At a recent University of Chicago Institute of Politics event that’s part of “America in the Trump Era,” CNN contributor and progressive pundit Van Jones gave students in the audience some hard-hitting truths regarding the safe space movement:
There are two ideas about safe spaces. One is a very good idea and one is a terrible idea.
The idea of being physically safe on a campus, not being subjected to sexual harassment and physical abuse … or being targeted specifically and purposefully because of some kind of hate speech: ‘You are an N-word’ or whatever. That I, hey — perfectly fine with that.
But there is another view that is now I think ascending, which I think is a horrible view, which is that ‘I need to be safe ideologically, I need to feel safe emotionally, I just need to feel good all the time. And if someone says something I don’t like that’s a problem for everybody else, including the administration.’ And I think that is a terrible idea for the following reasons.
I don’t want you to be safe ideologically. I don’t want you to be safe emotionally. I want you to be strong. That’s different. I’m not going to pave the jungle for you. Put on some boots and learn how to deal with adversity. I am not going to take all the weights out of the gym. That’s the whole point of the gym.
You can’t live on a campus where people say stuff you don’t like?! And these people can’t fire you. They can’t arrest you. They can’t beat you up. They can just say stuff you don’t like — and you get to say stuff back! And this you cannot bear?!
This is ridiculous, B.S., liberals. My parents … were marched. They dealt with fire hoses. They dealt with dogs. They dealt with beatings You can’t deal with a mean tweet? You are creating a kind of liberalism that the minute it crosses the street into the real world is not just useless, but obnoxious, and dangerous.
I want you to be offended every single day on this campus … and then learn how to speak back.
h/t: Washington Examiner
Like The College Fix on Facebook / Follow us on Twitter
Add to the Discussion