One of the rules in the Dictator's Handbook is to suppress widespread availability of education. The more ignorant the population is, the less likely they are to develop a philosophical basis for challenging your rule. Develop and spread a meme that education is harmful and that educated people are enemies of the state and the Party. And keep the peons in an emotionally over-wrought state, so that their ability to think rationally is suppressed. There are among the population the intellectually narcissistic and uncurious, who will do the dirty work for you if you just lead them in the direction you want.

(P.S.: Neutill's course actually sounds pretty interesting. And this is coming from someone who regards most university liberal-arts courses as a waste of time.)

"The world is not your safe space" should be printed on t-shirts and sold at Hot Topic.

...but also anyone who feels triggered can opt-out -- not by walking out the door oneself, but by forcing everyone else to debate a different topic).

Trigger warnings are nothing but another way to limit free speech. It causes people to stop and evaluate what they're going to say against a backdrop of hypersensitivity and political correctness.

When others are calling out a speech for possible triggers, they're not urging sensitivity toward those dealing with trauma, they're shutting down the speaker and limiting speech or speakers they don't like.

Why on Earth would someone take such a class if they are so sensitive?
Even worse, it is now almost impossible to teach ordinary literature (not porn) because sex does in fact come up in that as well. And English teachers can be accused of racism for correcting student's grammar. There are even claims that math and computer languages reflect the patriarchy--though claims that a feminist math or programming need to be devised have never been fulfilled (math where the answer depends on your gender? on how you feel? trigger warnings about irrational numbers?)
It is the hysterical person's veto. The rule of the crazy person.

Why on Earth would someone take such a class if they are so sensitive?

You're already guilty just for asking the wrong question.

The real question is why are you so insensitive?

Conan: Trigger warnings are nothing but another way to limit free speech.

No, that is a misuse of fake trigger warnings. Real triggers are discovered in PTSD patients, not collected like fashion accessories by hypersensitive control freaks who want to dictate to everyone else which topics can be discussed around them.

PTSD patients actually use trigger warnings to anticipate possible areas in which they display the symptoms of their disease. They don't try to force others not to avoid unpleasant topics. Instead patients use grounding, relaxation techniques, and possibly medication to try avoid their adverse reactions. Or they simply remove themselves from the situation in which they might be triggered.

Nor is a professor's responsibility to send out trigger warnings on the material they're supposed to present to their classes. It's the patient's job to anticipate and minimize their discomfort.

I object to your characterization of trigger warnings as a tool to limit someone else's free speech. That's not what they're for. Trigger warnings actually serve a good and valuable purpose in PTSD patients. A responsible PTSD patient would never take a college course and presume to dictate to the professor what topics they're allowed to cover while the patients are in class.

Professors present a syllabus, and patients who are prepared to take college courses know what their triggers are and have the necessary techniques to deal with their triggers. They simply go through the syllabus, know what's to be covered for the day, and prepare accordingly.

To use them as these worthless assholes are using them is tantamount to a diabetic patient ordering a hot fudge sundae, refusing to take the appropriate amount of insulin, then blaming the ice cream shoppe that sold them the sundae.

Trigger warnings are my trigger. So you need to issue a trigger warning before issuing a trigger warning or I will be destroyed! Let the recursion commence.

This is reminding me of having to watch "Night and Fog" in a college history class back in the 80s. By the end of the film I was shaking and pretty freaked out, but I'm glad the professor made us all watch it. Can you imagine declining to get educated about something like that simply because it's hard to watch?

I object to your characterization of trigger warnings as a tool to limit someone else's free speech. ~ Posted by: Patrick at October 28, 2015 11:04 AM

Object all you want. But your animosity is misdirected. I'm not the one turning psychological triggers into social control tools - which, because they're being used that way, is what they are today.

PTSD patients actually use trigger warnings to anticipate possible areas in which they display the symptoms of their disease. They don't try to force others not to avoid unpleasant topics. Instead patients use grounding, relaxation techniques, and possibly medication to try avoid their adverse reactions. Or they simply remove themselves from the situation in which they might be triggered. ~ Posted by: Patrick at October 28, 2015 11:04 AM

Again, that's not what's going on today. The trigger warning is being required so a professor who teaches something not politically correct can be shut down.

An MIT biology professor, Nancy Hopkins, claimed she was made physically ill from comments made by Harvard president. Lawrence Summers, regarding women in the sciences and had to leave the speech early otherwise she "would've either blacked out or thrown up."

Now, Hopkins may actually have had a strong physical reaction to Summers' words. Perhaps she made herself hypersensitive to anything she didn't want to hear and experienced fallout from that when Summers spoke. Or, more likely, she's making an exaggerated claim of discomfort to further her own feminist agenda.

Prove she wasn't traumatized. That'll be tough at this point because, by now, she's convinced herself that she was actually traumatized by Summers. That is what is going on today.

Sigh. Conan, you do not get it. You never will get it. But by all means, keep running off at the mouth about things you lack the aptitude to understand.

But for the benefit of everyone else, triggers are not simply something that people adopt for themselves. A diagnosis of PTSD by a qualified therapist is required before someone is determined to have triggers.

So if someone wants to claim they're being "triggered," simply find out when they were diagnosed with PTSD. If the answer is some kind of self-diagnosis, guess what? They don't have triggers.

Sigh. Conan, you do not get it. You never will get it. But by all means, keep running off at the mouth about things you lack the aptitude to understand. ~ Posted by: Patrick at October 28, 2015 3:06 PM

Patrick, you're being deliberately dense, as always. Your expressed concern is that actual triggers are being trivialized by my posts and I'm saying they've already been trivialized by the SJW usage going on right now.

