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A Navy Seal's Semester at Yale, at Age 52

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Re: A Navy Seal's Semester at Yale, at Age 52

#81

Post by patleeman »

lordleft wrote: post #15

Studying with veterans is an incredible experience. I'm lucky that my school (Columbia) has a very large undergraduate vet population. It adds a dimension of experiential diversity that many colleges fail to capture, and makes real what are normally distant and easy to abstract away geopolitical decisions, like deploying troops in Afghanistan. I hope more universities follow Yale and Columbia in creating spaces for r…

I totally agree.

I'm a graduate of Columbia's School of General Studies, alongside many veterans and other non-traditional students. I'm not a veteran, but I had many friends that had served. We had classes with younger students from Columbia College and Barnard and I felt like we brought a different perspective to the classes. I learned a lot from my fellow classmates and I feel so fortunate that I had the opportunity.

Re: A Navy Seal's Semester at Yale, at Age 52

#82

Post by camel_Snake »

maxcan wrote: post #74
luckydata wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Put this way, it really makes me think you don't like safe spaces because they hinder your ability to hurt transgender people. It always seem that the only people complaining about systems designed to respect others is the people that are doing the dis-respecting, haven't seen much proof of the contrary so far.

If hearing the opinion of someone you vehemently disagree with, in this case the appropriateness of sexual affirmation surgery (or whatever its called these days), hurts you are not mature enough for institutions of higher learning, or quite frankly, to constructively participate in democratic society. As a Jew, hearing the words of neo-nazis absolutely disgusts me to my core but it does not "hurt" me. If words hurt…

As a fellow Jew, I hope you'd be just as tolerant of these neo nazis coming to your schul and calling the Holocaust a hoax. If not, it seems like you need a safe space as much as the more disenfranchised minority groups.

Re: A Navy Seal's Semester at Yale, at Age 52

#83

Post by anon9001 »

sillysaurusx wrote: post #29

If you want to see what a Navy SEAL's life is like, I highly recommend this documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGvvNKBGgUw "Documentary" makes it sound sterile or clinical, but in fact it's pretty badass. Kind of dispels the illusion that we're not pampered. It's so good I'll probably watch it again today. The diving section is the best, IMO. Imagine someone spinning you around underwater and ripping off pa…

This kind of training seems like it would cause a lot of injuries. Is that just an accepted part of it?

Re: A Navy Seal's Semester at Yale, at Age 52

#84

Post by dctoedt »

danharaj wrote: post #55
TravHatesMe wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a desire to honestly explore the pros and cons of that surgery What if these pros and cons were subjective, and someone decided that in the end, the cons outweighed the pros? Would you cast them as an evil person and exile them from your safe space? Would you accept their opinion, respectfully disagree, and move on? It seems that you must either abide by the ideology, censor yourself, or be exiled and called a nazi…

> Is everyone really required to learn all these new words / triggers / etc. in order to appease a tiny tiny fraction of the population? Every person you meet is a minority of 1 in 7 billion. Is it so hard for you to learn how to understand people? Do you have trouble with new words and concepts?

> Do you have trouble with new words and concepts?

The trouble comes when a tiny minority (i) decides that the accepted meaning of common terms no longer suits their personal preference — I refer here to the use of they as a generic singular pronoun in formal language — and (ii) insists loudly that anyone who fails to conform to their new preference is being hurtful and disrespectful instead of merely precise.

Re: A Navy Seal's Semester at Yale, at Age 52

#85

Post by philwelch »

AaronFriel wrote: post #26
philwelch wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the social value that we used to get from churches, fraternal organizations, bowling leagues, block parties....

Some of those things are more inclusive and diverse than the others. Fortunately there exists a modern equivalent that exposes people to a lot of different folks all at the same time: universities. For many rural teenagers, a university will be the first time they meet people from another country, who don't speak English as their first language, or a sizable number of people with a different skin color. Speaking from…

And that brings us full circle back to OP.

