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This Trigger Warning needs its own Trigger Warning
Legal Insurrection ^ | 4/24/15 | William A. Jacobson

Posted on 04/24/2015 4:19:16 AM PDT by markomalley

We’ve written quite a bit about Trigger Warnings since before it became fashionable:

The fragile college student mind is getting more fragile by the day.

As if the normal run of political correctness were not enough, we now have “Trigger Warnings” — the notion that students need to be warned that the material they are about to read in class may “trigger” emotional upset….

Of course, how the trigger is defined says much about the theory behind the movement — it almost always serves left-wing critical race and gender theories ….

The Trigger Warning movement is all about enforcing a conformity of thought by forcing faculty and others to identify and warn about politically incorrect ideas.

The Trigger Warning in the Featured Image was displayed at Oberlin when Christina Hoff Sommers spoke:

He writes:

I’ve decided to include a trigger warning in each course syllabus, beginning this fall. Here is the trigger warning for my upcoming Philosophy of Religion course. What do you think?

What do I think?

I think the precious, fragile souls demanding Trigger Warnings will demand that you put a Trigger Warning on this Trigger Warning.

Here we go:

Philosophy of religion is not for the faint-hearted, the close-minded, the thinskinned, the timid, the hypersensitive, the squeamish, the unintellectual (or antiintellectual), the developmentally arrested, the childish, or the easily offended. If you are traumatized (or even dismayed) by the idea of a punitive (retributive) god, or by the use of masculine pronouns (such as “He,” “Him,” or “His”) to refer to God, or by the mere possibility that God is male (rather than female, androgynous, or asexual), then this course is not for you. If you believe in God but are unwilling to entertain the possibility that your belief is false, then this course is not for you, since we will be examining (and taking seriously) arguments against the existence of God. If you disbelieve in God but are unwilling to entertain the possibility that your belief is false, then this course is not for you, since we will be examining (and taking seriously) arguments for the existence of God. If you are an adherent of a particular religion and believe it to be blasphemous, sinful, heretical, or immoral to think about, discuss, or take seriously other religions, then this course is not for you. If you believe that argumentation in particular or philosophy in general is coercive, masculine, belligerent, or militaristic, then this course is not for you. If you believe that morality is oppressive, sexist, or nothing more than a prop for capitalism or some other economic system, or that the making of moral judgments is “judgmental” (in the sense of being overly or gratuitously critical), then this course is not for you, for we will be examining (and taking seriously) an argument (the so-called Moral Argument) to the effect that the existence of morality (or the fact that we make moral judgments, or the fact that moral judgments or values are objective) supports, implies, or presupposesthe existence of God. If you are distressed or discomfited by the concept of evil, or by the possibility that there is evil in the world, or by the possibility that some people (or their actions) are evil, then this is not the course for you, because we will be asking whether (and, if so, how) the existence of evil (natural or moral) renders the existence of God either impossible or improbable. In short, this course, like any other philosophy course, is for thick-skinned, mature, open-minded, intellectually curious people.

What do you think?


TOPICS: Politics; Society
KEYWORDS: pc

1 posted on 04/24/2015 4:19:17 AM PDT by markomalley
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To: markomalley
I'd like to join Commander Riker in applauding your most excellent post:


2 posted on 04/24/2015 4:25:41 AM PDT by Old Sarge (Its the Sixties all over again, but with crappy music...)
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To: Old Sarge

I’ve been triggered by your post.


3 posted on 04/24/2015 4:36:58 AM PDT by Crazieman (Article V or National Divorce. The only solutions now.)
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To: markomalley

I don’t get it. Didn’t Roy have Trigger stuff?


4 posted on 04/24/2015 4:49:53 AM PDT by Lee'sGhost ("Just look at the flowers, Lizzie. Just look at the flowers.")
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To: markomalley
WARNING!!!

5 posted on 04/24/2015 5:04:40 AM PDT by Chode (Stand UP and Be Counted, or line up and be numbered - *DTOM* -w- NO Pity for the LAZY - 86-44)
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To: markomalley
The fragile college student mind is getting more fragile by the day.

Perhaps these frail youngsters should be permanently institutionalized.

For their own safety, of course.

6 posted on 04/24/2015 5:10:26 AM PDT by Arm_Bears (Rope. Tree. Politician. Some assembly required.)
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To: markomalley

The college student is a pampered toddler when it comes to ideas, never allowed of the mental cocoon, yet allowed full sexual freedom, chemical and substance abuse choices.

So they think that they can end the rights of others by throwing a temper tantrum, while enjoying full run of the play room with others obligated to clean up their physical and social messes.

Protecting them from reality won’t protect them from the consequences of protecting them from reality.


7 posted on 04/24/2015 6:19:12 AM PDT by tbw2
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To: tbw2

I have to think that there’s a good way to oppose this trigger warning nonsense through humor and ridicule rather than through outrage.

I mean, “trigger warnings” are institutionalized as part of the culture here on FR (ie “Barf Alerts”). But they’re used as a way of making fun of the content being posted.


8 posted on 04/24/2015 6:23:56 AM PDT by tanknetter
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To: markomalley
"Trigger warning."


9 posted on 04/24/2015 7:02:52 AM PDT by moovova
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To: tanknetter

See post #9.

;-)


10 posted on 04/24/2015 7:04:03 AM PDT by moovova
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To: markomalley

College students have “triggered” my barf reflex.


11 posted on 04/24/2015 7:14:52 AM PDT by afsnco
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To: tanknetter

It is like the free speech zones, implying that there is no free speech in the rest of the campus.


12 posted on 04/24/2015 11:55:09 AM PDT by tbw2
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To: tbw2

That is likely true these days


13 posted on 04/24/2015 11:56:10 AM PDT by GeronL (Clearly Cruz 2016)
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To: markomalley
I wonder that he gets any students. Sounds like a great course.
14 posted on 04/24/2015 12:36:00 PM PDT by JoeFromSidney ( book, RESISTANCE TO TYRANNY, available from Amazon)
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