Week 7: Micah Sakado

Micah Sakado
A02
11/5/17

The word "triggered" has become a common joke (meme status, even) among my friends and community of college students. It is often associated with radical Feminism and how easily offended radicals can be (some people identify all Feminists to be radical, which is stupid, but that's for a different post). Because of this, I associate the word "trigger" with radical social change. However, Lukianoff and Haidt's article "The Coddling of the American Mind" has opened my eyes and made me rethink the word and the social implications that go with it. It argues that these "trigger warnings" hinder American education and intellectual thought. I agree with them to a certain extent. Making college a 100% safe space for students is wrong. I can hear it now: "but Micah, are you saying that you don't want all college students to feel safe???" Okay well, no. College students are entitled to living in a space where they can freely and safely live and express ideas without suppression. However, because of this, college students should be ready to encounter ideas that to not match their own. Free speech means free speech for all, not just the radical left or radical right. Something that I thought was interesting in this article was the argument that trigger warnings hinder those with and those without mental trauma. I completely agree; trigger warnings categorize something as the enemy without having a discussion. Some may say there is no discussion, but that is just ignorant. Get out of your little bubble and understand people have dissenting opinions. However, I do understand that students do have real mental problems and should appropriate treatment for such conditions, but making it so they never talk about the thing they fear will do nothing for them once they leave the protected world that is college. We should be equipping students with the tools to confront their fears, not hide them, which is what the excessive use of trigger warnings do. So, I argue that trigger warnings can be a useful tool to protect students from potential harm, but only to a certain extent. If we are barring professors from teaching because of trigger warnings, thats where I draw the line.

Question: How do we have this exposure therapy to particularly harrowing subjects such as rape or abuse?

Here we have Joji Miller. Common meme. The word triggered has leeched its way into our nomenclature, but it has deeper social implications that go beyond a laugh. It is a commentary on how fragile and PC campus culture is today,