Honestly, a professor at my school said 'safe spaces can't mean safe from ideas' in a lecture last week.

I was in a poli-sci class at UC Berkeley and he said it during a talk about the protest rules. It got me thinking about where the line is between feeling okay and just shutting down talk. What do you guys think a campus should actually do when a speaker makes people feel unsafe?

4 comments

4 Comments

the_olivia3mo ago

Berkeley should cancel any speaker that causes real emotional harm.

ray_williams3mo ago

Look at who gets to decide what "real emotional harm" is. That power will always land in someone's hands, and they'll use it to shut down voices they simply disagree with. We're setting up a system where the loudest complaint wins, not where the most important ideas are heard. This turns a university into a place that avoids hard talks instead of leading them.

susan_adams2mo ago

My old college had a speaker who made half the room walk out... which was a real win for the parking situation. I get what @charles122 is saying about the difference between a threat and a bad take. Campuses should handle real threats, but they can't make everyone feel okay about every idea.

charles1223mo ago

Where do we draw the line on what counts as emotional harm? I see it differently than @the_olivia. If a speaker just has a bad opinion, that's not the same as a real threat. A campus should protect people from violence, not just from ideas they don't like.