Of the countless bad ideas born from the left, safe spaces are perhaps the most insidiously destructive. It’s easy to dismiss the notion as silly and frustrating, but the problems run deeper than that. Safe spaces are a powerful step towards authoritarian rule, and they teach impressionable minds how to completely avoid constructive criticism and ideological opposition. Safe spaces lead to oppressive, illegal and often violent reactions from those they deceive, and they undermine the foundation of a strong, healthy America.
James Damore and Google
By now you have likely heard of the leaked memo that circulated around Google and led to the firing of James Damore. The entire situation is deliciously ironic, but it also gives us a case study in the problem with safe spaces. Damore’s memo was an attempt to foster discussion at work about the importance of recognizing opposing views in open discourse. He criticized the ideological echo chamber at Google and demonstrated how the majority was silencing all opposition through intimidation tactics. In the memo he even said that others were afraid to say what the memo was addressing for fear of being fired. Worst of all, the content of his memo had the audacity to suggest that men and women are biologically different.
Rather than go into the arduous debate around the memo itself, we’ll look at how safe spaces impacted this whole exchange. Damore challenged the status quo and assaulted the majority ideology. Once the memo leaked, Google’s only option to save face in their inner circles was to fire Damore. They did this knowing full well that they would likely lose the ensuing lawsuit and have to pay a large settlement to Damore. It didn’t matter. The payment they’ll make to compensate for an illegal, retaliatory firing is still far less damaging to the company than allowing anyone room to accuse the company of agreeing with him. If you actually read the memo, you’ll see how crazy the whole situation really is. He simply talks about reviewing large-scale statistics to try and improve minority inclusion policies.
Ideological Echo Chambers
Safe spaces are the breeding grounds of ideological echo chambers. The vary purpose of a safe space is to prevent the verbalization of ideas that could upset anyone, and this leads to a steady and powerful reinforcement of PC culture. Echo chambers exist on both sides of the political spectrum, and they are dangerous in every case. Any ideology will be as flawed as the people behind it. When we discuss these ideologies with opponents, we inevitably have to face those flaws and revise our ideas. Safe spaces stop this process. Much worse, they promote the idea of censorship for the “good of the people.” By appealing to empathy, safe spaces embolden us to attack the very most important freedom in this country. We protect victims from facing their trauma, and in doing so we become the oppressors, confident in our assertion of moral victory.
Putting it in Perspective
The easiest way to understand the inherent danger of this practice is to consider an extreme example. Imagine if the Civil Rights movement had to face safe spaces. It was largely college students and organizations that added a white voice to the movement, and without it changes would have come far more slowly. Imagine if those discussions had been squelched to protect the sensitivities of white students who had been victims of black crime. We never would have faced the truth that many of those crimes were the inevitable result of black American’s inability to succeed in a segregated country. We wouldn’t have grown and improved. You can apply the same logic to any historically sensitive topic and see that safe spaces inhibit social progress.
Everyone needs to avoid the pitfalls of ideological echo chambers, but safe spaces make it almost impossible. Circling back to Google, we need to acknowledge how terrifying it really is for such a powerful company to be afraid to allow reasonable discourse within their ranks. Think of how prolific their power and influence are. Google searches were used no less than a dozen times just to fact check the points in this short treatise. Do we really want such an influential part of our lives under the dictatorship of an increasingly totalitarian far left? Abolishing safe spaces is the first and most important step we need to take in this country to derail our current heading. It is a heading that leads toward increasing divisiveness that will have America completely abandoning all pretense of reasonable discourse and constructive change.
~ American Liberty Report
