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

[Saney]

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

Well then, who's supposed to get the job? The person who begs for it the hardest?

 

[AnOminous]

Well then, who's supposed to get the job? The person who begs for it the hardest?

The person who sucks the most dick.

 

[AnimuGinger]

The person who sucks the most dick.

That triggered me. Cisoppressor.

Well then, who's supposed to get the job? The person who begs for it the hardest?

The person who would otherwise be triggered the most.

 

[Trickie]

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

And? They have the right to refuse to stay for a lecture anyway. It's college, not high school where you'll get in trouble for not staying in your seats. The only difference would be that they'd have a warning about what's coming before-hand, because that's all a trigger warning really is: a warning, and if they don't think they can handle it that day, they have the choice to leave.

Except that (a) they didn't talk about exposure therapy, they talked about CBT,

But if you want to help her return to normalcy, you should take your cues from Ivan Pavlov and guide her through a process known as exposure therapy. You might start by asking the woman to merely look at an elevator from a distance—standing in a building lobby, perhaps—until her apprehension begins to subside.

Yes, they talk about CBT a lot more, but they also talk about exposure therapy in this specific instance, and describe it in such a way that makes it clear that they believe that trigger warnings are their antithesis.

(b) your description of exposure therapy is inaccurate,

I'd love to hear what's inaccurate about it. Please tell me.

(c) exposure-esque therapy actually does work when doesn properly,

Yes, the very scientific art of exposure-esque therapy. (wut?)

Think you could explain this too?

and (d) did you even read the article.

Is this a trick question?

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.

Trigger warnings are alerts that professors are expected to issue if something in a course might cause a strong emotional response.

How is this not the same as a content warning? It seems to me that the problem isn't so much with the fact that they have warnings than it is that they're trying to have warnings for relatively benign things, and that they want to treat these warnings in such a way that it manages to get other people who aren't mentally ill to develop a fear of those things as well. I see no problem so long as the warnings are small and unobtrusive.

 

[AnimuGinger]

And? They have the right to refuse to stay for a lecture anyway. It's college, not high school where you'll get in trouble for not staying in your seats. The only difference would be that they'd have a warning about what's coming before-hand, because that's all a trigger warning really is: a warning, and if they don't think they can handle it that day, they have the choice to leave.

But college needs to prepare you for life. Unless you're going into straight academia, you're not going to have warnings about what's coming on any given day. And yes, sometimes you do get in trouble for leaving. I have classes where leaving = full letter grade reduction. Something emotionally triggering is handled by leaving for 5 minutes and recomposing yourself.

The other thing to note is that you can't possibly give a warning for every single thing that may be triggering. Given the multitude of things that can trigger people, it's pretty much impossible to provide that...

 

[Trickie]

But college needs to prepare you for life. Unless you're going into straight academia, you're not going to have warnings about what's coming on any given day. And yes, sometimes you do get in trouble for leaving. I have classes where leaving = full letter grade reduction. Something emotionally triggering is handled by leaving for 5 minutes and recomposing yourself.

I don't know where you go to college that they dock you a full letter grade just for leaving, but that's stupid. Anyway, refusing to give common sense trigger warnings won't prepare anyone for real life. If you can't handle depictions of rape or violence, and you're not getting therapy or treatment for it, it's going to be just as bad if not worse when you get out into the real world.

The other thing to note is that you can't possibly give a warning for every single thing that may be triggering. Given the multitude of things that can trigger people, it's pretty much impossible to provide that...

Of course you can't give a trigger warning for everything. The thing with triggers is that they can be literally anything from benign stuff like feathers to common things like sexual violence. The point isn't to cover all things that could be triggering, it's to cover the most common things like gore, rape, abuse, etc.

 

[autisticdragonkin]

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.

The point is not that it is a good idea but rather that that is the way that many people think about university

I don't know where you go to college that they dock you a full letter grade just for leaving, but that's stupid. Anyway, refusing to give common sense trigger warnings won't prepare anyone for real life. If you can't handle depictions of rape or violence, and you're not getting therapy or treatment for it, it's going to be just as bad if not worse when you get out into the real world.



Of course you can't give a trigger warning for everything. The thing with triggers is that they can be literally anything from benign stuff like feathers to common things like sexual violence. The point isn't to cover all things that could be triggering, it's to cover the most common things like gore, rape, abuse, etc.

What if I am triggered by the foundations of democracy: freedom of speech and freedom of the press being destroyed by people complaining about trigger warnings.

