I've not been wanting to touch this thread because I think the topic is getting very tired and played out, and I don't usually see the point in having discussions like this online, but the subject
has been coming up in my life every now and then over the past few months. so I might return at some point to make a full post....if I feel up to it, haha.
for now, I wanted to at least start by addressing this particular post, because I think it brings up a number of talking points/buzzwords I can quickly address ---
[quote="Amy"]The only thing I'm worried about in uni is that I'll turn up and there'll be a bunch of social justice nuts who will prevent me from listening to speakers from all ends of the political spectrum. I'm just sick of this culture spreading among our generation accusing everyone of citing hate speech, not being PC, demanding safe spaces etc just let people decide whether they agree or disagree with something.
I know I'm not going to avoid SJWs at uni but hopefully they're rampant attempt at stumping freedom of speech will be stopped.[/quote]
I think the fact that you're actually worried about encountering this supports my thoughts that the issue is being completely over-exaggerated. people seem to express anger and concern about "social justice nuts" getting in their way more than it actually happens.
I've found my own personal college experiences to be very interesting in this way. the school I go to has been known by locals as "the hippie school" ever since it was first founded in the 1960s. for its whole existence, it's been known as a place where you can find a lot of "liberals" and leftists, protesters, and what-have-you. long story short, it is basically the
exact sort of establishment where non-social-justice-minded people would expect incidents like this to be running rampant. but guess what? they aren't. never heard of speakers being banned, never encountered anyone requesting trigger warnings, and the one time I had a professor who used trigger warnings of her own volition, I only saw them taken advantage of once: when we watched a film with an unnecessarily graphic rape scene, and a few people chose to leave the room during it - one of whom had already seen the film all the way through before, and one of whom was a 30-40+ year old rape survivor. doesn't seem very harmful to me.
in fact, what DOES happen a little too frequently on campus is anonymous people putting up posters with threatening messages against black students, tearing down posters advertising events for trans students, and in one recent event, even physically threatening students belonging to marginalized groups.....but I sure don't see people speaking out about things like that as often as they complain about "safe spaces" and "SJWs"!
obviously, my experience isn't the same as everyone else's. but I find it very interesting that this particular school almost never seems to have the problems that people worried about "censorship" are afraid of, despite the fact that it would seem to be a breeding ground for such things. not to mention that
it has been pointed out that trigger warnings and such things are not as widespread on college campuses as they are made out to be.
do extreme examples happen in some places? yes, of course. but naturally, these examples are focused upon as if they represent a massive problem. and I find it strange and unfair, even with the extreme examples, that the students involved are immediately dismissed as infantile, over-sensitive, coddled.....etc. no thought is ever given to
why they feel they way they feel, it's just automatically taken for granted that their thoughts and feelings are foolish and not worth listening to at all. if people will make no attempt to see where these students are coming from, of course they'll immediately be written off as irrational.
I'm also interested that you brought up the term "PC." I think people who use this term when talking about social-justice-minded youth (or anyone in social justice circles, really) are often accidentally revealing that they don't actually know much about the causes being fought for. being "PC" is
not the goal. political correctness is very surface-level, IMHO. it's about finding out which terms are generally considered offensive and which aren't, so you can pick the "right" one and not look bad. it's about avoiding conflict and making sure you look like a good citizen.
but that isn't what we should be striving for - we should be going deeper than that. we should be looking to learn
why certain terms are outdated or insensitive. what is the history behind certain words and phrases? who invented them? what have they been historically used to do? is there a new alternative, and if so, why was this alternative chosen and who chose it? that's the kind of stuff you should be wondering when you hear a slur, or if you're told that something you're saying sounds ignorant.
no one is forcing you to stop saying certain things, but rather trying to get you to understand why they don't need to be said. WORDS HAVE POWER. it is selfish to deny the strength of that power in the name of avoiding "censorship." if we truly examine the origins and connotations of oppressive speech, we shouldn't need to be
censored, we will probably simply want to stop using such terms because we have no interest in feeding their power or being a part of their damaging legacy.
and while on the subject of language, I also find it pretty ridiculous to see the term "SJW" being used non-ironically. I'm sorry, but I really can't take that term seriously. it has become completely meaningless. people act as though social-justice-minded people are a hivemind, when in reality, there are all kinds of different opinions and viewpoints one can have within a certain issue. but if you care about that issue at all.....you're suddenly a SJW. doesn't matter exactly what you have to say about it or how your opinion varies, someone's probably gonna call you a SJW. this completely trivializes and interrupts discussions of social justice. it makes it so that, in some circles, you can't bring up any topic that might be "too liberal" or else you're going to be immediately dismissed as a SJW. this annoying internet phrase turns discussions of SERIOUS issues that are deeply rooted in our history and society into jokes.
"SJWs" are accused of being keyboard activists who will never do anything meaningful or incite any real change because they apparently
only exist online and no one in the "real world" will listen to them. and yet, at the same time, you've got people worried that "SJWs" are causing such extreme influence in the "real world" that they are ruining everything from college environments to video gaming. the meaning of the phrase becomes unclear in this respect.
as for the "demanding of safe spaces", this one has always confused me. I don't want to go very deep into this right now - maybe later - but I think that the "safe space" thing is very 'low-level discourse' that isn't very realistic or relevant in the grand scheme of things. however, what confuses me is why people perceive it such a
terrible thing. I think it should be shrugged off as a pleasant idea that just isn't realistic, rather than regarded as some sort of evil. people who express concern about "echo chambers" are suspicious to me, as I doubt they really care so much about the "wellbeing" of people within these alleged echo chambers. they're probably just irritated by the idea and are looking for a reason to argue against it. not to mention that the "echo chamber" idea again reinforces the false idea of social-justice-minded people as a hivemind......
there are, however, smaller-scale examples of "safe spaces" that I find to be both realistic and positive, but I don't feel like going into that right now.
people are welcome to "decide whether they agree or disagree with something." but you can't just expect people to stay quiet when they are fighting against serious, deeply-rooted oppressions. it's more than just an opinion. it's peoples' lives and wellbeings. opinions are useless if you never make them known. that's what activism is for....to make things known. you should be glad that things are known to you so you can make that decision of agreement or disagreement. but if you have a problem with it being too "in your face," maybe you should consider why people NEED to be so in-your-face about it.
long story short --- the trivialization of important social issues is a million times more of a problem than getting worked up about "censorship" that isn't actually harming you in any way, IMHO.