Post: #1

From the New Republic:

Quote:The headline above would, if some readers had their way, include a "trigger warning"—a disclaimer to alert you that this article contains potentially traumatic subject matter. Such warnings, which are most commonly applied to discussions about rape, sexual abuse, and mental illness, have appeared on message boards since the early days of the Web. Some consider them an irksome tic of the blogosphere’s most hypersensitive fringes, and yet they've spread from feminist forums and social media to sites as large as the The Huffington Post. Now, the trigger warning is gaining momentum beyond the Internet—at some of the nation's most prestigious universities.

Last week, student leaders at the University of California, Santa Barbara, passed a resolution urging officials to institute mandatory trigger warnings on class syllabi. Professors who present "content that may trigger the onset of symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder" would be required to issue advance alerts and allow students to skip those classes. According to UCSB newspaper The Daily Nexus, Bailey Loverin, the student who sponsored the proposal, decided to push the issue after attending a class in which she “felt forced” to sit through a film that featured an “insinuation” of sexual assault and a graphic depiction of rape. A victim of sexual abuse, she did not want to remain in the room, but she feared she would only draw attention to herself by walking out.


On college campuses across the country, a growing number of students are demanding trigger warnings on class content. Many instructors are obliging with alerts in handouts and before presentations, even emailing notes of caution ahead of class. At Scripps College, lecturers give warnings before presenting a core curriculum class, the “Histories of the Present: Violence," although some have questioned the value of such alerts when students are still required to attend class. Oberlin College has published an official document on triggers, advising faculty members to "be aware of racism, classism, sexism, heterosexism, cissexism, ableism, and other issues of privilege and oppression," to remove triggering material when it doesn't "directly" contribute to learning goals and "strongly consider" developing a policy to make "triggering material" optional. Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, it states, is a novel that may "trigger readers who have experienced racism, colonialism, religious persecution, violence, suicide and more." Warnings have been proposed even for books long considered suitable material for high-schoolers: Last month, a Rutgers University sophomore suggested that an alert for F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby say, "TW: suicide, domestic abuse and graphic violence."

What began as a way of moderating Internet forums for the vulnerable and mentally ill now threatens to define public discussion both online and off. The trigger warning signals not only the growing precautionary approach to words and ideas in the university, but a wider cultural hypersensitivity to harm and a paranoia about giving offense. And yet, for all the debate about the warnings on campuses and on the Internet, few are grappling with the ramifications for society as a whole.

The only thing I will say is this: I am so glad I am done with college.

Post: #2

This some hysterical 2014 fad.

Post: #3

I graduated last spring, and I feel like Indiana Jones squeaking through the crack below the closing door. I barely managed to snag my hat with my arm intact before the door to reason slammed shut behind me.

College is no longer the province of men. With the exception of the STEM fields, college is a self-esteem and self-help center for "oppressed" groups to learn the ins and outs of identity politics and "social justice". There's nothing of value happening in 80% of the classrooms at any given moment.

This sort of thing will only make the environment less hospitable for men. Everyone is handled with kid gloves, every far-flung opinion is applauded, and there is no sense of competition or frank discussion anymore.

Simply put, if you can't handle conversing about sensitive issues, you're not an adult. You don't deserve a seat at the big kids' table. "Trigger warnings" and the like lower the expectations of students even further. Not only are they not challenged to think, they're now immune from being offended. I can't wait until higher education collapses under the weight of its own misguided social engineering.

Post: #4

I want trigger warnings whenever I view content that depicts obese women or discusses feminist arguments in anything but a dismissive context.

Post: #5

If my 7 year old cousin can discuss rape and watch a graphic documentary about the Holocaust, I'm pretty sure that some grown-ass college students can discuss semi-sensitive matters in an intellectual manner.

Post: #6

This trivializes some of the people with actual triggers, too. I've met some vets who could go absolutely ballistic, throwing telephones they ripped off the wall at their boss ballistic, when they were hit with certain stimuli. They learned to deal with it at therapy sessions at the VA, not by hiding from the darker aspects of human existence.

"Trigger warning" is just some new buzzword for "disclaimer" that will ultimately be used to censor and restrict speech found unappealing to the leftists of Academia by correlating views they disagree with with double-plus-ungood topics like rape and murder.

Post: #7

Hmm... college students who have experienced "colonialism"...

