The Coddling of the American Mind

[mauricio]

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/09/the-coddling-of-the-american-mind/399356/

Something strange is happening at America’s colleges and universities. A movement is arising, undirected and driven largely by students, to scrub campuses clean of words, ideas, and subjects that might cause discomfort or give offense. Last December, Jeannie Suk wrote in an online article for The New Yorker about law students asking her fellow professors at Harvard not to teach rape lawâ€"or, in one case, even use the word violate (as in “that violates the law”) lest it cause students distress. In February, Laura Kipnis, a professor at Northwestern University, wrote an essay in The Chronicle of Higher Education describing a new campus politics of sexual paranoiaâ€"and was then subjected to a long investigation after students who were offended by the article and by a tweet she’d sent filed Title IX complaints against her. In June, a professor protecting himself with a pseudonym wrote an essay for Vox describing how gingerly he now has to teach. “I’m a Liberal Professor, and My Liberal Students Terrify Me,” the headline said. A number of popular comedians, including Chris Rock, have stopped performing on college campuses (see Caitlin Flanagan’s article in this month’s issue). Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Maher have publicly condemned the oversensitivity of college students, saying too many of them can’t take a joke.

The ultimate aim, it seems, is to turn campuses into “safe spaces” where young adults are shielded from words and ideas that make some uncomfortable. And more than the last, this movement seeks to punish anyone who interferes with that aim, even accidentally. You might call this impulse vindictive protectiveness. It is creating a culture in which everyone must think twice before speaking up, lest they face charges of insensitivity, aggression, or worse.

[Baruch]

Just part of establishing "thought crime".  The lib and cons only differ on which elite gets to F***K you.  As a freethinker, PC is anathema ... and Microsoft too ;-)  Give me a Mac or give me death!

It is true that guys shouldn't harass women.  But we are turning it into a profitable business of ... don't say X or you are harassing me (about whatever, not just sex).  Pretty soon the stock market psychos will be selling derivatives on some Harassment Index.  I would kidnap the whole Millennial generation, and ship them all on a slow boat to China.  Kind of like that movie where the rich guy wakes up in some Third World country and can't speak the local language.  Then they will either grow up or die.  That would be a much better education than anything they can get at college, and a lot less expensive.

[mauricio]

Just part of establishing "thought crime".  The lib and cons only differ on which elite gets to F***K you.  As a freethinker, PC is anathema ... and Microsoft too ;-)  Give me a Mac or give me death!

It is true that guys shouldn't harass women.  But we are turning it into a profitable business of ... don't say X or you are harassing me (about whatever, not just sex).  Pretty soon the stock market psychos will be selling derivatives on some Harassment Index.  I would kidnap the whole Millennial generation, and ship them all on a slow boat to China.  Kind of like that movie where the rich guy wakes up in some Third World country and can't speak the local language.  Then they will either grow up or die.  That would be a much better education than anything they can get at college, and a lot less expensive.

>mac, seriously nigga?

Agreed about political correctness, but i must inform you there are some millennials who have not drank the kool aid and we will fight the stupid out of our generation.

[stromboli]

The problem with trying to whitewash dissent and create an atmosphere of tolerance is that what you define as tolerance can also be used to subdue people into complacency. Complacency has killed more cultures than any other reason.

Better to have campus radicals that are exposing hypocrisy and intolerance than the reverse, imo.

[Shiranu]

Everyone is out "PCing" and "liberal-ing" their campus, and I'm just sitting here in the Quad listening to the hate preachers yell their message of how we are all sluts and sinners and how terrible women are....

[Hydra009]

Everyone is out "PCing" and "liberal-ing" their campus, and I'm just sitting here in the Quad listening to the hate preachers yell their message of how we are all sluts and sinners and how terrible women are....

I get both.  It's the worst of both worlds.

[mauricio]

I get both.  It's the worst of both worlds.

when i get into debates about abortion or homosexuality i get called a degenerate and a bigot by two very angry sides of the same coin. The horseshoe theory of politics is quite apt.

[josephpalazzo]

This is a product of cable TV: the people on the Right mainly watch Fox News; those on the Left, MSNBC. So the generation in colleges have lived a good part of their time within one of  those bubbles. Of course, once in college, they want that protection against what might give a hint of provocation. I think it's time to bring back compulsory army duty, like in many countries. Those kids need to be roughed up in the physical stage first so they will be able to withstand controversy in the mental stage.