 

[Gensdupays]

Why even bother going to university and wasting all that money if you want to change nothing about yourself and learn nothing?

 

[Trickie]

What if I am triggered by the foundations of democracy: freedom of speech and freedom of the press being destroyed by people complaining about trigger warnings.

I'll see if I can find a tiny American flag for you to wave around.

 

[melty]

I really think this kind of thing is overrated. It's the next iteration of whatever people said about my generation. How we were weak, unhireable, got too many trophies as children. Perhaps it applies to a small amount of people but no one important, mostly liberal arts majors and shit. Some people are going to be pussies but most people will be fine. The exposure therapy stuff is largely irrelevant because most of these types don't have real anxiety disorders anyway.

 

[AnOminous]

I see no reason such warnings should be obligatory or even encouraged. The number of people "triggered" in any medically significant way by the content of the average college education is minuscule. Only by literally training people to tard out about nothing is there a significant number of people affected by this imaginary condition.

The practically nonexistent number of people who actually need such warnings should take care of it themselves by simply Googling any books they have to read to see if they have contents that might upset them.

If even that is too much for them, maybe college isn't where they should be. Maybe they should be in some kind of home.

 

[Wallace]

There's a pretty wide difference between, "Just so you know, this course about the Holocaust deals with some very nasty stuff, so be aware of that," and "Gendered pronouns might offend someone, we must immediately ban the entire romance languages department ." There's certainly a place for professional courtesy, but the tumblr-esque trend of sperging out when the world doesn't immediately cater to your delicate sensibilities needs to go. I don't think you can conflate the two, which is what I've seen happen in the various places I've seen this article discussed.

If you're really bothered by the discussion of a certain topic, it's on you to excuse yourself from it. Demanding that the entire world censor itself so you--or some hypothetical person--doesn't get offended is unrealistic.

 

[QI 541]

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.

Most of these college students don't have PTSD or anxiety disorders. They're just really stupid.

 

[AN/ALR56]

Rich people living in the first world claiming to be triggered fucking pisses me off.
For some reason you never see poor people doing this shit.

 

[ZehnBoat]

Well then, who's supposed to get the job? The person who begs for it the hardest?

you can only hire black-female-trans-wheelchairbound-unneuraltypical-physically handicapped-transrace-demicopticsexual-psudowolf people
preferably those with money.

 

[KingQueen]

Late response because I sleep at night....

And? They have the right to refuse to stay for a lecture anyway.

They also have the "right" to fail class. Since they paid for it, they're allowed to squander it. But colleges need to try to curb this because it hurts their status when they have too drop-outs.
As I mentioned, if someone has a need for trigger warnings, they have the right to choose how to deal with their own disorder. They might be unable to take a class. But there needs to be a compromise between the teacher and the student on both sides - ie discuss individual options.

You'll please note I'm not telling people with legitimate problems to "get over it and deal". (Though I am saying that to people who think "uncomfortable" is synonymous with "oppression".)

Yes, they talk about CBT a lot more, but they also talk about exposure therapy in this specific instance, and describe it in such a way that makes it clear that they believe that trigger warnings are their antithesis.

And your opinion is that this hypothesis is incorrect?

I'd love to hear what's inaccurate about it. Please tell me.

You seem to think "sudden" exposure by dumping stuff on people is "exposure therapy". "Shit thrust upon you without warning" is not exposure therapy. Dumping a box of spiders on a person afraid of spiders isn't proper exposure therapy, and is known to often make fears worse. The article isn't advocating that, and explains the real process is slow.

But talking about college, and not a therapeutic setting, the article implies using these exposure therapy principals applied to practical matters. Example: A person in college gets a syllabus at the beginning of class, and they can find out if future content will be a problem for them, and therefore prepare accordingly (which isn't exposure therapy either).

(I do agree that the article implies it's acceptable for a person for force therapy on another person, which is disagreeable. But requiring a teacher not teach a material is not the same. I think the article is trying to show that avoidance is not a long-term solution.)

Yes, the very scientific art of exposure-esque therapy. (wut?)

What I meant is that people call a variety of methods and actions "exposure therapy" in a colloquial sense, in that they literally involve exposure to the trigger, but that they don't mean specifically actual exposure therapy. Perhaps the article should have chosen their words better.

Is this a trick question?

I feel a lot of your questions were addressed within the article.

How is this not the same as a content warning? It seems to me that the problem isn't so much with the fact that they have warnings than it is that they're trying to have warnings for relatively benign things, and that they want to treat these warnings in such a way that it manages to get other people who aren't mentally ill to develop a fear of those things as well. I see no problem so long as the warnings are small and unobtrusive.

