By Alec Liberman
Indian novelist Salman Rushdie once said, “What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.” The Constitution itself bars any law from being passed that limits our right to speak. So now that we have this freedom: why are we afraid to use it?
In this article I’m going to talk about not speaking for fear of offending someone, and how we should simply say what we believe, focusing on college students and the younger generation. I will argue about the necessity of growing thicker skin, the detriments of Planet Fitness’s judgement-free zone, the negative effects of trigger warnings, and the oversensitivity of college students in today’s world.
With that, let’s begin.
Trigger warnings and the bans of so-called “micro-aggressions” are set up to defend the student mind. They protect the recipient from past events that may be harmful to them. They make the world a better and kinder place.
Sensitivity and kindness are important facts of life; I know this fact first hand. In my old school, things were said and directed at me that made me feel, for lack of a better term, dejected. Nobody wants to feel like they’re being discriminated against, and I get that– really, I do.
Today’s layers of protection are great on paper, yet they are often faulty in practice. Why is that? The answer is simple: because that’s not the way the world works.
No matter what, there will be people who disagree with you, and they have a Constitutional right to do so. In fact, a recent survey found that over 70% of Newton South students believe that the freedom to speak your mind is more important than the right to not be offended. However, less than half said that they were comfortable voicing their true opinion for fear of offending someone, with 83% saying that society is too easily offended. And it’s true– the vast majority of us take things far too seriously.
For example, Asian students of Oberlin College in Ohio were outraged because the cafeteria used the wrong kind of bread on a Vietnamese sandwich. The students argued that it was a form of micro-aggression and that it was disrespecting Asian culture.
Think about that for a second. Outrage because of a sandwich bun. This is the world we live in; a world where people’s skin is just too thin.
Thin skin is also extremely prevalent in today’s colleges. Students focus on finding a home rather than treating a college as a place to learn. For example, Yale students recently surrounded a professor on campus, cursing and screaming about an email he sent out about Halloween costumes, and more specifically, how a student has a right to wear what he wants.
“It is not about creating an intellectual space,” they argued. “It is about creating a home.” Well, the next question to ask is: what is the purpose of going to a university?
According to these students, a place to live, and not a place to learn. Speaking of learning, and specifically the lack thereof, let’s move on to trigger words. Law professors at Harvard were recently asked to not teach law on rape for fear of “triggering a past experience.” In fact, a 2014 New Yorker article found that “individual students often ask teachers not to include the law on rape on exams for fear that the material would cause them to perform less well.” Students have also asked professors not to use the word “violate”, even in the sense of “violating the law.” This is, quite frankly, insane. A law student afraid of being taught rape law is comparable to a surgeon not wanting to see blood because they might become upset.
These trigger words prevent you from becoming upset– temporarily. They attempt to protect the audience member from the real world. If you can’t handle something in a semi-protected college then there is no possible way you can handle it in the future; and this is the whole point of college– to educate you and prepare you for the future.
Trigger warnings are a temporary solution to a long term problem, and as we all know, “band aids don’t fix bullet holes.” They create a sort of shield, and shielding yourself from discomfort is one of the worst things you can do. The world is not a comfortable place, and it will never be. There will be things you cannot control, and you have to prepare yourself for them rather than trying to put them off. While trigger warnings do work temporarily, one must attack the problem at its root, as shown by The Atlantic. You can’t just blindly plow on through life and hope to not face anything you do not like.
However, this is exactly what happened at Planet Fitness gyms. A New York Times article reported that one man was kicked out of the gym for grunting while lifting weights. Some gym-goers felt threatened a bodybuilder started grunting while lifting 500 pounds of weight on his shoulders. He was surrounded by police officers and escorted out of the building. Among things like this, Planet Fitness has some eyebrow-raising rules, like the ban of bandanas, jeans, and banging weights.
The managers believe that these things may intimidate new exercisers. The club prides itself on a judgement-free zone, yet it is indeed quite the opposite, often scrutinizing customers with good physique. They have what is called a “lunk alarm”, and alarm with flashing blue lights that goes off when a customer “grunts, drops weights, or judges”– in other words, breaking rules that attempt to make the other gym-goers feel “safe”.
My overall point is– don’t take everything so seriously. You can’t go living your life attempting to block everything you don’t like from your viewpoint– it isn’t going to work, and will just ruin your life in the process.
President Obama recently said that if you talk with someone you don’t agree with, “have an argument with them. You shouldn’t silence them.” That is exactly right. Do not shun someone because you don’t like their opinion; take it up with them and disagree with their viewpoint. Don’t build a wall around yourself, because ultimately, it will come crashing down, and there will be nothing you can do about it.
I would like to end my speech with a quote by the famous writer Evelyn Beatrice Hall: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
