Trigger Warnings on Campus - Lengthy Article

[RIPWarrior]

They are sending our future minds into a reckless highway of confusion filled with incompetence. They need to get serious about studies in America we keep tumbling down the rankings every year consistently. I wonder why they would do that to us. HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM :icon_lol:

Stop thinking you racist.

 

[Thunderflash500]

There are examples of feminism being insane. Usually it happens when they talk about sex. They pretend like women don't like romance. They act like women are helpless if they have a sip of alcohol, yet men stay in control. Saying that though, I see no problem with micro agressions. They are real. I don't see anything wrong with a learning institution setting the standard. Hey, don't make fun of an Asian because he doesn't get an A. Unless you know that's what you're doing. You can be funny, and joke. But you should realize the territory you're on. It's offensive. What's really happening is assholes who aren't funny ate getting called out and they are butt hurt about it.

People fight change tooth and nail. It's good for liberal extremists in many ways. They are wrong sometimes, but more than nut they are correcting a backwards and deeply racist and hateful society. Sorry you can't say *** anymore without realizing you're offending someone. You always were. But now you know. Sorry for the inconvenience and butt hurt.

I think women are second rate minds for the most part. Maybe its from culture or just genetics, idk. So feminism fails a lot (they are led by second rate minds). The low hanging fruit is gone and it's getting harder for them to make arguments to improve society. But they have done a pretty good job up until now. Their take on sex is hilariously stupid "fill out this form before engaging in foreplay" putting on a condom it's hard enough, I'm not filling shit out. No chick would be turned on by that. And their position that women are inferior to men and can't drink any amount of alcohol is insane. But they will probably come around eventually.

The crazy extremists, and butt hurt hicks all play a part in advancing society safely.

 

[lildog]

People of becoming more and more aware of all the batshit feelings and ideas that are out there. Most of these ideas have been out there for a while to one degree or another. Now we have wifi, smartphones, streaming, Youtube, and everyone has a mini camera on their cellphone etc. So that means every jackass has a mouthpiece like never before. People are going to have to start being a lot more selective about what they watch/hear/read on the internet. We're going to have filters of our choosing. Confirmation bias can be a real problem, but paying attention to every extreme viewpoint was never suppose to be the norm. We're in a massive transition in many ways. Hopefully most of this shit will be a mute point sooner rather than later.

 

[Shokushu Goukan]

It doesn't bother me that people are so sheltered and oversensitive because I know once they are on their own and in the real world, reality is going to give them the ass whipping of their lives.

Yes, letting them take a beating is much better than helping them to begin with.
I want to raise a baby in a bubble and at 18 throw it to the wolves. You deserve that ass whipping for me not raising your right, you little asshole.

Are you one of them sterilizers?

 

[dontsnitch]

Saying that though, I see no problem with micro agressions. They are real. I don't see anything wrong with a learning institution setting the standard. Hey, don't make fun of an Asian because he doesn't get an A.

Setting a standard and creating a safe learning environment is fine, it's what exactly is being called into question that is not. Not allowing a Camel to be used as part of a campus activity because it's offensive to Middle Eastern makes that standard unrealistic, and blurs the line to the point that no one knows what the standard actually is. This new environment is ironically more hostile.

 

[dontsnitch]

People of becoming more and more aware of all the batshit feelings and ideas that are out there. Most of these ideas have been out there for a while to one degree or another. Now we have wifi, smartphones, streaming, Youtube, and everyone has a mini camera on their cellphone etc. So that means every jackass has a mouthpiece like never before. People are going to have to start being a lot more selective about what they watch/hear/read on the internet. We're going to have filters of our choosing. Confirmation bias can be a real problem, but paying attention to every extreme viewpoint was never suppose to be the norm. We're in a massive transition in many ways. Hopefully most of this shit will be a mute point sooner rather than later.

I don't think that this is an epidemic. If we take all the cases and add them up across all the campuses in America, they are an insignificant percentage. The problem as I see it is not the degree to which this happens, but that the ability for this to happens exist in the first place.

