Christina WarrenGood. Cornell did the right thing here but I’ll admit to being (pleasantly)surprised it was this resolute. If an individual professor wants to do content warnings as a courtesy, fine. But trying to make that mandatory is not OK. #xp https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/12/nyregion/cornell-student-assembly-trigger-warnings.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
I know this is impulse but I fundamentally don’t agree with trigger warnings as a concept. I’ll try to honor them/respect people who need them if I know in advance, but I fundamentally don’t believe in them. I’m glad Cornell pushed back.
This shit started when I was in college and I don’t think it has had a positive effect on anyone. If anything, the ability to guard ourselves from anything potentially upsetting has made us more polarized and less able to connect with one another or to truly understand and empathize with trauma.
Jeff C. 🇺🇦🇬🇱@film_girl As someone close to somebody who has PTSD (due to sexual assault) I’ve seen enough to know that triggers ARE very real, but the extent to which people have extended the notion to encompass things that basically boil down to being shitty ideas has become excessive in some cases.
You see it here, too, with some of the fairly innocuous things that people put behind content warnings.
@film_girl In the end, higher education is about being exposed to all sorts of ideas, some of which are going to be distasteful or upsetting on some level. People need to be prepared for that as a core part of the experience.
Honestly, a lot of it seems borderline disrespectful toward people who have (actual) trigger reactions due to traumatic incidents in their past.
@jeff I agree! And people who have actual triggers are usually (not always, but usually) better equipped to handle those triggers when they happen or if it is that debilitating, to have a convo with a professor in advance.