Van Jones on college campus safe spaces

That is why there is such robust debate on this forum - we get it.

Hear, hear! Am I allowed to applaud him and say Ab-so-lutely ? ( feel free to disregard my post thatbags, although I think one's agreement or the contrary should be with views and not the individual)
Refreshing common sense, I intend to pinch his quote about not "paving over the jungle. Put on some boots"!

And don't forget he is talking to young students who are just entering the exciting world of politics and whose arguments are insufficiently formed whereby they resent being questioned over their beliefs and are still learning the ability of debate.

I am aware that not having viewed the entire content of his 'audience with' I can only assume what his point is.

Example I may be misinterpreting his , as he calls it in the clip ' B ASS LIBERAL' as him referring to the so called 'Snowflake Generation' but he could in fact be calling them to rise up and cause trouble.

If the ' audience with ' is concerning the fact the ease some people are so easily offended and call for ' protection of their sensitivities ' , our universities in particular , then I agree with him . No news there as I have said as much on threads about this before.

I like what he said :-

"You are creating a kind of liberalism that the minute it crosses the street into the real world it's not just useless, obnoxious but dangerous."

Again I come back to not knowing the full context of the link , he might well have been telling students to stop being pathetic, grow up and cause anarchy .

I think it is BS liberal, pogs, meaning bullshit liberal, meaning not liberal at all. That's his point: it's not liberal to, for instance, ban speakers because you think they'll say something you don't like.

The banning of speakers has been happening far too often on uni campuses of late.

Better to teach the students how to recognise WHAT they don't like, WHY they don't like it, and HOW to refute it without hysteria. If the body never meets a pathogen it never forms an antigen to defend itself against it. Same with political and social pathogens.

"People say stuff you don't like. And you can say stuff back. I want you to be offended every single day on this campus...I want you to be deeply aggrieved and offended and upset and learn how to speak back."

Maybe we should ask GNHQ to do one of those 'Chats' on GN.

POGS There is no suggestion anywhere that he is inciting people to 'rise up and cause trouble' or cause 'anarchy'. Quite the opposite! He's telling them to be braver and speak up rather than sticking their heads in the sand and not listening to views they don't like.

PS. The talk looked as though it was organised by the Institute of Politics at the University of Chicago. Universities often organise talks such as this (some open to the public), so I doubt if there was anything subversive about it.

Interesting link, thatbags. Thanks!

And even if he, or someone else, were saying things that could be interpreted as subversive, his point would still hold: contest the subversive arguments with better arguments.

Exactly!! That is what the liberals must now tackle as the far right/nationalists are making the running at the moment.

I'm watching/listening to the whole conversation - there is so much more than the 'safe spaces'. Absolutely fascinating, uplifting, and restores my confidence in the American press, and the future of the US.

Over an hour so far!

I agree with his comments bags and they must not be afraid ( students anywhere in democratic countries) to tackle far right/ far left and far anything actually, and to stop being offended if others don't agree with them.
Actually, I don't think that GN needs any lessons on speaking up, and things only get deleted if they go too far.

Maybe some GNers need lessons in not trying to hound people off the site when they have strong views. There was even one poster (wonder who ) who told another one that this wasn't the site for her and told her that she wouldn't hack it at a real life meet-up. This same poster is always claiming that other posters are put off by strong views. I don't know what authorisation this particular poster has to represent the views of others. Maybe she should encourage these poor snowflake grans to learn how to speak back!

Further to my previous comment, it's worth remembering that most, if not all, of the great ideas were subversive when they were first expressed, e.g. the heliocentric theory of the solar system, evolution, etc.

daphnedil

Do not twist my posts.

" POGS There is no suggestion anywhere that he is inciting people to 'rise up and cause trouble' or cause 'anarchy'. Quite the opposite! He's telling them to be braver and speak up rather than sticking their heads in the sand and not listening to views they don't like.

I made the point I hoped I had interpreted his point correctly and totally agreed with him but I also like to understand the 'context' to be able to discuss and having not had the ability to view the whole thing I gave an 'EXAMPLE' of how I could be agreeing in a clear conscience to the clip but giving credence to something quite different.

That is NOT as you portray my initial post as saying he ' IS ' inciting riot. You obviously have watched more than I have???? I only went on what I heard in the clip and made a valid point about 'context' and being too quick to assume you know all the ins and outs before ' opening your gob '.

Anyway I hope thatbags understood where I was coming from as her OP was a good one.

Give it up dd childish stuff from a grown woman ( your last post) sounds silly.

TB: "contest the subversive arguments with better arguments"

Very very well said!

But that's how it is too often on GN roses and you know exactly what I mean!

Very
Very interesting topic