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What. Universities stifling free speech? Please educate a person fairly clueless of daily issues in UK and USA - is this really happening at a scale?

by fsloth 11y ago

DanBC 11y ago
Yes, it's becoming pretty common in UK universities. Luckily there's some push back to prevent it, and that push back is coming from both sides. There are people who want to protect freedom of speech[1], and there are people who want to explain what "trigger" actually means - it's not a means to avoid anything, it's a tool to help the very small number of people who need it to be prepared to confront challenging situations. Most university situations would never need trigger warnings. It's frustrating that this stigmatising disempowering bit of ignorance has taken such a strong hold over some communities. [1] and it's useful to have people like Fry (who is gay and has a severe and enduring mental illness) and Tatchell (also gay and has campaigned for years for LGBT rights) on that side of the argument
kristofferR 11y ago
Yes, unfortunately. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/12022041/How-political-correctness-rules-in-Americas-student-safe-spaces.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/1... http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/11/how-campus-activists-are-weaponizing-the-safe-space/415080/ http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/11/how-camp...
- fsloth 11y ago
  "...student had asked a colleague not to use the word 'violate’ – as in ''does this conduct violate the law'' – because the term might trigger distress”. Oh lordy. For a moment there I thought I was reading an issue of The Onion.
  - JorgeGT 11y ago
    "It is thus demonstrated that the perpetual motion machine of the first kind [redacted] the First Law of Thermodynamics..."
    - Ygg2 11y ago
      "We [redacted] the first barrier of the organism".
  - anexprogrammer 11y ago
    Sadly they reached the point of reductio ad absurdum perhaps a decade ago. It's a little frightening how similar it is to newspeak (1984) in attempting to eradicate undesirable concepts.
  - Cthulhu_ 11y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law
bruceb 11y ago
I would say no. There have been some troubling instances but to say that free speech is broadly being stifled is going overboard. Saying you have no free speech anymore on campus does get you more clicks though!

What. Universities stifling free speech? Please educate a person fairly clueless of daily issues in UK and USA - is this really happening at a scale?

by fsloth 11y ago

What. Universities stifling free speech? Please educate a person fairly clueless of daily issues in UK and USA - is this really happening at a scale?

DanBC 11y ago

Yes, it's becoming pretty common in UK universities. Luckily there's some push back to prevent it, and that push back is coming from both sides. There are people who want to protect freedom of speech[1], and there are people who want to explain what "trigger" actually means - it's not a means to avoid anything, it's a tool to help the very small number of people who need it to be prepared to confront challenging situations. Most university situations would never need trigger warnings. It's frustrating that this stigmatising disempowering bit of ignorance has taken such a strong hold over some communities. [1] and it's useful to have people like Fry (who is gay and has a severe and enduring mental illness) and Tatchell (also gay and has campaigned for years for LGBT rights) on that side of the argument

kristofferR 11y ago

Yes, unfortunately. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/12022041/How-political-correctness-rules-in-Americas-student-safe-spaces.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/1... http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/11/how-campus-activists-are-weaponizing-the-safe-space/415080/ http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/11/how-camp...

fsloth 11y ago
"...student had asked a colleague not to use the word 'violate’ – as in ''does this conduct violate the law'' – because the term might trigger distress”. Oh lordy. For a moment there I thought I was reading an issue of The Onion.
- JorgeGT 11y ago
  "It is thus demonstrated that the perpetual motion machine of the first kind [redacted] the First Law of Thermodynamics..."
  - Ygg2 11y ago
    "We [redacted] the first barrier of the organism".
- anexprogrammer 11y ago
  Sadly they reached the point of reductio ad absurdum perhaps a decade ago. It's a little frightening how similar it is to newspeak (1984) in attempting to eradicate undesirable concepts.
- Cthulhu_ 11y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law

bruceb 11y ago

I would say no. There have been some troubling instances but to say that free speech is broadly being stifled is going overboard. Saying you have no free speech anymore on campus does get you more clicks though!