College Students Are Ridiculously Infuriating Safe-Space/Mega-thread

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

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You'd think that the fact that Amherst's women's teams are called the Lady Jeffs would strike people as quirky and charming.

In general, I wasn't aware people felt the need to 'identify with' a ing college sports mascot.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Should clarify that there are plenty of good reasons to be concerned about having a mascot that draws extra attention to the fact that your school is (and is in a town) named after Jeffrey Amherst, but that particular quote is ridiculous.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

If you're in severe emotional distress because your liberal arts college has a dumb name for its mascot, ask your doctor if Paxil is right for you.

As a UMass Amherst alumna and frequent visitor of Amherst College's art museum and library, I ask that you check your non-Five Colleges privilege.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I find it hilarious that that page is trans[whatever]-friendly enough to not only list pronoun sets like 'per' but put them above 'she', but not trans[whatever]-friendly enough to avoid the term 'opposite gender'. Hapless tryhards.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

The point is (and this is coming from someone who generally does speak in favour of Mr or Mrs Unpleasant coming to soeak if a society wants them is, on the rare chance I bother with student politics) is that it doesn't matter. People as a whole have never been in favour of "free speech" in the absolute form - although people as a whole probably think they are . Talking about it as if it's some crazy new anti-free speech trend perpetuated by dem PC JOOS is laughable paranoia.

Maybe, so what's the harm in us making fun of it?  I mock attacks on free speech wherever they come from.  From social conservatives in American like Al Gore wanting to censor my Anthrax or social conservatives in the Middle East that want to censor me from drawing pictures of their silly prophet.  Or whiny children that don't want anybody to hear an opinion different from theirs.  They're all wrong, they all deserve to be made fun of and everybody that favors free speech should rub whatever stupid thing they fear in their face every chance they get until these people grow up.  Al Gore is just as big of a baby as some idiot beardo in Damascus who is just as big of a baby as the hipster trying to fit in at college by joining BDS.

OW the EDGE

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

The point is (and this is coming from someone who generally does speak in favour of Mr or Mrs Unpleasant coming to soeak if a society wants them is, on the rare chance I bother with student politics) is that it doesn't matter. People as a whole have never been in favour of "free speech" in the absolute form - although people as a whole probably think they are . Talking about it as if it's some crazy new anti-free speech trend perpetuated by dem PC JOOS is laughable paranoia.

Maybe, so what's the harm in us making fun of it?  I mock attacks on free speech wherever they come from.  From social conservatives in American like Al Gore wanting to censor my Anthrax or social conservatives in the Middle East that want to censor me from drawing pictures of their silly prophet.  Or whiny children that don't want anybody to hear an opinion different from theirs.  They're all wrong, they all deserve to be made fun of and everybody that favors free speech should rub whatever stupid thing they fear in their face every chance they get until these people grow up.  Al Gore is just as big of a baby as some idiot beardo in Damascus who is just as big of a baby as the hipster trying to fit in at college by joining BDS.

OW the EDGE

I'm not even commenting on the substance of what he's saying, but there's a lot of obnoxious dismissiveness going on in this thread.  Do you actually think that he's only making that statement to appear edgy?  If not, what are you even making fun of -- the fact that he's phrasing his sincere argument in impolite terms?  No offense, Madeline, but I've definitely seen you be pretty dismissive in debates before, so I don't really get it.

It's kind of crazymaking to be in a topic where so many people are criticizing/mocking weak arguments you aren't making, and totally ignoring your argument.  Like, what's the point?  How can you mock the tenor of the debate and then do this kind of thing?

I'm not interested in debating any of what he's saying. I just find the way in which he's saying it funny. Of course he's not saying it just to be edgy, but hilarious edginess is the (presumably unintentional) outcome of his rhetorical style.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Honestly they really should consider not putting on The Producers if that's their attitude. Or The Sound of Music.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I've been to events at Hillel houses. Hillel houses are nice places. I have a more positive opinion of Hillel houses than I have of Janet Mock.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I've been to events at Hillel houses. Hillel houses are nice places. I have a more positive opinion of Hillel houses than I have of Janet Mock.

The unsettling thing about this is that they were targeting a Jewish campus group rather than an explicitly Israeli one. The idea that Jewish groups deserve condemnation by mere association certainly undermines any claims the protectors may make about their lack of antisemitism.

This College Leftist and This Nazi Skinhead Bonded over Their Shared Antisemitism. What Happens Next Will Warm Your Heart.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Students sitting on a couch next to me in one of the BU School of Theology public rooms are making dark insinuations about trying to get professors who aren't sufficiently anti-Israel fired.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Princeton will not rename the Woodrow Wilson School.

Makes sense as it's a marquee name for them, even though Wilson was horrible.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I took it too. I got 46/100, somehow.

I have been the only person of my race in a room, because I studied an Asian language and have been to Asia. I've been mocked for my accent because I come from the only part of the country that calls tag sales tag sales. The whole thing about hiding my sexuality is...really difficult to answer for me, but whatever. I went to an elite college but then transferred to a less-elite one because the social and cultural environment at the elite one was so damaging. I'm in grad school at BU now; is that elite? I've never had a roommate, as a disability accommodation. What is a 'social disability'? Prescription drug abuse is a mark of privilege now?! If you're born with an identity, then in what sense is it an identity?

Strangers actually have asked to touch my hair, because I have really great hair.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Put it in the megathread.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

“I shouldn’t be reminded every time I leave my dorm room of how easy my life can be taken away ..."

So now if anything reminds someone of their own mortality, as a human, that is "emotionally triggering". Everyone dies. That is fact. These kids really seem to want to regress to being 5 all over again.

Prince, n'enquerez de sepmaine
Où elles sont, ne de cest an,
Qu'à ce refrain ne vous remaine:
Mais où sont les neiges d'antan!

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

The current state of free speech on college campuses.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCcp36n2cDg

This is the mode of discourse that are being produced in our institutions of higher learning. Is this really what we've turned into?

I don't have time to watch now, but I just want to point out that UMass is different from Amherst College.

And thank the good Lord it is! (Not all Amherst College people are snobs, but it's very much a play by and for snobs.) Go! Go U! Go U! Mass! Go UMass!

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I'm just bemused at how much the vibe at UMass has apparently changed since I graduated two years ago. I mean this really seems to have come over the campus fast.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Radical feminism isn't really the variety of feminism I think of when I think of current campus activism.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

The more I read this thread--both the stories under discussion and the Atlasian Roundtable's method of discussing them--the more halcyon UMass Amherst 2010-2013 looks in retrospect, and I'm starting with pretty rose-colored glasses to begin with!