The examples presented here are so absurd that they should never have made it to the public eye because they should not have been given any credence, and the fact that they have is the problem, that the arena exists in the first place, not the extent of which ridiculousness rises from it.

 

[klnOmega]

Is it? How do we know it's not something simple like just needing to refer to people from the United States of America? What else makes sense? United Statesers? United States of America'ers? Anybody else actually got "America" in the name of their country?

Exactly. If American is a microagression, then United States of America must be a micro aggression for all the same reasons.

We are going to have to change the name of our country to be politically correct.

 

[James Keith]

People fight change tooth and nail. It's good for liberal extremists in many ways. They are wrong sometimes, but more than nut they are correcting a backwards and deeply racist and hateful society. Sorry you can't say *** anymore without realizing you're offending someone. You always were. But now you know. Sorry for the inconvenience and butt hurt.

I think you have this backwards. Society evolves on its own. The radicals are just the people who go off the deep end with the fashionable new political topics of the day. They may or may not correctly guess the future path that everyone else will follow.

If spunky activists were the means to achieve societal progress then we'd all be anarchists and revolutionary marxists by now. Those guys have been working the code-pink playbook for centuries now. Activists might help speed progress along, but only if their ideas resonate with people, meaning the basic idea is already growing there. Spitting on people and calling them scum over shadows and imaginary insults sure isn't going to create much resonance.

 

[in the]

It's hard to ignore that these notions of "trigger warnings" and "safe spaces" (that usually coincide with certain types of ideologies) generally come from the political left, individuals less than 25 years of age, and a certain vein of feminism. That doesn't mean that all lefties, young people, or feminists are crazy, just that this particular brand of crazy is stemming from a certain group of people. Sure, it's a fad, but it's an annoying-as-fuck fad, and many times the offended end up being the bullies of a particular situation.

Alain De Botton on being offended.

That was good. Like he said, being offended is a choice you make. It doesn't, or shouldn't, give a person any type of high ground or make one automatically right.

Like Patrice O'Neal said, "'inappropriate' is a vaginal word."

 

[OldGoat]

Once triggered, the proper pavlovian response is to do this:

Usually accompanied by some preloaded terms to silence the target and trigger others in the nearby vicinity so that they can come assist.

Can I get an amen?

 

[Awesomesauce]

Alain De Botton on being offended.

One of the best youtube videos I have ever seen.

 

[Awesomesauce]

this is ironic coming from the most offendable poster in the WR.

The fact that your so remarkably stupid as to not see why he would post that and you would be a prime target of it is among the most ironic things I have ever read. I don't even like most of Atheists posts, but you are one of the worst and most utterly irrational posters I have ever seen on this forum and I have been here a while and simply viewing this forum for much longer then I have been posting.

 

[EasternCruelty]

This hypersensitivity to every fucking word is my trigger. People have skin as thick as a baby's these days and it disgusts me. You have to tiptoe around everything so you don't offend anyone. Reminds me of King of the Hill. New employee was an addict and his addiction was a "disability" and was allowed to do whatever necessary to cope while on the job. This turned into Joe-Jack getting so angry that his anger was "disabling" him and refusing to work because he was triggered.

"I'm triggered, I demand things change to appease me because I'm a minority of some sort that I likely created because I need to be different. Notice how different I am but don't draw attention to it because that's ignorant and bigoted but make sure everyone knows because if you don't, then you're part of the problem because you won't acknowledge that I'm different and you're privileged and we're equal but I deserve more rights because the patriarchy encourages rape culture and gender roles and don't say the word fat because that's fat shaming that also makes thin people feel bad about being thin but don't mention skinny because that's thin shaming but also fat shaming because it draws attention to bigger people not being thin."

This is social media in a nutshell. This sort of hand-holding and coddling is ruining western society. Social media has given far too much power to these weak-minded fools and that turns into creating issues out of the slightest of things.

of course. Wouldn't be surprised if it eventually turns into this:

How? How can she slap?!

 

[Harmonica]

It's all about associations.

