Lukianoff And Haidt Made A Weak Argument

The purpose of my research is to explore and offer analysis of the controversy over the use of trigger warnings and safe spaces on college campuses, in order to understand when, where, and most importantly, regarding what subjects their use is appropriate.

Bridges’ argument in Why students need trigger warnings failed to address how some students might use trigger warnings to avoid a reading or an assignment. His personal experience with a student with trauma, though, helps incite sympathy and suggest to readers that trigger warnings are necessary to avoid further physiological harm to students. However, AAUP’s argument still sustains credibility because many professors have similar views that trigger warnings marginalize topics like sex and race and they react by avoiding those topics.

Trigger words are common-throughout anyone’s daily life. Imagine this, an elderly women loses her husband of fifty years. The man kept a four leaf clover in his pocket at all times for good luck. Did the world completely eliminate four leaf clovers from the world to accommodate her loss? No, not at all— the elderly women had to mentally prepare herself to handle the mental distress that could come. Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt in wrote an article in September of 2015 titled, “The Coddling of the American Mind.” This article covers overall mental health mostly in American college students. The students demand security from words and ideas that are uncomfortable in the learning environment. Lukianoff and Haidt cover every aspect concerning the views through the students, therapist, professors, and even the general public. There is a serious epidemic of micro-aggressions, trigger words, and an over-use of vindictive protectiveness. The two author’s ideals stated within are realistic, however, getting to the conclusion is a bit hectic and spastically placed throughout.

The most recent controversy on American college campuses today, is whether colleges should adopt trigger warnings as a way to protect students from topics of discussion or ideas that may cause them some level of discomfort for instance, a lecture about rape may disturb a student who may have been raped in their earlier life causing the student great emotional disstress. Even though trigger warnings save student from reliving a delicate past; trigger warning should not be added to college classes because students at a college level should be mentally prepared to handle harsh academic course work that may trigger their own difficult past. Trigger warnings blind ones vision to learn the truth about topics that contain disturbing truths, taking

Throughout the past few years people have started to become more cautious of what they say and do in public because everyone reacts differently to all kinds of things and it is not hard to offend someone. In the essay “Coddling of the American Mind” by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, they discuss the rise of microaggression, which fosters a culture where young adults are sheltered from concepts that give offense. They focus on the idea of removing offensive words, ideas, and subjects from college campuses because they believe it is disastrous to protect the words and ideas that may cause “microaggression” from college students. In order to persuade the readers that colleges are distorting and coddling the minds of their students, Lukianoff and Haidt use modes of persuasion, examples, and definitions.

In Greg Lukianoff and Jonathon Haidt’s “The Coddling of the American Mind” issued in 2015 in The Atlantic, they claim that the new wave of “vindictive protectiveness” is infantilizing college students, as certain words, subjects, and ideas are being deemed as offensive. Lukianoff and Haidt assert that if universities continually shield students from these distressing topics, students will leave universities “thin-skinned” thinking pathologically and unprepared for the workforce.

Trigger statements are becoming more and more popular in syllabi, especially on college campuses. These provide students, especially those with post-traumatic stress disorder, with a warning about possibly uncomfortable content that could cause a flashback or panic attack. There are several different opinions about trigger warnings. Jenny Jarvie, the author of the article “Trigger Happy,” believes that they have gone too far and are a detriment to society (Jarvie 6). To enhance Jarvie’s point further, in their article “The Coddling of the American Mind” Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt explain how trigger warnings cause metal illness on campuses across the country. The opposing view is that they are necessary to have a fulfilling learning

An increasing trend among college campuses is the use of “safe spaces” and “trigger warnings.” The term safe space refers to an area where discriminatory and offensive notions are barred and a person can feel secure. A trigger warning is a forewarning of content that could

Due to the relative newness of microaggressions as a discussion topic in human social affairs the definition can differ when used in different contexts. Hoover defines microaggressions as “… a subtle conveyance of bias or stereotype...” in “The Comfortable Kid” (106.) Boysen’s article, “Teacher and Student Perceptions of Microaggressions in College Classrooms,” which uses the definition of “subtle slights and insults that are offensive but largely unintentional” for microaggression (123,) is slightly different yet follows the same main points. Contrastingly in “A Critical Analysis of Anti-Discrimination Law and Microaggressions in Academia” microaggressions are avenues used to physically discriminate against minorities that are more the result of a

The Coddling of the American Mind, basically means cleaning campuses of words, ideas, and subjects that might cause someone discomfort or that may be offensive. Many authors have written about this occurrence with others having to face lawsuits for having not followed the written code in their writings. In Jeannie Suk’s article for the New Yorker, she asks her fellow professors at Harvard not to teach rape law or even mention the word violate because it could make the students become distressed. Laura Kipnis, a professor at Northwestern University, had a complaint filed against her for writing an essay in The Chronicle of Higher Education talking of campus politics of sexual paranoia. The coddling of the American mind has led to the oversensitivity of students who cannot take a non-threatening joke and whose professors have to be careful of the words they use in their lectures.

The main point of this article is about showing that American college students are sheltered on certain subjects and how it is affecting not only themselves, but their academic career as well as their peers who depend on them. The main type of argument used in this article is Evaluation Argument. An example is because Lukianoff points out that students were doing a demonstration on why microaggressions were offensive. The students had to stop because the demonstration was causing students to trigger.

critical dialogue. I believe trigger warnings are necessary in order to make academic spaces safe

It can be agreed that Lukianoff and Haidt use terms such as microaggressions and trigger warning appropriately to demonstrate how student’s have encouraged rule changes in schools, Microaggressions (slight comments or unconscious actions that may be perceived as hateful) and trigger warnings (Warning at the beginning of a piece of potentially upsetting content) are terms that have recently become commonplace in academia. Lukianoff and Haidt describe students asking their law teacher not to teach rape law which seems absurd when trying to learn a trade which highly involves that situation. Students have also asked for trigger warnings

In the essay ‘The Coddling of the American Mind’, Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt argue trigger warnings are hindering the learning experience in college. While this is true it goes farther than just that, there is an epidemic of a certain mentality spreading across the United States. This mentality is that everyone is deserving of content warnings, whether it be graphic, on paper, or ideas in a discussion everywhere they go. This is a terrible mentality to have, because it breeds an underlying issue. The issue at hand is a psychological issue that can be treated over time. The issue’s severity depends on what the person wants a trigger warning for. In the extreme cases, there are completely unreasonable demands for warnings because it could be too common, there would be too many warnings, while in other cases it is more reasonable but still should not become the norm of society. If trigger warnings become the norm for the world it would cause harm to individuals’ minds and society.

Hanlon’s article focuses on the idea of trigger warning and how they are used as well as viewed on college campuses around college campuses around the United States. Hanlon makes a direct reference to “The Coddling of the American Mind” by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt through the article bring out points that he disagrees with. Hanlon believes trigger warnings are not necessary bad when the professor uses them within the right context according to his thesis. He gives examples of when he uses them in his own classroom. In the article Hanlon also breaks down a few sentences from my original article to show how it is framed in a way to match the larger societal voice. The author’s argument as well as the article as a whole has a weak merit.