Post: #8

(03-05-2014 10:35 PM)Blunt Wrote:  Hmm... college students who have experienced "colonialism"...

As a Canadian, this is a very traumatic topic for me. I'm still getting over the War of 1812.

Post: #9

My article in one week is going to deal with trigger warnings.

As the article points out, most of these aren't PTSD-triggers but ego-triggers. The same way troll has come to mean someone who disagrees with me, trigger-warning has come to apply to any opinion which might offend.

Post: #10

This is a new meme. I noticed it makin it's way into my internet in last two monthes.

Post: #11

(03-05-2014 10:12 PM)TheStraightWhiteMale Wrote:  I graduated last spring, and I feel like Indiana Jones squeaking through the crack below the closing door. I barely managed to snag my hat with my arm intact before the door to reason slammed shut behind me.

Great and very accurate metaphor!

Post: #12

The only "ism" women should be concerned about is my "jizm"

Post: #13

(03-06-2014 02:04 AM)soup Wrote:  This is a new meme. I noticed it makin it's way into my internet in last two monthes.

It's actually been around a lot longer than that, but now it's started to creep into mainstream language. Now it's basically a prefix for anything fat, ugly and mentally ill (or some combination thereof) women have no counter-argument for.

[TRIGGER WARNING] Things Men Still Actually Believe
[TRIGGER WARNING] Patriarchy Is Alive And Well
[TRIGGER WARNING] Misogynist Pigs Blame Victim Instead Of Rapist

Notice the implication here. Regardless of the content, our opinions are now supposedly physically harming the large swathes of white middle class women with bachelor's degrees by triggering their PTSD. Now they may not have served in a war, or really suffered anything beyond the mildest discomfiture, but don't you dare question how they developed PTSD you misogynistic piece of shit, because that's one of their triggers. Oh my god, you are literally worse than Hitler.

It's worth noting that when members of the hive-mind see a [TRIGGER WARNING], they are genuinely triggered. Not a PTSD "trigger"; more like a pack of bloodhounds being given the scent of an escaped convict. Before they even read the article, they know that they are supposed to hate the men being quoted, but the [TRIGGER WARNING] kicks it up a notch. These men are literally hurting people by having the wrong opinion, and it's the duty of all empowered, feminist warriors to stop them at any cost.

Post: #14

(03-05-2014 10:12 PM)TheStraightWhiteMale Wrote:  Simply put, if you can't handle conversing about sensitive issues, you're not an adult. You don't deserve a seat at the big kids' table. "Trigger warnings" and the like lower the expectations of students even further. Not only are they not challenged to think, they're now immune from being offended. I can't wait until higher education collapses under the weight of its own misguided social engineering.

You're going to fit in well around here. Very good point, and I too hope it collapses.

Post: #15

Wow just wow. I thought I narrowly avoided the gauntlet back in 2012. Shit got real now.

I would have thrown a fit in college if this was done. I would have no qualms calling out the BS.

Post: #16

Even some liberals are hating on trigger warnings these days, there was an article about this in the news yesterday

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree...productive

Post: #17

(03-06-2014 06:15 AM)Ocelot Wrote:  Notice the implication here. Regardless of the content, our opinions are now supposedly physically harming the large swathes of white middle class women with bachelor's degrees by triggering their PTSD. Now they may not have served in a war, or really suffered anything beyond the mildest discomfiture, but don't you dare question how they developed PTSD you misogynistic piece of shit, because that's one of their triggers. Oh my god, you are literally worse than Hitler.

Yep. This paves the way for censorship, and ultimately to self-censorship inside your own head. They want people to not just refrain from expressing non-leftist approved (i.e., non-PC) opinions, they want you to not even think it in your own head.

We already have the first wave of mind crime laws - i.e., hate crime legislation. Standby for more such measures that penalize you for your non-PC thoughts.

Post: #18

I picture one of two scenarios.

1) A class on gender studies/inequality/psychology/bullshit that explicitly stated something about discussing rape on the syllabus that the dumb bitch didn't read.

2) A class on WWII or something where they discussed thousands of men were horrifically slaughtered followed by a mention of rape that also occurred during occupations that upset her.

Post: #19

I thought the micro-aggression thing was extreme, but they still keep coming up with new material. They are just getting started. They are making the world safe for mental defectives and a nightmare for everyone else.