I already agreed with this, and I think the article did as well. It's not having content warnings that's the issue: it's the culture around "#TW!!!" and the idea that "I don't like XYZ" is the same as being triggered. And, as the article gave multiple examples of, the current social culture is becoming a problem, and TW is involved.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you seem to be saying that the article is inventing a problem that you don't feel exists? Please explain.

 

[Trickie]

They also have the "right" to fail class. Since they paid for it, they're allowed to squander it. But colleges need to try to curb this because it hurts their status when they have too drop-outs.
As I mentioned, if someone has a need for trigger warnings, they have the right to choose how to deal with their own disorder. They might be unable to take a class. But there needs to be a compromise between the teacher and the student on both sides - ie discuss individual options.

You're missing the point I was making. If someone is going to try to avoid something that triggers them, they'll leave whether there are trigger warnings or not. It's just a matter of when. The lack of trigger warnings won't make them stay for the lecture when they get to the part that triggers them.

And your opinion is that this hypothesis is incorrect?

That trigger warnings necessarily prevent exposure therapy? Yes, I do. There's nothing inherent about the nature of a trigger warning that prevents exposure therapy, and in fact they could possibly be used to aid it. Speaking of which...

You seem to think "sudden" exposure by dumping stuff on people is "exposure therapy". "Shit thrust upon you without warning" is not exposure therapy. Dumping a box of spiders on a person afraid of spiders isn't proper exposure therapy, and is known to often make fears worse. The article isn't advocating that, and explains the real process is slow.

I don't know whose posts you've been reading, but I'm having serious doubts that you've been reading mine. I was saying the exact opposite of what you accuse me of saying here, and you've ended up agreeing with me.

What I meant is that people call a variety of methods and actions "exposure therapy" in a colloquial sense, in that they literally involve exposure to the trigger, but that they don't mean specifically actual exposure therapy. Perhaps the article should have chosen their words better.

They just call that "exposure".

I already agreed with this, and I think the article did as well. It's not having content warnings that's the issue: it's the culture around "#TW!!!" and the idea that "I don't like XYZ" is the same as being triggered. And, as the article gave multiple examples of, the current social culture is becoming a problem, and TW is involved.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you seem to be saying that the article is inventing a problem that you don't feel exists? Please explain.

Yes, but not just this article, I think there's a lot of whining and hand-wringing centered around trigger warnings that are incredibly overblown. People are getting themselves worked up over this nonsense with hyperbolic phrases like "the coddling of the American mind", painting pictures of PC dystopias by cherry-picking a handful of news stories of people being stupid, and then incorrectly trying to cite a legitimate therapeutic technique to try to back up their claim that trigger warnings themselves are actually bad for mentally ill people they're trying to help. This isn't the first article I've seen try to cite exposure therapy either.

Instead of simply saying "no, we don't need trigger warnings, there aren't enough mentally ill people in college to warrant it" or "sure, I guess trigger warnings could work if they were treated like content warnings, they could be mentioned in about 5 seconds and then it'd be over", they start talking about it like it's a plague that's going to destroy mankind, and we must stop it at all costs. I'm pretty sure that this shit is generation x's "back in my day" attitude coming forward a decade or two early.

 

[Zvantastika]

Mother nature should make trigger warnings for earthquakes and tsunamis because those are scary, fuck you bitch nature.
Also, where's my trigger warnings for fires? Those are hot and super scary.
My point is, some stuff isn't going to warn itself and it simply happens, so how do you prepare for those? By knowing what they are and how to react, hence we have fire and earthquake drills... In case of triggers in university, those triggers are basiclly the drills to whatever triggers you, and refusing to take the drill and simply avoid it at all costs, what could come up from it? That those people will go completely ballistic when something bad happens. I mean come on, they are already in a controlled and easy environment (a classroom), what happens when these special kids hit the streets in the real world?.

 

[Ti-99/4A]

Mother nature should make trigger warnings for earthquakes and tsunamis because those are scary, fuck you bitch nature.

There are actually. If the animals are freaking out and running away for no apparent reason, you better be right behind them.

 

[Bugaboo]

If people are scared of my taranutla I'll gonna put her on their face when they are sleeping! That will fixe everything! (Please note I don't use my tarantula to scare people, only to educate people on the many pers of tarantula ownership)
But seriously, when social situations scare you, you need to be in more social situations to be more comfortable and function like a normal human