“We’re not talking about bigoted, vitriolic hate speech. This pertains to ideas that someone might disagree with or speakers whose politics you might not like. What we are talking about is life, and we are protecting our young adults from it.”
I never thought it was this bad. Coming from a somewhat politically incorrect background, I have a tough time with the lunacy that we now face. My background of law enforcement, military, security contracting, and being in the company of those like me most of my life did not lend to being the kinder, gentler type of guy. I am not still dragging my knuckles on the ground, mind you, but I have always been self-sufficient and firmly believe in being responsible for one’s actions.
Now, at the ripe old age of 60, I am going to college. I am in law school, so the students I am with are supposed to be the smart ones, a cut above. Law school is not easy to get into and even harder to stay in. The workload is enormous. So, realizing that I would be with people who had good heads on their shoulders, I was amazed at the lack of understanding of how the real world works.
We have all seen this coming for a long time, or we should have. I blame the results on us, the people who should have stopped this slide into oblivion that may well be coming. Just look around and see what we have allowed to happen.
Safe Spaces
Now that’s a novel idea. Safe spaces were originally designed, in the university setting of course, as a place that LBGT students could feel safe and not bullied or discriminated against. It has now been expanded to a separate actual place where students who feel marginalized can come together and talk about their marginalization. The problem with this is that only speech that is seen as acceptable is allowed. Freedom of speech is what is really marginalized.
Triggered
The popular definition of triggered is when someone claims that something is so upsetting to them that it causes extreme mental and/or emotional anguish. Society has become so overly concerned with this that entire policies are being put in place to make sure people aren’t inadvertently “triggered.”
Normal Americans are exposed to stuff they don’t like all the time. That doesn’t mean they have to run and hide their head in the sand or shut themselves up in a closet and hope the bad words don’t get them.
The growing and fairly new notion that colleges must be “safe spaces” is simply wrong. The policies now try to make sure students are protected from language that might offend them or topics that might be psychologically trying, therefore triggering them.
We’re not talking about bigoted, vitriolic hate speech. This pertains to ideas that someone might disagree with or speakers whose politics you might not like. What we are talking about is life, and we are protecting our young adults from it. Normal Americans are exposed to stuff they don’t like all the time. That doesn’t mean they have to run and hide their head in the sand or shut themselves up in a closet and hope the bad words don’t get them.
The violent side of political correctness
Then you have the groups that have taken the other approach. They are violent, hateful, and frankly exactly what they say they are fighting. BLM, Antifa, and other such groups fall into this category. They are domestic terrorists, in my view, and should be treated as such, not aggrandized or supported out of not wanting to offend.
In the future, if we continue down this path, there will be few in the workplace who can deal with life.
So here I am in school, and I quickly find out that not only do most of the students have no idea of history, they can’t handle knowing. They don’t have the emotional strength to withstand any ideas that don’t fit their politically correct (in their view) construct.
There are organized protests and moves to shut down any opposing opinion. The hate speech they are so concerned with really comes from their side; many see it as their duty to simply shut off access to any opinion or information they deem unpopular or wrong.
For me, I see this as both a terrible thing we have done to ourselves, allowing this social movement to take hold, and an opportunity. In the future, if we continue down this path, there will be few in the workplace who can deal with life. Work will be too hard. Hours will be too long. The boss will say something, and they will run to the closest therapist or safe space so they can vent. What a bunch of BS.
Look at the leaders of our country today. President Trump is not the most politically correct guy by any means—in fact, he ran on just that point. The generals in our military, industry leaders, and those on the front lines, including in the shadows, who keep our country safe are not normally the most politically correct.
And don’t forget those are the people who allow our society to have their “safe spaces,” but they are not the ones who run to them when someone says or does something that would offend. In fact, most of the time, they won’t even realize they were supposed to be offended. It just rolls off the back, and they move on. They are what Americans used to be. That is where they need to get back to. If not, we will find ourselves wrapped head to toe in bubble wrap so we can be protected from everyone and everything, including ourselves.
The upside? People who can deal and can keep their eye on the ball, those with a little thicker skin, will excel. Those older folks like me who think this whole movement is silly will be okay, and I bet we will not even need a safe space to go to.
