Ben Shapiro, who is editor and chief of the
DailyWire constantly gets his events shut down because he promotes "hate
speech". Apparently his words are so hurtful that people can't even bare
to sit through his speech without feeling compelled to yell at him to stop
because he might hurt their feelings. On campuses around the US students are
constantly searching for a safe space so they will never have to encounter an
opinion that they might disagree with. Here are some examples: Ben Shapiro
spoke at the University of California-Los Angeles and students created a
"healing space" so they could recover from the dreadful pain of
having Shapiro on their campus. Some students at the University of Oregon had a
big debate on removing the famous “I have a dream that my four little
children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the
color of their skin, but by the content of their character. I have a dream . .
. quote from a wall in their union or some student center because it wasn't
inclusive enough. At Claremont College they had an outdoors club but cancelled
their annual "bikini hike" because it didn't include students that
don't like to go outside. Apparently they didn't understand clubs exist so
members can participate in interest-specific activities that aren't for
everyone. This is a mess!
Why and how are
safe spaces becoming normalized? They are tapping into the pathos form of
argument. It’s largely based on the idea that feelings matter more than logic.
College is supposed to be a time where you are confronted with several
different points of view from your professors and students around you, but
instead there are students all around the U.S. college campuses freaking out
every time someone might hurt their feelings. This is actually quite the point
of America. Our founders were debating big thing like mortality, heaven and
hell, you might hurt someone’s feelings talking about consequential topics like
that. They believed that government was the framework that said instead of
shooting at one another when we disagree with someone’s opinion we’re going to
put on our big boy pants, sit at the table, listen to everyone’s opinion,
realize that ideas have serious implications, but we’re not going to seek
violence to shut down speech.
Rhetoric from
college students has soared on to the national screen making all kinds of noise
every day it seems. It’s hard to think of another group of people besides millennials
that’s made fun of more. Why shouldn’t they though? At the University of
Wisconsin students created a petition to ban the words “crazy” and “sombrero”
because using the word “crazy” is insensitive to people, and the word
“sombrero” is cultural appropriation. I don’t believe this is a right vs. left
issue either. Both sides agree on the first amendment. We should never crack
down on freedom of speech even if it’s a minority opinion and you disagree with
it mightily. The first amendment is sacred and should be preserved no matter
what. I might still be in college but from what I have been told once you are
out of college the real world does not care about your safe space.
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