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Attack of the ‘bubble children’
Toronto Sun ^ | April 5, 2015 | Paige MacPherson

Posted on 04/05/2015 7:57:44 PM PDT by Squawk 8888

The other day I was at Trent University in Peterborough.

I was giving a talk on why student unions and political groups should be held accountable for their use of student and taxpayer money.

During the question-and-answer period, I inadvertently offended a bright young woman.

She’d suggested removing automatic student funds from political groups would remove political discourse from campus altogether.

Of course not, I responded.

I was a student activist who never received student money, yet was completely immersed in politics. Passionate people debate, regardless.

I said people like her, who are zesty and politically active ... Then I stopped.

She looked shocked and appalled.

I asked her: “Did you just get offended when I said ‘people like you’?”

“Yes,” she said. “I kind of did.”

Later, when a woman who’d interrupted others, including me, was interrupted by another young man, she asked him to please let her talk and “respect her safe space”.

These “bubble kids” aren’t toddlers. They’re university students.

University campuses have become sandboxes of political correctness and censorship, far removed from reality.

I was allowed to speak at Trent, but a group of students seeking to put up a “free speech wall” — a piece of paper on which students could write whatever they want — were banned, because “it can create an unsafe and inaccessible environment, particularly for students from minority groups,” according to the student union.

What’s more accessible than paper on which anyone can write anything?

While unfashionable speech is censored, it’s been replaced with a series of ever-changing trendy words.

It’s hard to keep up.

Since I visit campuses rather regularly, I’ll give you the scoop.

The concerning words to look out for now are: “trigger warning,” “trauma” and “safe space”.

At Ryerson University, two white student journalists were turned away from an event held by a “racialized” group funded by all students, because it was a “safe space." A journalism student wrote an op-ed defending the segregation, titled, “Ethnic minorities deserve safe spaces without white people."

At the University of Ottawa, a professor speaking about how “rape culture” affects men was heckled and insulted by protesting students until they finally pulled the fire alarm.

The students justified their actions saying the talk created an “unsafe atmosphere."

A similar debate was scheduled south of the border at Brown University around issues involving sexual assault.

A student proclaimed it might be “triggering” to some.

So, they set up a “safe space.”

The New York Times noted it was “equipped with cookies, coloring books, bubbles, Play-Doh, calming music, pillows, blankets and a video of frolicking puppies, as well as students and staff members trained to deal with trauma.”

It’s no wonder recent graduates have created a market for “adult daycares,” one of which exists in New York, where adults pay up to $999-a-month to take naps and play with glitter glue.

“Safe spaces” imply that everywhere else is unsafe. They’re places where students can hide from ideas that might “trigger” them.

There are Canadians who have suffered actual trauma, and who continuously suffer trauma.

Brave soldiers, police officers — and yes, some students.

This new “trauma” trivializes that, and provides a loaded gun for censorship.

If an idea offends you, suck it up and challenge it, refute it out in the open.

If it’s a genuine trigger for trauma — a real mental health concern and violence risk — university administrators are obligated to uphold the law and ensure the campus is a safe space.

But university campuses shouldn’t be places where young people go to escape from the real world, coddled by blankets and puppies, shielding them from words.

They should be a free marketplaces of ideas, where new and differing points of view are encouraged and debated.

Otherwise, we’re compromising intellectualism; allowing adults to regress to childhood, plugging their ears and stomping their feet until the bad ideas go away.

And when they graduate — then what?

I have three scary words for, dare I say, people like this.

Get a grip.


TOPICS: Canada; Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: education
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To: The Antiyuppie
When you read stuff like this, it makes you wonder if there isn’t a small something to The Taliban’s point of view.

I'm starting to wonder if we haven't actually become the Great Satan that the Iranian revolutionaries called us, way back when.

21 posted on 04/05/2015 9:23:51 PM PDT by Lazamataz (The FCC takeover of the internet will quickly become a means to censorship of dissent.)
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To: lee martell
I don’t think this kind of contrived fragility, or pressumption of weakness will last many more years.

Sometimes I wonder if America wouldn't be much improved after facing a complete, total loss of normal civil behavior, collapse.

I'd be all Mad Max, Road Warrior, Mohawk-sportin' and in S&M leather, riding a chopper.... teaching these fragile eggs what it would be like to be broken.

22 posted on 04/05/2015 9:27:32 PM PDT by Lazamataz (The FCC takeover of the internet will quickly become a means to censorship of dissent.)
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To: DesertRhino

One of the most awesome rants ever. I’ve linked it on Twitter.


