Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/22/opinion/sunday/judith-shulevitz-hiding-from-scary-ideas.html
Today's college students have it rough. Non-stop studying, tests, homework, reports, and even hiding in a room when someone says something you disagree with. Wait. What?
So when she heard last fall that a student group had organized a debate about campus sexual assault between Jessica Valenti, the founder of feministing.com, and Wendy McElroy, a libertarian, and that Ms. McElroy was likely to criticize the term “rape culture,” Ms. Byron was alarmed.
Criticism? Say it isn't so! But how can we shield ourselves from these new ideas?
Meanwhile, student volunteers put up posters advertising that a “safe space” would be available for anyone who found the debate too upsetting. 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.
Oh. What a relief. I'm glad that today's young adults are fragile enough that they may need to leave a debate when someone starts disagreeing with them. But why have these debates at all? Won't somebody think of the children?
At Oxford University’s Christ Church college in November, the college censors (a “censor” being more or less the Oxford equivalent of an undergraduate dean) canceled a debate on abortion after campus feminists threatened to disrupt it because both would-be debaters were men. “I’m relieved the censors have made this decision,” said the treasurer of Christ Church’s student union
Phew. That's good. We can't let these men talk about things. They might rape someone. But what about whites? Whites are always up to no good!
A year and a half ago, a Hampshire College student group disinvited an Afrofunk band that had been attacked on social media for having too many white musicians; the vitriolic discussion had made students feel “unsafe.”
That's good. They might have started to enslave people. White people scare me, and we didn't even have a room full of puppies and cookies at the time!
So, Newgrounds. What do you think? Do you think that this ultra snowflake-coddling hand-holding nonsense is actually helping to prepare young adults for the future, or do you have an IQ in the triple digits?
Discuss.
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We also have a safe room available should this discussion prove too much for your fragile mind to handle. You'll find cookies, puppies, and pictures of white men being beaten. Have a fun, safe, and terribly uninspired time!
