Many American universities are subordinating free speech not merely to physical safety but to emotional equilibrium. The problem extends beyond campus speech codes and “free-speech zones,” both of which have received considerable attention in recent years. On many campuses, certain viewpoints are considered so inherently offensive that they require silencing.


The Harvard Crimson recently published a student essay arguing that academic freedom should be eliminated and replaced with “academic justice,” which would ensure the university did not permit “research promoting or justifying oppression.” (At Harvard, that could cover just about anything.) Two Rutgers campuses have voted to rescind speaking invitations to Condoleezza Rice, although Nancy Pelosi remains welcome to speak. On the Santa Barbara campus of the University of California, associate professor of feminist studies Mireille Miller-Young recently snatched anti-abortion signs from two protesters and stormed away, calling them “terrorists.”


A column in the student newspaper accused the pro-lifers of “selfishly abusing” freedom of speech: “UCSB prides itself on inclusivity and diversity, yet these groups have actively chosen to ignore the myriad people these images negatively impact. … These groups have failed to give students the right to choose to partake in such events, stripping individuals from their choice to practice self-care in topics as deep as abortion.” The pro-lifers, said the student author, should have given everybody a warning first — an idea that received approval in the liberal magazine Salon.


Advance warning of potentially upsetting free speech doesn’t apply only to pictures of dead fetuses. On some campuses, it also applies to The Great Gatsby, Downton Abbey, Glee, and Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart—all of which have been recommended as material meriting a “trigger warning.”


Trigger warnings provide advance notice of potentially disturbing material. According to a piece by Jenny Jarvie in The New Republic, they started on Internet forums for victims of abuse who might be upset by certain graphic descriptions that could “trigger” post-traumatic stress. From there they jumped to college campuses, where their use was broadened to cover anything that might possibly offend anyone.


At UC Santa Barbara (again!) students recently passed a resolution demanding mandatory trigger warnings on all class syllabi. Oberlin has produced an official policy on trigger warnings that covers “racism, classism, sexism, heterosexism, cissexism, ableism, and other issues of privilege and oppression.” (Cissexism is bigotry directed at transgender people.) Trigger warnings have become so widespread Slate called last year the “Year of the Trigger Warning.”
http://reason.com/archives/2014/03/2...speech-ahead/1