about your humorous comparison? Having actually checked out some My Little Pony, I can tell you that the ponies are mentally tougher than these 'safe room' attendees.

I WISH THAT WERE AN EXAGGERATION!

 

[Tytalus]

Other Barry, you know what is sad about your humorous comparison? Having actually checked out some My Little Pony, I can tell you that the ponies are mentally tougher than these 'safe room' attendees.

I WISH THAT WERE AN EXAGGERATION!

LOL.

Fuck man. The place I work at (a college) is starting to have hints of this stuff - I just don't get it.

 

[kbell]

 

[Kingsley Davis]

I'm surprised there's not a Daily Show style program dedicated to mocking liberals and feminism. At this point the material would basically write itself.

Get familiar.

 

[Easy_C]

The entire rants about "negativity" are entirely a way to deflect criticism.

A friend of mine used to be active the local politics (Colorado Springs, Colorado) and he's noticed a lot of whining about "negativity" used to cover up corrupt agendas. He had some choice words to say about the subject when talking about the city (which he means with the abbreviation "COS"), but the same criticism applies almost any time you here someone start whining about "negativity"

People think I'm negative because they don't want to accept facts and reality, and frankly I'm tired of the double standards and hypocrisy. People talk about making this city better but so few will even admit what the challenges are in the first place. I asked honest questions hoping that someone would enlightenment dumb ol' me who apparently just doesn't get it because I'm just always negative in cheerleaders' eyes. There is a difference between having a positive attitude and resolve and blatantly ignoring reality. I will go back to ignoring COS and the networking, incestuous good ol' boy culture because no one wants to say the emperor isn't wearing clothes.

No one from that clique has ever been able to articulate a logical reason as to why what they do is a good thing. As long as everyone smiles, gets along and acts like f'n Mr. Rogers that is seen as "positive" and acceptable because THAT is the participation trophy and hubristic culture we have. Everyone wants to an Olympian but none want to put in the effort or want to accept that they just don't have the ability.

It makes me sad that people see this as "negative" and have a predisposition towards anything I say because of it. It makes me sick that people know something is wrong but are too afraid to say anything against it, or bite their tongue because they want to use that person or channel to "network" and build business, or that any level of discernment in regards to forward thinking and quality is "negative". This is why we have apathy, this is why we have entitled stupid voters like the girl in the article, this is why COS is not where it should be.

It applies all over. Nobody wants to accept criticism of feminism mostly because they're afraid of being ostracized from business networks, nobody will critique LGBT for the same reason, and anyone pointing out the destructive effects of the left-wing culture war is being "negative" or "bigoted".

He said it best:

Any level of discernment in regards to forward thinking and quality is "negative"

 

[Beyond Borders]

Without even attempting humor here, the use of Play-doh, coloring books, and puppy videos is in itself a very telling (and disturbing) indication of the psyche of these "rape culture" addicts. The acceptance of this behavior is truly mind-boggling, and it would be even if it wasn't taking place in a so-called center for higher learning.

I don't see how anyone can take American universities seriously at this point given what goes on there. Give me a library with some comfy chairs and a stack of old books any day of the week. College might be target-rich, but I'll meet my women in the real world, thank you very much.

 

[Sonsowey]

That Portlandia clip is killing me at the restaurant asking about the chicken.

"How big was the area the chickens could roam around?"

This is hilarious jesus.

 

[Akula]

Without even attempting humor here, the use of Play-doh, coloring books, and puppy videos is in itself a very telling (and disturbing) indication of the psyche of these "rape culture" addicts. The acceptance of this behavior is truly mind-boggling, and it would be even if it wasn't taking place in a so-called center for higher learning.

I don't see how anyone can take American universities seriously at this point given what goes on there. Give me a library with some comfy chairs and a stack of old books any day of the week. College might be target-rich, but I'll meet my women in the real world, thank you very much.

