Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

In College and Hiding from Scary Ideas

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 116 posts

Re: In College and Hiding from Scary Ideas

#71

Post by makomk »

hiou wrote: post #3
vonklaus wrote: post #2

Nytimes should be banned from HN. It is paywalled and the information is dubiously sourced, if even true. This is not an acceptable source of news nor fact.

Seriously? You have gotten to the point in your extremism that the New York Times, one of the most respected news sources in the entire world is not factual to the point it should be banned. How did the country seriously get to this point?

It's possible that respect isn't entirely earned - indeed, even that their own reputation caused the New York Times to get an overblown sense of its own importance: http://deadline.com/2016/11/shocked-by-trump-new-york-times-...

Re: In College and Hiding from Scary Ideas

#72

Post by maxerickson »

Zikes wrote: post #55
maxerickson wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You really think that harm isn't in the eye of the beholder?

https://youtu.be/RzA4dCT4X0I Some people are way too eager to be victims.

I think you are making my point for me.

Apparently the point of posting the video is that the person recording it thinks they have been harmed (I didn't watch the whole thing)? And that you disagree?

That's exactly my point, you each have your own ideas of what harm is. What follows from that is that of course it will be messy to discuss. But it still stands that the core message of tolerance is that we should examine things for harm and accept those things that minimize it, not that we should accept all things mindlessly.

Re: In College and Hiding from Scary Ideas

#73

Post by dorkrawk »

"What will they do when they hear opinions they’ve learned to shrink from? If they want to change the world, how will they learn to persuade people to join them?"

This seems like an important quote for those who are sad/disappointed/angry about the US election results.

Re: In College and Hiding from Scary Ideas

#74

Post by ocdtrekkie »

makomk wrote: post #66
DarkTree wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then oddly enough, it becomes less about you being challenged and more about those who believe you shouldn't exist being challenged. Colleges are great for exposure to peers with varying backgrounds and beliefs and are great for fostering understanding of each other's viewpoints. Isolating your group to spaces of the same people will probably strengthen that demarcation and lessen the incentive (and the ability) for…

What if, sometimes, LGBTQ people want to achieve things other than challenging people who believe they don't exist - things like, say, arranging financial support for people who've been disowned by their family for being gay and are in danger of becoming homeless, or even just having a friendly chat with other LGBTQ people about their experiences? That's what the LGBT space at university was used for when I was there…

There's nothing wrong with talking to or gathering with other people like you or other people who think like you. The problem is when that's the only thing you do.

Re: In College and Hiding from Scary Ideas

#75

Post by Pigo »

munin wrote: post #60
Miner49er wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you believe you are right then why can't you simply disagree with it, rather than hide from anything that _might_ be a "challenge"?

Because if you disagree with it you get your face bashed in?

Do you really? Then you call the police. The fact that these topics can't be discussed without escalation to violence (or people assuming it will lead to violence) should be troubling to everyone. In the free market of ideas, you win or lose by the merits of your ideas. If you're just spouting racism and bigotry then you will lose, and everyone will ignore you. But even then, there's no need for violence.

Re: In College and Hiding from Scary Ideas

#76

Post by mLuby »

Zikes wrote: post #48
fnovd wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't have a problem with safe spaces. To me, they're like office break rooms. Sometimes you just need a minute to disengage. But, if you're spending your whole day in there, I'm going to question why you show up to work in the first place.

Safe spaces as I've seen them implemented are exclusionary and discriminatory. A women-only safe space is sexist, as the implied "safety" of not allowing men implies that men are inherently unsafe. A POC-only safe space is racist, as the implied "safety" of not allowing whites implies that whites are inherently unsafe. If anyone were to even suggest the opposite implementation, a men-only or whites-only "safe space",…

The US Presidency is such a "men-only (almost) whites-only" safe space, as are most circles of power in this country.

Re: In College and Hiding from Scary Ideas

#77

Post by 50CNT »

munin wrote: post #60
Miner49er wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you believe you are right then why can't you simply disagree with it, rather than hide from anything that _might_ be a "challenge"?

Because if you disagree with it you get your face bashed in?

That's just plain violence and already illegal. You also have the right to defend yourself in those circumstances, and you don't need to have that kind of discussion all by yourself. I think some states go as far as letting you shoot your attacker, stand your ground laws and all.

Cutting off communication between groups doesn't prevent violence. It creates echo chambers that allow them to drift further and further apart. At some point, the only way they can communicate is violence.

Re: In College and Hiding from Scary Ideas

#78

Post by melling »

aaronchall wrote: post #12
iplaw wrote: post #4

This article is from March 2015, and shows that the writing has been on the wall for quite a while. The "safe spaces" movement is a plague, and I am sick of it. I hold extremely diverse viewpoints which span the political spectrum. Socially liberal and fiscally conservative. How can liberals claim to be accepting of all viewpoints but, in reality, only accept those that align with their pseudo-personal-Utopia outlook…

In the same vein, I suggested discussing who we voted for the US Elections and why (I also mention SJW's bullying speakers off of campuses)- and my Ask HN was flagged ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12932905 ). I figured it would be timely and on-topic as a result: "On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence,…

It says "Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon."

Re: In College and Hiding from Scary Ideas

#79

Post by threatofrain »

iplaw wrote: post #4

This article is from March 2015, and shows that the writing has been on the wall for quite a while. The "safe spaces" movement is a plague, and I am sick of it. I hold extremely diverse viewpoints which span the political spectrum. Socially liberal and fiscally conservative. How can liberals claim to be accepting of all viewpoints but, in reality, only accept those that align with their pseudo-personal-Utopia outlook…

Some people are particularly vulnerable, and I think there ought be safe rooms for them, but there shouldn't be safe . It doesn't matter if students wish to use a private room to do things that don't effect anyone else; that's just an extension of people enjoying privacy in . There's little difference from a 'safe' private room and a 'safe' business conference room where you expect to be undisturbed.

I could imagine this being useful to those with social anxiety disorders or social deficiencies, for group grief counseling, for group addiction support, etc. These are all examples of safe spaces.

What becomes insufferable is when one's safe space extends into the public space or even into my space. That's just people trying to dominate the behaviors of others. No internal turmoil justifies domination over my legitimate behaviors.

Re: In College and Hiding from Scary Ideas

#80

Post by mistermann »

Pigo wrote: post #69
PKop wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And they want to conflate "words" with physical action; offense with violence. Thus the need for a safe space because hearing something that upsets you or you disagree with is the same as being physically assaulted. This is what you do when you are afraid of debate, afraid of being wrong and unable to defend your ideas... when you know you might lose or are losing in the arena of ideas. You criminalize differing opin…

I do believe it played a part in this election. Watching shows like Rubin Report opened my eyes to how fractured the left has become. It also gives me hope that there's a lot of people out there who still want to have a dialogue.

There are a lot of young people on the right willing to have a dialogue, not much on the left based on my post-election observations. The alt-right is literally giving away the playbook on what happened, in great detail, but the left continues to insist the result is because "everyone is racist". It is depressing.
Post reply on HN