The Coddling of the American Mind - How Trigger Warnings are Hurting College Students

[KingQueen]

A very important read, relevant to the forum's interests, I think.

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/09/the-coddling-of-the-american-mind/399356/

Some choice quotes:

According to the most-basic tenets of psychology, helping people with anxiety disorders avoid the things they fear is misguided.

The list of offensive statements included: “America is the land of opportunity” and “I believe the most qualified person should get the job.”

Books for which students have called publicly for trigger warnings within the past couple of years include Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway (at Rutgers, for “suicidal inclinations”) and Ovid’s Metamorphoses (at Columbia, for sexual assault).

I'm going to cite this article every time someone argues with me that Tumblr has no effect in real life. I think they left a lot out, though.

Opinions?

 

[autisticdragonkin]

trigger warnings likely actually reduce the power of the marginalized by stifling free discourse in society. It could easily be seen as something which maintains priviledge especially since you only ever hear upper/upper-middle class people complaining about them as opposed to say residents of slums

 

[AnimuGinger]

I'm so glad my education forces me into real world situations where I won't get trigger warnings. If my school tries to implement them, I'm not going to take it sitting down.

 

[TheAmazingAxolotl]

Telling people to avoid things they fear is just going to make the matters worse. The only true cure for a phobia is to immerse oneself in what they fear; anxiety is a different story. If it's true, clinically diagnosed anxiety, they should already be on medication, therefore rendering a certain trigger obsolete, or at the very least render it nothing more than a slight twinge in the stomach.

 

[AnOminous]

I'm going to cite this article every time someone argues with me that Tumblr has no effect in real life. I think they left a lot out, though.

Opinions?

Articles like this (and commentary like Bill Maher's) is, I think, the beginning of the counter-reaction to this out-of-control lunacy. Interestingly, the article dates the beginning of the trigger-warning epidemic to about 2011, which would explain why I didn't encounter it when I was most recently in school, in 2010.

 

[ZehnBoat]

in other words, SJWs are like the far right.
they censor anything they don't like.

also it's so sad that it used to be "you go to college and experience the world and expand your mind.. and maybe cock"
now it's
RUN AND HIDE AND FORCE THE WORLD TO BOW TO YOU

 

[bearycool]

Oh my fucking God, they're calling classical literature triggering?!

No shit Sherlocks, the stuff was made hundreds, even thousands of years ago, long before SJW took over the world.

Get thee to a tumblr, you triggered strumpets!

 

[KingQueen]

Telling people to avoid things they fear is just going to make the matters worse. The only true cure for a phobia is to immerse oneself in what they fear; anxiety is a different story. If it's true, clinically diagnosed anxiety, they should already be on medication, therefore rendering a certain trigger obsolete, or at the very least render it nothing more than a slight twinge in the stomach.

Correct if I'm wrong, but doesn't Generalized Anxiety Disorder NOT have specific triggers? Isn't that part of the definition, that the anxiety isn't directed at anything specific, ie "generalized"? (Not an argument, I just don't know the details.)

in other words, SJWs are like the far right.
they censor anything they don't like.

I believe this comparison my have been previously noted.

Fun fact: a friend of mine sent me this link, because they work at a really Leftarded university. Makes me wonder if impending investigation and job loss is imminent.

 

[ZehnBoat]

Oh my fucking God, they're calling classical literature triggering?!
No shit Sherlocks, the stuff was made hundreds, even thousands of years ago, long before SJW took over the world.
Get thee to a tumblr, you triggered strumpets!

inb4 stating historical facts are triggering and need to be erased

 

[Zvantastika]

To be completely honest. If a college student is stupid enough to believe in trigger warnings and all that shit (Tumblr, SJWs, etc), he deserves what's coming to him full force and right between the eyes.
I mean, we're speaking about people who are at least 18 years old, by that age you should already have a decent idea of how the real world works. Trying to live inside a bubble where everyone must respect you because you're "special" is a clear indication you're seriously dumb, or your parents haven't cared enough to teach you that the world doesn't have to oblige to your will.
I have little to no real information about universities on the USA (since I'm not american) but from where I am from, university basiclly just teach you what you need to fulfill an academic profile, they won't teach you how to get along with other people because that's something you should had learn since highschool.

TL;DR If by 18 years old you still think people should "warn" you about the real world, your adulthood is going to be really harsh.

 

[Trickie]

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/09/the-coddling-of-the-american-mind/399356/

Why do people keep writing articles about trigger warnings and exposure therapy when they don't know how exposure therapy works? If you could be cured by having shit thrust upon you without warning, there'd be no need for anyone with these problems to go to a therapist.

 

[TheAmazingAxolotl]

Correct if I'm wrong, but doesn't Generalized Anxiety Disorder NOT have specific triggers? Isn't that part of the definition, that the anxiety isn't directed at anything specific, ie "generalized"? (Not an argument, I just don't know the details.)

Pretty much. GAD is the onset of sudden and inexplicable anxiety, whereas something such as a phobia does have a specific trigger, e.g. if you're highly arachnophobic, the presence of a spider would render you a quivering pile of jelly.

The one anxiety disorder that I can think of that has specific triggers is PTSD, which--as we all know--the Tumblrinas like to think they have. However, triggers for a PTSD attack could be anything that reminds a person of a traumatic event, like the sound of fireworks for a war veteran or the sight of a beer can on the arm of a chair for a victim of domestic abuse. In any case, a phobia is the only anxiety disorder that has a specific trigger, and the people pushing for trigger warnings know nothing of how to treat phobias.

