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Comment by hackuser | Hacker News Reader

Let's remember that these are students in their world, college, and an essential part of college and learning is to experiment with ideas and ways of doing things. It has two implications:

1) This is their world, college, even if it's talked about on HN they should not be conforming to our standards. Education, like software development, is about experimenting and failing and learning from it all. College is the place where they can do that. Step back and give them room to grow up.

2) They would be poor students if they weren't doing things that challenge everyone else, especially the older generation. This is where innovation and innovators will come from. I hope they don't give %!#@! what everyone is saying about them; it would be tragic if we quashed their spirit.

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I agree that college is a chance to experiment and make mistakes. But I hope that they fail in making the changes they're advocating for.

It's good to hear people you disagree with. The students at Yale have been preventing opportunities to hear people they disagree with.

The problem I identify is that such "safe places", from what I understand, discourage experimentation and new ideas by shaming concepts that may offend them.

I am interested in hearing your logic behind how this specific movement is going to generate innovation & innovators, as I think you are claiming (correct me if I'm wrong please). I think you may be mistaken if you believe this is just a challenge against the older generation- it seems to be a challenge against the ideas that do not conform to their criteria of having to be inoffensive.

>discourage experimentation and new ideas by shaming concepts that may offend them.

Yeah, experimentation with new ideas like blackface and rape jokes.

I think the main issue with arguments against is that they rely on some black and white vision of the world (also ignoring that you can have places that aren't "safe spaces" to do your experimentation). Darwin would not have been limited by safe spaces. But hey, maybe KKK recruitment would.

My knowledge on this topic is limited to only the video I saw of a group of students arguing with a professor.

The students were arguing about the FUNDAMENTAL criteria of what should be allowed to be expressed. If something offends people, that's not acceptable. So, this criteria is not limited to only "new ideas like blackface and rape jokes"- it's anything that is considered offensive, and that's why it may discourage experimentation.

> My knowledge on this topic is limited to only the video I saw of a group of students arguing with a professor.

I don't think one video is any more than an anecdote, not representative of all these people doing all these things at all these colleges nationwide.

Yup! You're right, and I wasn't referring to all colleges nationwide. Just the points backed in the video I saw.

Can you give me sources that exemplify supporters of safe spaces who aren't fundamentally against shaming any idea that may offend people?

Well, it is also the world of professors, grad students, administrators, etc.

I know American culture is in love with undergrads and their "college experience", but I don't see why they are such key stakeholders that they should be allowed to demand that members of those other groups be fired and otherwise make their lives and work difficult.

Customers usually don't have any mechanism for getting the CEO fired other than not buying the product.

>This is where innovation and innovators will come from.

That's the really scary part - you'll have to sift trough these guys to hire someone one day, fortunately this doesn't represent 100% of student population.

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