trigger warnings Archives - Biting the Bullet

—April 19, 2015

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

The First Amendment is my favorite part of the U.S. Constitution. Not the amendment’s opening part. I mean, I believe in the free exercise of religion, but kind of hope no more religions are “established” as the ones already established cause enough trouble in the world. And that part about petitioning the government is kind of worthless, cause you can petition about your grievances until the cows come home, but good luck receiving any redress.

It’s the “freedom of speech, or of the press,” part of this amendment that stirs my soul, and the one I have actively supported since my rabble-rousing youth. It is the reason I rail against political correctness, which is so often used to furtively stifle free speech and oppress critical thinking.

To this day I believe the U.S. Supreme Court did the right thing by defending flag burning as freedom of expression. While I personally disagree with burning Old Glory, the fact that it is allowed as a form of expression is part of what makes America great.

I also find various garbage proclaimed as “art,” such as works by Robert Maplethorpe and others of his ilk, to be offensive; however, its public display, no matter how loathsome, is worthy of first amendment protection, too.

In my rabble-rousing youth, university and college campuses were bastions of free speech. On just about any given day you were likely to find all points of view expressed on any number of issues, not to mention plenty of public “bad taste” antics and other questionable displays by fraternal organizations and other social groups. All without any real fuss or overt animosity between competing factions or diametrically opposed interest groups. Students tended to discuss divisive issues, but for the most part did not try to suppress ideas and speech they did not agree with.

So I’ve got to ask: What the fuck happened?

How is it that in the span of roughly one generation, the ideal of free speech has been cast aside by most institutions of higher learning, with the apparent full support of a majority of professors and students?

Students aren’t taught about “freedom of speech,” because they are now being taught “freedom from speech.” Universities, colleges and many of their students seem to be focused on limiting just about any speech that might possibly cause offence, and stifling ideas that may run contrary to specific students’ beliefs. And with the emphasis on trigger warnings, safe spaces, microaggressions, speech codes, privilege of various sorts, and other popular politically correct taglines, “debate” is obviously now a foreign concept on campuses. Instead, students are being taught how to engage in “goodthink.”

Consider in just the past 10 days:

DePaul University enacted a ban on students chalking political messages on campus sidewalks because of the “offensive, hurtful, and divisive” nature of pro-Donald Trump chalking.

The State University of New York at New Paltz abruptly canceled a planned campus debate between a notable left-wing media critic and a notable right-wing media critic on “How the Media Can Sway Votes and Win Elections.” Certainly sounds like a well-balanced debate on an important issue. Unfortunately, one of the debaters had “extreme” right wing views, according to complaints lodged by at least one professor and several unidentified students. Can’t have that, now can we. . . even if balanced out by another speaker on the opposite end of the political spectrum.

Campus police forced University of Delaware students to censor a giant inflatable “free speech beach ball,” because someone had drawn a picture of a penis on the ball, along with the word “penis.” The students, who were promoting free speech values, were advised that campus speech codes and sexual harassment policies overrode any rights to free expression. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education and Young Americans for Liberty both issued protests to university administrators advising them that the campus police were infringing upon the students’ First Amendment rights.

And how about this for complete irony:

About 700 professors and students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison signed letters complaining about racism from campus police and administrators, and demanding that a student arrested for spray-painting graffiti on scores of campus buildings be given clemency for his actions and be allowed to graduate on time this May. The letters allege that police engaged in racism by interrupting an Afro-American studies class when they arrested the student vandal, and that administrators are guilty of promoting racism because they were more interested in protecting campus buildings than students—such as the vandal—who are fighting for social change.

The student vandal’s fight for social change included graffiti on 11 different buildings with such messages as: “THE DEVIL IZ A WHITE MAN,” “DEATH TO PIGZ,” “WHITE SUPREMACY IZ A DISEASE,” AND “FUCK THE POLICE,” among others.

Unbelievably, both the chief of campus police and university chancellor have issued statements of apology over the incident, with both vowing to review police practices. I wouldn’t be surprised if the vandal ends up serving as the university’s valedictorian during the upcoming graduation ceremonies.

So, Hash It Out: Is the politically correct induced dissolution of the First Amendment on campuses turning American universities batshit crazy?

—Published April 19 in Hash It Out!

—November 16, 2015

You know what? I think it’s time to let loose with some hate speech….

Yeah, I’m going to spew out some vile, vituperative vitriol….

Are you ready? Here goes:

I despise you activist purveyors of political correctness with your demands for safe spaces, trigger warnings, speech codes, gender neutrality, social justice, and abject conformity to your views. I despise your ongoing calls for tolerance and inclusiveness, which really only apply to your politically correct brethren and the marginalized segments of society you purportedly protect from the rest of us. I despise your hypersensitive, holier-than-thou whining about micro-aggressions, and all the countless everyday words and actions that are so quickly described by you as “demeaning to” (insert marginalized victim of the day here).

I don’t despise you as people—honestly do not care if you are black, white, Asian, Hispanic, Muslim, female, gay, trans, obese, disabled, or whatever supposedly marginalized group you care to identify with—nor do I necessarily repudiate your specific causes.

But I despise your emerging ideology and methodologies. The former akin to Marxism, but instead of trying to extinguish class differences, it appears that you are trying to eliminate personality differences in your quest to homogenize the human race to conform to your ideals. The latter ironically fraught with divisiveness and intolerance.

And I especially despise how you seek to stifle freedom of speech and thought—how easily you are offended and ready to erupt in outrage until the offending subject matter is removed or censored. Your efforts in this regard are starting to reach a crescendo, as evidenced by the recent explosion of politically correct student activism on college campuses across America.

Take the University of Missouri in just the past few days:

Media studies and journalism professor Melissa Click physically tried to block the press from covering student demonstrations on the quad. During the altercation the professor called for “muscle” to help her remove an offending journalist.

Professor Melissa “I need some muscle over here” Click is a disgrace to the profession, and any and all journalism credentials should be stripped from her forthwith.

Meanwhile the vice president of the school’s student association, Brenda Smith-Lezama, expressed her disdain of freedom of speech when she told MSNBC that “I personally am tired of hearing that first amendment rights protect students when they are creating a hostile and unsafe learning environment for myself and other students here.”

Really? How did this woman ever get into university? I mean, as an African-American minority student Ms. Smith-Lezama surely must realize that she would never be student association vice president, let alone even have been admitted to the university, were it not for the First Amendment rights that allowed her forebears to push for civil rights.

And the campus police have entered the PC war, sending out a message on social media encouraging Missouri students to report any and all instances of hateful or hurtful speech, noting that while not against the law, the Office of Student Conduct can take disciplinary action.

So, if your feelings are hurt, call the police….

Over at Yale University, PC students are calling for the head of a professor who dared criticize school efforts to encourage students to wear politically correct costumes during Halloween. The professor suggested that students should not take offence when seeing insensitive Halloween costumes, but should instead be tolerant of them and debate why a particular costume might be offensive.

“Free speech and the ability to tolerate offence are the hallmarks of a free and open society,” the professor said.

Apparently not for the students at Yale….

And we’ve got speech codes and trigger warnings—all the rage across U.S. campuses. It appears that today’s college students are so sensitive that just about any content offered in class that might be offensive or even mildly controversial needs to come with warnings so that students can opt out so that the material does not upset their delicate sensibilities.