Anything can become a trigger using the same techniques.

Associate X with Y, so that when X is encountered, Y is immediately invoked.

For the American flag, it could be associated with positive things which would invoke positive feelings (used for instilling patriotism) or it can be associated to negative things (imperialism)

It's pretty basic, and operant conditioning is the tool of choice to make these associations stick.

You could have people trigger at the word 'apple' using these techniques. Anything. you'd just have to reinforce a negative association so that when the word is heard, that association is invoked and all the emotional baggage that comes with it.

Show someone an apple, and play scary noises and show pictures of a murder scene (create emotional trauma). Do that a bunch of times and eventually when the person thinks of an apple they will be traumatized.

Mass marketing also uses these principals to create positive associations with their products. It works both ways.

This hypersensitivity to every fucking word is my trigger. People have skin as thick as a baby's these days and it disgusts me. You have to tiptoe around everything so you don't offend anyone. Reminds me of King of the Hill. New employee was an addict and his addiction was a "disability" and was allowed to do whatever necessary to cope while on the job. This turned into Joe-Jack getting so angry that his anger was "disabling" him and refusing to work because he was triggered.

"I'm triggered, I demand things change to appease me because I'm a minority of some sort that I likely created because I need to be different. Notice how different I am but don't draw attention to it because that's ignorant and bigoted but make sure everyone knows because if you don't, then you're part of the problem because you won't acknowledge that I'm different and you're privileged and we're equal but I deserve more rights because the patriarchy encourages rape culture and gender roles and don't say the word fat because that's fat shaming that also makes thin people feel bad about being thin but don't mention skinny because that's thin shaming but also fat shaming because it draws attention to bigger people not being thin."

This is social media in a nutshell. This sort of hand-holding and coddling is ruining western society. Social media has given far too much power to these weak-minded fools and that turns into creating issues out of the slightest of things.

How? How can she slap?!

Great posts.

What I would like to point out is that the only ones who can rise above this psychological conditioning are those truly eccentric souls who don't care all that much about people's good opinion of them in the first place.

The reason people conform to these new established trends is because they are afraid of being isolated from society, which is in itself an evolutionary fear since in the long ago times, it literally meant you're going to die from starvation or some other cause because your community would banish you for instigating dissent.

There's literally no reason to allow that fear to rule over us in this day and age. We can recognize it's origins, that were once rational and are now irrational, and fight it with the power of our will. Take away their leverage and they will become just a bunch of meaningless noise.

He who is not afraid of loneliness is impervious to these darts.

 

[Metusalemi]

I hope these "triggered" people realize how exhausting it is to spend time with them. You have to tip toe around everything. You are constantly walking on egg shells.

Nobody can uphold a friendship with a person like that.

 

[Oldmansavage]

I hope these "triggered" people realize how exhausting it is to spend time with them. You have to tip toe around everything. You are constantly walking on egg shells.

Nobody can uphold a friendship with a person like that.

Agreed. They should be openly shamed, mocked, and continually reviled into obscurity. The reason they have so much power is because most people are polite.

 

[IDL]

Great posts.

What I would like to point out is that the only ones who can rise above this psychological conditioning are those truly eccentric souls who don't care all that much about people's good opinion of them in the first place.

The reason people conform to these new established trends is because they are afraid of being isolated from society, which is in itself an evolutionary fear since in the long ago times, it literally meant you're going to die from starvation or some other cause because your community would banish you for instigating dissent.

There's literally no reason to allow that fear to rule over us in this day and age. We can recognize it's origins, that were once rational and are now irrational, and fight it with the power of our will. Take away their leverage and they will become just a bunch of meaningless noise.

He who is not afraid of loneliness is impervious to these darts.

Couldn't agree more. Seeing it for what it is disempowers it almost completely. It becomes a cheap parlor trick.

That is a good point on eccentricity, and that is a big part of the conditioning process to sort of 'shun' those who don't accept the marketed idea. To see them as somehow defective, or bad.