Like the "date rape" scare of the '80s and the "rape culture" hoax going on right now, SJWs and their ideological predecessors took a real issue, trivialized it, and cried wolf once too often - making what was once or might have been a real issue that people would have cared about into a joke.

Your references are to actual psychological triggers and PTSD while mine are to the SJW usage of the same word.

As you usually do, you use insults and condescension referring to someone who is essentially saying the same thing you are and make an enemy out of someone who could have been an ally.

The solution is simple. If someone claims they're being "triggered," then, by all means, send them to a mental health professional. The professional will, of course, give them the appropriate evaluation to determine the issue present and the necessary coping skills.

But the solution is not placing the burden on professors who (in most cases) aren't psychologists or social workers, and even if they are, they cannot be expected to accommodate a class of could-be-almost-any-number students with appropriate trigger warnings.

You see, Conan, through a few evaluations by a professional, you can prove Hopkins was not traumatized. And if she was, then she needs to be seeing a mental health professional to learn how to overcome. And of course, be given menial duty until she does.

You see, Conan, through a few evaluations by a professional, you can prove Hopkins was not traumatized. And if she was, then she needs to be seeing a mental health professional to learn how to overcome. And of course, be given menial duty until she does. ~ Posted by: Patrick at October 28, 2015 4:38 PM

I'm willing to bet that, by now, she has convinced herself that she was severely traumatized and believes her own hyperbole so she'd pass the evaluation.

And, as for giving her menial (light) duties until she's learned to overcome her issues, that will get you an accusation of sexism and insensitivity. After all, her "issues" stemmed from being subjected to Summer's blatant sexism. How is that her issue and not his issue? By making it her issues, you're enabling Summer's sexism. And now you've triggered her again.

This is reminding me of having to watch "Night and Fog" in a college history class back in the 80s.

My class was shown that film in high school in the 70s. I believe it was freshman or sophomore year. Can you imagine the outcry if a teacher showed it to 14- and 15-year-olds today?

I hope none of these delicate flowers have any ideas about becoming lawyers someday. Even if you plan to practice in whatever fields are always safe and comfortable (?), you still have to read a lot of unpleasant cases to get through law school: squabbling, bullying, vengeful relatives, some not even alive (wills & estates), amputation, mutilation, bizarre accidents (torts), murder, rape, extreme torture, child abuse (criminal law) -- it's just one big trauma-fest.

Patrick: "A diagnosis of PTSD by a qualified therapist is required before someone is determined to have triggers... So if someone wants to claim they're being 'triggered,' simply find out when they were diagnosed with PTSD. If the answer is some kind of self-diagnosis, guess what? They don't have triggers."

That's not right. Triggers don't come into existence, or become real or valid or legitimate by having some therapist pronounce a diagnosis of PTSD. They exist before the diagnosis, sometimes a long time before. Kind of the way people with diabetes had diabetes and many of its symptoms, sometimes for quite a long time, before it was diagnosed. People can have triggers - actual real triggers - and be quite distressed by them, without meeting the diagnostic criteria for PTSD.

Other than that, your explanation of triggers, and the use of trigger warnings, grounding and mindfulness techniques and medication to cope with them - and the manipulative misuse of them - is right on.

Generally, people with PTSD don't use their illness as a means of manipulating and controlling others. They try very hard to minimize the symptoms of their illness and its effects on themselves and the people around them. They want to be well and live a normal life.

I saw Night and Fog in my World History class in high school in the mid 1990's. I went to a private school though. I can't imagine it being shown in a public school, especially now. My 8th grade teacher, in a public school, skipped over the Holocaust chapters in social studies saying that she refused to teach myths and fabrications.

Conan and Patrick are both right, just talking about two different realities.

The Left and the SJWs have redefined words in order to shut down discussion. (ex. Obama calls something "random" that is pretty specific in totality)

Triggers are not the problem but SJWs have recast them as such.

Oh come on, let's be real, everyone has a "trigger" even if they don't have PTSD or a specific emotional event that has scarred them. A recent example: I was triggered into crying when I saw a cat that had been recently hit by a car and wasn't dead quite yet so it was flopping all over the road. Horrible sight! But the thing is I know THIS IS WHAT LIFE IS ALL ABOUT!! Things are sometimes horrible and ignoring them will not make them any less horrible or make them go away.

So Bob gets it exactly right when he says "Triggers are not the problem but SJW have recast them as such."

Redefining words seems to be standard operating procedure for politicians, Ben!

Ok Gog. Not exactly the first time something like that happened. And as for your particular soap box, all the wetlands are gone now? You had to go back 25 years to find an example? How about Ms. we have to pass the bill to find out what is in it. Or the shrill, at this point what difference does it make.

Though my personal favorite was 'We have to get off of these fossil fuels and onto natural gas.'

Esther, you don't understand. Watching a cat die is certainly a horrible sight, and I don't blame you for crying, but it is not a trigger. A trigger that causes you to relive or experience the feelings of a previous traumatic event. I have seen people who have been triggered. In some cases, they have no idea where they are. They might be physically in a safe place, but their minds are reliving some hell that an onlooker can only guess at. The sights, the sounds, the smells, the whole bit. It is disrespectful, insensitive and insulting to dismiss triggers as something everyone has. Google it and learn something.

Posted in another thread:

I don't think Esther gets what a trigger is, "I was triggered into crying when I saw a cat that had been recently hit by a car and wasn't dead quite yet so it was flopping all over the road."

The SJWs trigger warnings requirements are because they are saying some things taught in a class could trigger a flashback to a past trauma, not that it could trigger a crying jag.

It's their definition of past trauma that invites ridicule. Being picked last in PE in high school and then having to read a book in college about a kid who was picked last does not require a trigger warning.

But if the SJWs want to shut down the class or the teacher, that's their claim. They care soooo much for the downtrodden that they're protecting them in advance.