Most university students are in their late teens and early 20's and once they graduate they never go back. Churches and other social institutions are more lifelong.

Re: A Navy Seal's Semester at Yale, at Age 52

#86

Post by tptacek »

DuskStar wrote: post #80
tptacek wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand why you'd read it that way and I'm sorry if I worded it carelessly, but I didn't make the "bestiality" thing up and wasn't implying that you were making that comparison. Those really were dots that people, including senior policymakers, connected. Something you might want to read up on is "the parade of horribles", which is what you're essentially invoking when you suggest that any government protection…

Except that the horrible in question - giving puberty blockers and other transgender treatments to children - is already happening, and I think I remember a case in Canada where that was done despite the wishes of the parents.

All a puberty blocker does is delay the onset of puberty. They're part of the medical standard of care, and have no permanent effects that require reversal; their effects end as soon as they're taken. The whole point of them is to buy time for patients to more carefully consider their path going forward. They're practically the opposite of "unproven and ill-advised". I'm not seeing the "horrible" here.

But more to the point: the public policy debate about trans people is about whether they can use the bathroom or be fired from jobs.

Re: A Navy Seal's Semester at Yale, at Age 52

#87

Post by diag »

danharaj wrote: post #55
TravHatesMe wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a desire to honestly explore the pros and cons of that surgery What if these pros and cons were subjective, and someone decided that in the end, the cons outweighed the pros? Would you cast them as an evil person and exile them from your safe space? Would you accept their opinion, respectfully disagree, and move on? It seems that you must either abide by the ideology, censor yourself, or be exiled and called a nazi…

> Is everyone really required to learn all these new words / triggers / etc. in order to appease a tiny tiny fraction of the population? Every person you meet is a minority of 1 in 7 billion. Is it so hard for you to learn how to understand people? Do you have trouble with new words and concepts?

All you have to do if you say something offensive to somebody is say "I'm sorry, I won't say that again. I'll be more accommodating in the future."

Re: A Navy Seal's Semester at Yale, at Age 52

#88

Post by JshWright »

philwelch wrote: post #16
tareqak wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve mentioned an idea to a friend of mine: a sort of welfare/basic income program where people are paid to talk to others. There is no restriction as to the topic as long as the other person consents to having the conversation: it can be as mundane talking about the weather. My reasoning behind it was just to get people who otherwise would not talk to each other to do so to actively reinforce my observation that eve…

This is the social value that we used to get from churches, fraternal organizations, bowling leagues, block parties....

Those all tend to be pretty ideologically homogeneous...

Re: A Navy Seal's Semester at Yale, at Age 52

#89

Post by danharaj »

dctoedt wrote: post #84
danharaj wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Is everyone really required to learn all these new words / triggers / etc. in order to appease a tiny tiny fraction of the population? Every person you meet is a minority of 1 in 7 billion. Is it so hard for you to learn how to understand people? Do you have trouble with new words and concepts?

> Do you have trouble with new words and concepts? The trouble comes when a tiny minority (i) decides that the accepted meaning of common terms no longer suits their personal preference — I refer here to the use of they as a generic singular pronoun in formal language — and (ii) insists loudly that anyone who fails to conform to their new preference is being hurtful and disrespectful instead of merely precise.

Can you use a concrete example to illustrate your claim?

Re: A Navy Seal's Semester at Yale, at Age 52

#90

Post by dctoedt »

danharaj wrote: post #89
dctoedt wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Do you have trouble with new words and concepts? The trouble comes when a tiny minority (i) decides that the accepted meaning of common terms no longer suits their personal preference — I refer here to the use of they as a generic singular pronoun in formal language — and (ii) insists loudly that anyone who fails to conform to their new preference is being hurtful and disrespectful instead of merely precise.

Can you use a concrete example to illustrate your claim?

I did in the edited version (I hadn't seen your question before doing the edit).
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