4 ms·
It's not at all the same thing. It's actually a pretty meaningless phrase if you think about it for a second. A safe space is a place where you won't be challe
by hmcq6 3y ago
It's not at all the same thing. It's actually a pretty meaningless phrase if you think about it for a second.
A safe space is a place where you won't be challenged. A brave space is a place where you will be challenged and held to the standards of civility politics, or in other words it's just anywhere that isn't a safe space.
It's basically just rules for a less formal debate. But debates don't prove anything and they don't seem to change minds. Every topic under the sun has already been debated to death and posted on youtube, why do we need to let it play out again in the classroom? Who gains from this?
Now, with the right authority leading the classroom and all willing participants a brave space would be a fantastic place to have discussions. But on the handful of hot-button topics I can think of right now it does put the onus on a group who are very likely victims (some of which may not have publicly come out about their status) to have a civil conversation with people who could have just as easily found this info online.
To be clear, if you're not willing to enforce a safe space for your students but you are willing to enforce a "brave space", I appreciate that. I appreciate you understanding and making that distinction clear. I just don't know how a "brave space" is any different than following the rules of the school? And if the educator feels uniquely qualified to moderate this debate why not just prepare a lecture?
- jruohonen 3y ago> I just don't know how a "brave space" is any different than following the rules of the school? Me neither. And not only the rules of a school but also the laws of a country. Although I haven't contemplated it fully, I tend to align with Mrs. Anderson: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38260137 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38260137
- hmcq6 3y agoI've never heard of this person or organization and I don't really see what this article has to do with "brave spaces" except to be a good example of someone that I wouldn't trust to be a neutral arbiter. That said the article isn't horrible. I think she's stretching the definition of "pogrom". The article makes no mention of rising Islamophobia. And since the author is surprisingly sparse when it comes to enumerating examples of hate speech I'm hesitant to fully agree. There's a lot of nut jobs out there trying to redefine what is and isn't hate speech right now. Like people who want to redefine "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" as hate speech. No doubt, some of what went down at Cornell was anti-semitic. But, if I put aside those complaints I more or less agree with her. But... I'm not dumb enough to think that literally trying to police speech that makes you uncomfortable is somehow better than a safe space and Mrs. Anderson is walking a precarious line.
- jruohonen 3y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Index_on_Censorship https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Index_on_Censorship
- hmcq6 3y agoWho watches the watchmen? I would think someone who's whole career is about censorship would be extra careful when arguing that speech should be censored but... something something bias..
- jruohonen 3y agoIndeed. Given their glorious past regarding samizdat and related things, I think they're probably between a rock and a hard place with these things. Here is an example of the great essays they've published: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38634298 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38634298
- hmcq6 3y agoI've lost faith in institutions. I came back to give Mrs. Anderson the benefit of the doubt but I noticed the second typo in the first article and it's just like... isn't that your one job? First - "Is" should be capitalized: "express themselves on campus. is it threats from" Second: "Acamfemic" Third incorrectly worded sentence: "The very name of the Act it[self] suggests that those on campus have complete freedom of speech without limitation." Fourth: "The[ir] purpose is to expose students to the breadth of views and ideas that exist in their particular discipline and ideally challenge their worldview – allowing them to argue back" And if I really wanted to nit pick there's a hand full of other issues (incorrect oxford comma, incorrectly pluralized words, missing hyphen). It's sloppy.