[aitm]

Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Maher have publicly condemned the oversensitivity of college students, saying too many of them can’t take a joke.

I don't know if this is really a result of "political correctness" or people simply tired of jokes at other peoples' expense. For me, I have never enjoyed practical jokes on other people. I don't find other peoples misfortunes, fears or stumbles funny. I know people who laugh when old people fall as they cross the road, or teasing someone till they get mad or cry, poking animals until the get enraged and find it funny. Making Polish jokes, black jokes, gay jokes, retard jokes was very common in my youth and all was done with great laughter, but I never really thought it that funny to continue to repeat it. I simply find in more enjoyable in life, overall, to be able to laugh with people rather than laughing at them. Maybe some of humanity is growing up and don't find the same humor at even the littlest expense of others. Maybe comedians need to up their game instead of complain about the audience.

[stromboli]

I don't know if this is really a result of "political correctness" or people simply tired of jokes at other peoples' expense. For me, I have never enjoyed practical jokes on other people. I don't find other peoples misfortunes, fears or stumbles funny. I know people who laugh when old people fall as they cross the road, or teasing someone till they get mad or cry, poking animals until the get enraged and find it funny. Making Polish jokes, black jokes, gay jokes, retard jokes was very common in my youth and all was done with great laughter, but I never really thought it that funny to continue to repeat it. I simply find in more enjoyable in life, overall, to be able to laugh with people rather than laughing at them. Maybe some of humanity is growing up and don't find the same humor at even the littlest expense of others. Maybe comedians need to up their game instead of complain about the audience.

I hate practical jokers. It is nothing but a form of victimization. That aside, universities should be places of discussion of issues and not social clubs.

[jonb]

Not just America how about this story for this side of the pond


Students stop a local Mexican restaurant giving away Sombreros because that apparently is racist!

https://www.rt.com/uk/316923-students-ban-racist-sombreros/

If that is the case isn't the barreto itself racist?

[mauricio]

I don't know if this is really a result of "political correctness" or people simply tired of jokes at other peoples' expense. For me, I have never enjoyed practical jokes on other people. I don't find other peoples misfortunes, fears or stumbles funny. I know people who laugh when old people fall as they cross the road, or teasing someone till they get mad or cry, poking animals until the get enraged and find it funny. Making Polish jokes, black jokes, gay jokes, retard jokes was very common in my youth and all was done with great laughter, but I never really thought it that funny to continue to repeat it. I simply find in more enjoyable in life, overall, to be able to laugh with people rather than laughing at them. Maybe some of humanity is growing up and don't find the same humor at even the littlest expense of others. Maybe comedians need to up their game instead of complain about the audience.

keep in mind you are talking about Jerry Seinfield here, hes seems like a pretty clean comedian from what I have seen. The problem with the PC attitudes in college goes beyond not finding jokes funny, checkout the entire article.

[stromboli]

The beginning of universities dates back to the Middle Ages

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University

An important idea in the definition of a university is the notion of academic freedom. The first documentary evidence of this comes from early in the life of the first university. The University of Bologna adopted an academic charter, the Constitutio Habita,[6] in 1158 or 1155,[7] which guaranteed the right of a traveling scholar to unhindered passage in the interests of education. Today this is claimed as the origin of "academic freedom".[8] This is now widely recognised internationally - on 18 September 1988 430 university rectors signed the Magna Charta Universitatum,[9] marking the 900th anniversary of Bologna's foundation. The number of universities signing the Magna Charta Universitatum continues to grow, drawing from all parts of the world.

Anything that stifles either academic freedom or the ability to speak out against what is perceived as wrong or a social injustice should not be allowed. Universities traditionally are the places that philosophers, scientists and men of learning do their business and give us the knowledge that moves us forward. Anything that dumbs it down is wrong.

[Baruch]

Not just America how about this story for this side of the pond


Students stop a local Mexican restaurant giving away Sombreros because that apparently is racist!

https://www.rt.com/uk/316923-students-ban-racist-sombreros/

If that is the case isn't the barreto itself racist?

Yes, we need to invade Russia, to prevent them from drinking vodka, because we can't let them stereotype themselves ;-)

[jonb]

No that's an old stereotype these days we do not so much invade, but seem content to presume to sort out problems by bombing from the air.