Yeah me neither. Not sure how more questions are not being asked about how bad it is in colleges these days. Let alone debating why one needs to fork over $150K+ as a parent to put a kid through (school so that they get indoctrinated into SJW culture (or just booze it up 4 years)). It's becoming a bit of a joke, but I guess you really need a degree and toe the PC/SJW party line to get any sort of decent job.

 

[RIslander]

From Arthur Schopenhauer's "On Women":

"Women are directly adapted to act as the nurses and educators of our early childhood, for the simple reason that they themselves are childish, foolish, and short-sighted—in a word, are big children all their lives, something intermediate between the child and the man, who is a man in the strict sense of the word. Consider how a young girl will toy day after day with a child, dance with it and sing to it; and then consider what a man, with the very best intentions in the world, could do in her place."

 

[General Stalin]

The room was equipped with cookies, coloring books, bubbles, Play-Doh, calming music, pillows, blankets and a video of frolicking puppies

:troll: ?

 

[spokepoker]

The room was equipped with cookies, coloring books, bubbles, Play-Doh, calming music, pillows, blankets and a video of frolicking puppies

:troll: ?

They are just trolling themselves.

 

[Snowplow]

Is the opposite of the safe space the

 

[Renzy]

Even The Onion is making fun of college kids and their hypersensitivities:

Students, Faculty Invited To Freely Express Single Viewpoint

BOSTON—Saying that such a dialogue was essential to the college’s academic mission, Trescott University president Kevin Abrams confirmed Monday that the school encourages a lively exchange of one idea. “As an institution of higher learning, we recognize that it’s inevitable that certain contentious topics will come up from time to time, and when they do, we want to create an atmosphere where both students and faculty feel comfortable voicing a single homogeneous opinion,” said Abrams, adding that no matter the subject, anyone on campus is always welcome to add their support to the accepted consensus. “Whether it’s a discussion of a national political issue or a concern here on campus, an open forum in which one argument is uniformly reinforced is crucial for maintaining the exceptional learning environment we have cultivated here.” Abrams told reporters that counseling resources were available for any student made uncomfortable by the viewpoint.

 

[DickDastardly]

delete

 

[Tigre]

My Title IX Inquisition: http://chronicle.com/article/My-Tit...xdAJqZHweM35rZm0VNzsAPSY8Mkl5MHpPaipybltcGQ==

Let me interject that I don’t think my university necessarily wanted to be the venue for a First Amendment face-off — indeed, the president himself had recently published an op-ed in defense of academic freedom. As I understand it, any Title IX charge that’s filed has to be investigated, which effectively empowers anyone on campus to individually decide, and expand, what Title IX covers. Anyone with a grudge, a political agenda, or a desire for attention can quite easily leverage the system.

And there are a lot of grudges these days. The reality is that the more colleges devote themselves to creating "safe spaces" — that new watchword — for students, the more dangerous those campuses become for professors. It’s astounding how aggressive students’ assertions of vulnerability have gotten in the past few years. Emotional discomfort is regarded as equivalent to material injury, and all injuries have to be remediated.

...

A tenured professor on my campus wrote about lying awake at night worrying that some stray remark of hers might lead to student complaints, social-media campaigns, eventual job loss, and her being unable to support her child. I’d thought she was exaggerating, but that was before I learned about the Title IX complaints against me.

This story is a continuation of one of the cases mentioned below (from the OP article).

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.

The protesters carried mattresses and demanded that the administration condemn the essay. One student complained that Professor Kipnis was “erasing the very traumatic experience” of victims who spoke out. An organizer of the demonstration said, “we need to be setting aside spaces to talk” about “victim-blaming.” Last Wednesday, Northwestern’s president, Morton O. Schapiro, wrote an op-ed article in The Wall Street Journal affirming his commitment to academic freedom. But plenty of others at universities are willing to dignify students’ fears, citing threats to their stability as reasons to cancel debates, disinvite commencement speakers and apologize for so-called mistakes.

 

[emilian]

Oh man...the west is full of spoiled kindegarden adults.