Trigger Warning! Words Should Have the Power to Wound | Big Think

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Trigger Warning! Words Should Have the Power to Wound
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The topic of free speech has been tied to events on college campuses for decades — think Mario Savio and the Free Speech Movement at the University of California, Berkeley — and the last few years have seen a resurgence of college students doing what they do best: challenging the dominant social order.

Vocal challenges have risen against racial violence, cultural appropriation, certain political candidates, and more. But novelist Joshua Cohen thinks the impact of a college student's voice should be weighed against the real-world experiences of mature adults. Cohen particularly objects to the concern expressed over violent language in literature classes, and the debate over the value of so-called "trigger warnings" meant to warn students of language that could revive memories of past traumas.

"The whole point of the Greeks is that you never know what your trigger warning is because it’s your hamartia," says Cohen. "It’s your fatal flaw. If someone told you what your trigger waning was you probably wouldn’t end up, you know, killing your father and sleeping with your mother, you know."

Cohen's latest novel is Book of Numbers.
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JOSHUA COHEN:

Joshua Cohen is a novelist and literary critic. He’s the author of the critically acclaimed Book of Numbers, which has been called “The Great American Internet Novel” and of Witz, which was named a Best Book of 2010 by The Village Voice and Four New Messages, which was named a Best Book of 2012 by The New Yorker..

Cohen grew up in Atlantic City. He currently lives in Red Hook. He reads both German and Hebrew and has translated works in both languages into English. He attended the Manhattan School of Music and studied composition.

Cohen is the New Books critic for Harper's. His essays have appeared in Harper's, The New York Times, The New York Times Book Review, Bookforum, The Jewish Daily Forward, Nextbook, Tablet Magazine, Triple Canopy (online magazine), Denver Quarterly, The Believer, The New York Observer, The London Review of Books, N+1 online, Guernica Magazine', and elsewhere.
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TRANSCRIPT:
Joshua Cohen: I don’t give a fuck what anyone says in college. I think if you’re in college you shouldn’t actually have an opinion about anything, you know. I think that you should probably even if you had a tough childhood I think you should probably spend a decade in the workforce. Or if not in the workforce you should spend a decade hating yourself and becoming fatter and uglier and balder and just, you know, I mean you should. And then someone you love should leave you. With that said, you know, my biggest problem is not what happens on college campuses because I try to stay away from college campuses as much as possible. Is really just, you know, what happens to language and people’s free use of language.

I think that, you know, speech should be harmful and defanged speech is not speech. I think speech should always have the power to wound and I think it should be allowed to wound because not only is that the right pressure valve that brings you away from actual physical violence, you know. But more importantly it is a preparation for true pain in life. In the sense of, you know, when you’re spoken to in a certain way that’s harmful. But when you read a book with content that you consider harmful, right, you can’t talk back to it.

You can ignore it. You can, you know, tell other people not to read it, right. But the idea of translating our standards for interpersonal speech to a standard for literature or even just written communication that has stood some test of time is perverse to me. The whole point of the Greeks is that you never know what your trigger warning is because it’s your hamartia, it’s your fatal flaw. If someone told you what your trigger waning was you probably wouldn’t end up, you know, killing your father and sleeping with your mother, you know. I mean implied in the history of literature, Western literature is essentially people who were confronted with – people who were not warned or people who did not heed warnings, right. And these things are supposed to be lessons for us not to set up our own warnings. But they’re actually just supposed to be examples of what life will do to all of us and maybe conciliations for how to abide.

The topic of free speech has been tied to events on college campuses for decades — think Mario Savio and the Free ......

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I feel like Big Think was worried about the reputation they were getting for posting all this PC-nonsense, so they scrambled to find someone to shit on PC, but, not understanding why people hate PC so much, they thought this guy summed up the arguments well.

This guy had no coherent point and was just rambling on about how shitty life was or something, it was only 3 minutes long and I already forget most of it. This was pretty much a child-built strawman of the anti-PC argument.

JosephGubbels
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Anyone using 'trigger warnings' to shut someone down doesn't understand what trigger warnings are.

shraka
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You are not entitled to never having your emotions hurt.

TalsetFireSeed
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There's 2 completely different people up at Big Think arguing for the remote...

Groaznic
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Finally something from Big Think that isn't Bill Nye that I can agree with... finally...

cinnamonchimera
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I don't really understand this guy's point to be honest. Nobody is suggesting to change the content of things, and the words still have the power to wound, which is why a trigger warning could be included. If someone with PTSD comes back from a war and looks at something that includes graphic images, why is it so wrong that there's a warning? The pictures are still there and they're unchanged.

There's been warnings at the beginning of documentaries and tv programs for years. "This program contains scenes that some viewers may find disturbing" for example. Why have people only just started having a problem with it?

RiggidyRock
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I gave this a thumbs up for the first 33 seconds alone.

PolemicContrarian
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Words do hurt but It is the context that decides the amount of damage they do. Unless someone is sending you
death threats or stalking messages you shouldn't go into hyperventilation over some shit that was said on the internet.
Words only have as much power as you give them.

shpongloidia
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So after a decade in the work force people will be granted the right to have an opinion. How noble of you. I am glad you are so in touch with reality to offer such an elegant solution to such a terrible problem.Thanks big think for opening eyes on this issue.

askirojadu
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Free speech is essential. Free speech allows the freedom to criticise anything. Criticising things is the most effective way to test their efficacy. If something can stand up to valid criticism then it is more likely true.

TheRationalChannel
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I think the litmus test in any Social issue is Comedy, and Comedians. Comedy is always overtly political and critical, and Comedians are always the canaries in the coal mines, trying to find what issue or person they are not allowed to make fun of or criticize, and then proceeding in doing exactly that. It's no surprise they hate Political Correctness, because it's an impediment to artistic creativity, not to mention sincerity, and Trigger Warnings are a subset, or a result of that mindset. So the fact that Comedians (who tend to be very Liberal) are now almost unanimously opposed to this sort of P.C culture and trigger warnings and safe spaces that are now prevalent in Colleges, and as such, now refuse to play them, Is I think, indicative of the validity and warranty of trigger warnings. If Comedy is against you on something, then perhaps you should reevaluate your beliefs, and perhaps not take them as seriously.

Rams
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Is he just blabbering nonsense without a system?

yojikwoods
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I don’t give a fuck what anyone says in college.
.
.
Thumbs up

Trunksr
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Funny thing about PC and Anti-PC culture is that they both end up acting like children.

EffectiveKill
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I have no idea what he was even talking about

Atouk
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I thought this channel was called "Big Think" not "No thinking, just talking"

Bananaphoned
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I'm uncomfortable! Everybody STOP and ADJUST your own behavior to accommodate ME.

zerolarge
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If you have a "trigger", then you should probably get off the internet.

Martintoney
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Gunna watch the comments for that snowflake who thinks this video is triggering, and that this video shouldn't exist or be able to have an opinion that differs from theirs. He/she shouldn't have to watch it, and that this video should be removed. But we will have to listen and agree to everything this particular snowflake says, otherwise we are apologists or misogynists. The glorious double standard.

Zarithos
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"I don't give a fuck what anyone says"

Ironic most of the people viewing this feels the same about you.

CaptainBuggyTheClown