 

[ZehnBoat]

Why do people keep writing articles about trigger warnings and exposure therapy when they don't know how exposure therapy works? If you could be cured by having shit thrust upon you without warning, there'd be no need for anyone with these problems to go to a therapist.

it's getting too late for me to read this shit all the way
but where does it specifically that?
i was under the impression it was more like "you need to face your fears sometimes"

also i think this "i'm an adult and i need cuddling" is what happens when a generation of well off kids grow up with nothing wrong.
honestly i'm seeing more and more wealthy people just throwing up their hands and going BUT I HAVE PROBLEMS TOO LOOK AT ME
and frankly i'm getting sick of them.

 

[Trickie]

it's getting too late for me to read this shit all the way
but where does it specifically that?
i was under the impression it was more like "you need to face your fears sometimes"

also i think this "i'm an adult and i need cuddling" is what happens when a generation of well off kids grow up with nothing wrong.
honestly i'm seeing more and more wealthy people just throwing up their hands and going BUT I HAVE PROBLEMS TOO LOOK AT ME
and frankly i'm getting sick of them.

There's a paragraph in the article that talks about exposure therapy, as if trigger warnings are somehow detrimental to learning how to deal with things, but in actual exposure therapy, the patient has to know what's coming and prepare for it mentally in order for the therapy to work. If you're just going about your day, listening to a lecture, and then suddenly having something that triggers you sprung on you, you have no time to prepare for it. If anything, trigger warnings could help with exposure therapy by warning someone of what's coming so they can prepare for the exposure.

Say whatever you want about not coddling the mentally ill, but don't pretend that springing this shit on them without warning is going to help. That's stupid.

 

[AnOminous]

TL;DR If by 18 years old you still think people should "warn" you about the real world, your adulthood is going to be really harsh.

What's destructive about this is the people who are actually in college to get a fucking education, instead of as a retarded repeat of preschool, are getting screwed out of an education. Not only will professors already there be dissuaded from actually educating, but quality people will stay away from the field because it just isn't worth dealing with these pants-shitting retards when they can keep you from a tenure track position by crying about "triggers" and similar horseshit.

It's time to quit coddling these fucking idiots.

 

[AnimuGinger]

There's a paragraph in the article that talks about exposure therapy, as if trigger warnings are somehow detrimental to learning how to deal with things, but in actual exposure therapy, the patient has to know what's coming and prepare for it mentally in order for the therapy to work. If you're just going about your day, listening to a lecture, and then suddenly having something that triggers you sprung on you, you have no time to prepare for it. If anything, trigger warnings could help with exposure therapy by warning someone of what's coming so they can prepare for the exposure.

Say whatever you want about not coddling the mentally ill, but don't pretend that springing this shit on them without warning is going to help. That's stupid.

The issue is that they also believe that the trigger warning gives them the right to refuse exposure entirely in an academic setting.

 

[AnOminous]

The issue is that they also believe that the trigger warning gives them the right to refuse exposure entirely in an academic setting.

And that this "triggering" material is being removed from curricula rather than deal with the "problematic" issues.

 

[KingQueen]

Why do people keep writing articles about trigger warnings and exposure therapy when they don't know how exposure therapy works? If you could be cured by having shit thrust upon you without warning, there'd be no need for anyone with these problems to go to a therapist.

Except that (a) they didn't talk about exposure therapy, they talked about CBT, (b) your description of exposure therapy is inaccurate, (c) exposure-esque therapy actually does work when doesn properly, and (d) did you even read the article.

Nobody is claiming that content warnings are wrong, they're claiming that trigger culture is avoidance and that is wrong. Proper use of content warnings in a place like a classroom would to be to prepare yourself mentally and be able to know if you need to remove yourself, not to expect others to protect you.

 

[autisticdragonkin]

The issue is that they also believe that the trigger warning gives them the right to refuse exposure entirely in an academic setting.

What's destructive about this is the people who are actually in college to get a fucking education, instead of as a retarded repeat of preschool, are getting screwed out of an education.

I think that as a whole universities are growing towards a job training market rather than a knowledge/self-development market and as a result these people really don't want to get an education but merely want to get a degree

Not only will professors already there be dissuaded from actually educating, but quality people will stay away from the field because it just isn't worth dealing with these pants-shitting retards when they can keep you from a tenure track position by crying about "triggers" and similar horseshit.

It's time to quit coddling these fucking idiots.

Spoiler: powerlevel

I used to want to be a professor but upon realization that people don't take the pursuit of knowledge very seriously in an academic setting I am leaning towards being a pure researcher

 

[AnOminous]

I think that as a whole universities are growing towards a job training market rather than a knowledge/self-development market and as a result these people really don't want to get an education but merely want to get a degree

You're not going to be ready for a job either if you've been spoonfed your entire life like an infant. Your boss is also not going to give a flying fuck about your "triggers" and other bullshit. And if you give off the warning signs of being the kind of entitled twat who is going to need to be fired and will then file a lolsuit, they just won't hire you in the first place.

College is supposed to be (among other things) a transitional period between childhood and adulthood. If you coddle them like they're at a daycare instead for that whole period of time, they're in for one short, sharp shock when they get out in reality and all that bullshit they were taught to expect isn't there for them any more.