Bertrand Russel mentions this as a persuasion technique, and also mentions that the techniques must be kept away from peoples knowledge. If people are aware of them they don't work.

This subject will make great strides when it is taken up by scientists under a scientific dictatorship. Anaxagoras maintained that snow is black, but no one believed him. The social psychologists of the future will have a number of classes of school children on whom they will try different methods of producing an unshakable conviction that snow is black. Various results will soon be arrived at. First, that the influence of home is obstructive. Second, that not much can be done unless indoctrination begins before the age of ten. Third, that verses set to music and repeatedly intoned are very effective. Fourth, that the opinion that snow is white must be held to show a morbid taste for eccentricity. But I anticipate. It is for future scientists to make these maxims precise and discover exactly how much it costs per head to make children believe that snow is black, and how much less it would cost to make them believe it is dark gray. Although this science will be diligently studied, it will be rigidly confined to the governing class. The populace will not be allowed to know how its convictions were generated. When the technique has been perfected, every government that has been in charge of education for a generation will be able to control its subjects securely without the need of armies or policemen. As yet there is only one country which has succeeded in creating this politician's paradise.

- Bertrand Russell, The Impact of Science on Society, 1952
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Impact_of_Science_on_Society

 

[Matt M]

It's just down to people who are professionals at being offended, or at least pretending to be offended. Usually on behalf of someone else.

I've said it before - much of it is a completely shitty and selfish act. They think by showing public offense or blowing certain issues up makes them come across as a better human being.

 

[Harmonica]

Couldn't agree more. Seeing it for what it is disempowers it almost completely. It becomes a cheap parlor trick.

That is a good point on eccentricity, and that is a big part of the conditioning process to sort of 'shun' those who don't accept the marketed idea. To see them as somehow defective, or bad.

Bertrand Russel mentions this as a persuasion technique, and also mentions that the techniques must be kept away from peoples knowledge. If people are aware of them they don't work.

What's funny is that I've become aware of this without interference from others, by the means of pure intuition, if we, of course, exclude my parents who always taught me that the harder a thought is forced on me the harder I should question it.

Great quote by Russell.

I especially like the part about the need to indoctrinate children before the age of ten. Last couple of years, I have observed my friends who became parents and their relationship with children. My conclusion is that it's downright unfathomable how non reluctant parents are when it comes to some outer/non-family institution instilling values in their children.

I always say that, as a parent, what you sow till puberty kicks in, you're going to reap till the rest of your life. It is important to allow children to challenge you and go "roam freely", but if you had done a good job, they will always come back to the source.

 

[IDL]

What's funny is that I've become aware of this without interference from others, by the means of pure intuition, if we, of course, exclude my parents who always taught me that the harder a thought is forced on me the harder I should question it.

Great quote by Russell.

I especially like the part about the need to indoctrinate children before the age of ten. Last couple of years, I have observed my friends who became parents and their relationship with children. My conclusion is that it's downright unfathomable how non reluctant parents are when it comes to some outer/non-family institution instilling values in their children.

I always say that, as a parent, what you sow till puberty kicks in, you're going to reap till the rest of your life. It is important to allow children to challenge you and go "roam freely", but if you had done a good job, they will always come back to the source.

Yeah a lot of the time just questioning it deconstructs it but without seeing it as a persuasion technique (a con basically) it will just become another thing that doesn't quite add up. I think to fully neutralize it the mechanism need to be understood, at least in a general sense.

It becomes understandable that to most effectively employ this on a population, a separation between children and parents needs to inserted. I had read that in the soviet union they would teach children to 'rat out' their parents for having views that went against their teaching and such. Also there will be a desire to setup state run daycare / childcare facilities and generally create an environment where the child gets less from their parents and more from the state.

Certainly the younger the child is the more effective it is, but it's also amazing to see how effective the current Marxist based indoctrination can be at the university level (with the help of media and such). It doesn't work on everyone though and if it started earlier it would be more effective.

Yeah those children that were allowed to roam free and challenge things are probably the ones not buying into it later on in life.