23 posted on 04/05/2015 9:30:18 PM PDT by Squawk 8888 (Will steal your comments & post them on Twitter)
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To: Squawk 8888

Nothing makes me feel safer than an atmosphere of quiet, thoughtful discussion, where people are listened to respectfully and without interruption and then there is a space for thought before the next person politely answers.


24 posted on 04/05/2015 9:33:17 PM PDT by firebrand
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To: Squawk 8888
This is a very dangerous cultural development. Cognitive Dissonance is a developmental issue. These young adults have closed themselves off (with institutional backing) and embraced the cultural fascism of the universities.

These are the same young adults who would be the enablers of death camps.

Got ammo?
25 posted on 04/05/2015 9:41:42 PM PDT by PA Engineer (Liberate America from the Occupation Media.)
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To: firebrand

Same here. I think it happened twice during my lifetime, and never at school.


26 posted on 04/05/2015 9:42:17 PM PDT by Squawk 8888 (Will steal your comments & post them on Twitter)
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To: DesertRhino

RIGHT!!!! And an additional slightly off topic mini-rant, that most of those tender flowers have been propagandized with the supposed wonders of pre-industrial life...they would not even know what to DO to begin to survive when the power goes off and the gas pump is dry....


27 posted on 04/05/2015 9:55:10 PM PDT by Frank_2001
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To: Squawk 8888

Wow...


28 posted on 04/05/2015 10:31:34 PM PDT by proud American in Canada
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To: digger48
Pictures are, of course, art. For sure and no denying it. Here's a nice "art shot" I took a few hours ago ;-)


29 posted on 04/05/2015 10:44:52 PM PDT by dr_lew
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To: Lazamataz

When the wrong ISIS wannabe finds the right Dirty Bomb or destroys a specific group of electrical grids in major American cities, you will then see the new Mad Max dystopia.
The main choices in this harsh environment will be to adapt, hide or perish. You might not even have your own phone anymore.


30 posted on 04/05/2015 10:48:30 PM PDT by lee martell (The sa)
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To: DesertRhino
I don’t care what happened to you, and how sad it was. I have NO obligation to tippy toe around and avoid every behavior that might make you think of something you don’t want to think about.

This is what my grandchildren say to me every time I walk into the room 1/2:-)

31 posted on 04/05/2015 10:54:11 PM PDT by dr_lew
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To: Squawk 8888
“Ethnic minorities deserve safe spaces without white people."

Without white people to keep things civilized; there are no safe spaces for ethnic minorities.

32 posted on 04/05/2015 11:16:56 PM PDT by ChicagahAl (You win the Culture War by destroying the values of the enemy.)
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To: ChicagahAl

Leftists also need safe spaces from opinions and viewpoints they disagree with, rooms of coloring books and playdoh


33 posted on 04/05/2015 11:19:00 PM PDT by GeronL (CLEARLY CRUZ 2016)
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To: firebrand
So everybody is disagreeing, all around the table. I am surprised and disturbed that Compton doesn't repeat and emphasize his point. Finally, at the end, Tolman, who's the chairman, would say, "Well, having heard all these arguments, I guess it's true that Compton's argument is the best of all, and now we have to go ahead."

From Los Alamos from Below in "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!"

The irony is that these paragons of rational civility were making the A-bomb.

34 posted on 04/05/2015 11:23:29 PM PDT by dr_lew
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To: Squawk 8888
When the SHTF, the world will be cleansed of their idiocy. Cry about that one kids...
35 posted on 04/05/2015 11:41:16 PM PDT by MaxMax (Call the local GOP and ask how you can support CRUZ for POTUS, Make them talk!)
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To: DesertRhino

Excellent


36 posted on 04/06/2015 1:59:16 AM PDT by AllAmericanGirl44
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To: Excuse_My_Bellicosity

Tell that to Van Gogh, who sold like $4.50 worth of art during his too short life...


37 posted on 04/06/2015 2:21:27 AM PDT by djf (OK. Well, now, lemme try to make this clear: If you LIKE your lasagna, you can KEEP your lasagna!)
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To: DesertRhino

(Standing Applause)


38 posted on 04/06/2015 2:41:07 AM PDT by Tallguy
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To: Squawk 8888
Safe spaces started on campuses (highschool and college)for LGBT kids. I guess other groups were jealous.



They limit free speech.
39 posted on 04/06/2015 3:59:04 AM PDT by Girlene
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To: djf

not enough in government grants so he cut off his ear....perhaps some of the whiners could take a cue .....who knows when the next Piss Christ will grace the Arts World...


40 posted on 04/06/2015 4:02:17 AM PDT by albertabound
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