The Coddling Of The American Mind Summary

For centuries institutes of higher education have been thought of as places where free speech and ideas can flow, free of restrictions. Universities and colleges alike served as hubs for people with different ideas to gather, argue, debate, and ultimately become more informed on various issues. However, over the past few years things have changed, and not for the better.
According Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt in their article “The Coddling of the American Mind”, a disturbing pattern is arising in which certain ideas, words, and actions are being censored based solely on claims of their “being offensive” or “triggering”. The authors argue that the culture of censorship originates from a good intentioned protectiveness imposed by baby boomers who had developed a more watchful way of raising children. However, this protectiveness has since devolved to be “vindictive” in nature. Students have started to abuse the power they hold in the academic world to bully both teachers and administration, creating a culture of fear of bringing up certain controversial, yet important issues. This has in turned allowed college aged students to believe that if there is a topic which they “cannot handle”, they can either remove
I think that by allowing students to censor the topics or views which they don’t approve of, society is actually polarizing students’ opinions of various situations on college campuses. If there is one “widely accepted view” because others have been by and large censored out, then anyone holding a different view would be more stringently opposed. In turn, those with this nonconformist view end up feeling attacked and are forced to go on the defensive. At that point instead of being able to have an informed discussion and debate the validity of each other’s opinions, neither side can sit down and have a rational discussion without attacking the other, or feeling attacked