Funny that you should post this. I just finished reading an excellent article in the September issue of the Atlantic monthly, The Coddling of the American Mind, in which authors Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt point out that the thought patterns underlying this obsession with “protecting” people from “offensive” speech bear an uncanny resemblance to those underlying psychological problems like depression and neurosis.
The cultural Marxist apparatchiks who push this agenda do it because it ensures that our students will internalize these pathological ways of thinking. When those students emerge from the cocoon of university life, they will face the real world crippled by depression and anxiety… in addition to the incompetence that comes from having learned nothing.
Here is a list of these cognitive distortions (lifted brazenly from the article). If forms a clear and concise parallel of the psychology of people who clamour for “safe spaces” and cower in fear “micro-aggressions”:
1. Mind reading. You assume that you know what people think without having sufficient evidence of their thoughts. “He thinks I’m a loser.”
2. Fortune-telling. You predict the future negatively: things will get worse, or there is danger ahead. “I’ll fail that exam,” or “I won’t get the job.”
3. Catastrophizing. You believe that what has happened or will happen will be so awful and unbearable that you won’t be able to stand it. “It would be terrible if I failed.”
4. Labeling. You assign global negative traits to yourself and others. “I’m undesirable,” or “He’s a rotten person.”
5. Discounting positives. You claim that the positive things you or others do are trivial. “That’s what wives are supposed to do—so it doesn’t count when she’s nice to me,” or “Those successes were easy, so they don’t matter.”
6. Negative filtering. You focus almost exclusively on the negatives and seldom notice the positives. “Look at all of the people who don’t like me.”
7. Over generalizing. You perceive a global pattern of negatives on the basis of a single incident. “This generally happens to me. I seem to fail at a lot of things.”
8. Dichotomous thinking. You view events or people in all-or-nothing terms. “I get rejected by everyone,” or “It was a complete waste of time.”
9. Blaming. You focus on the other person as the source of your negative feelings, and you refuse to take responsibility for changing yourself. “She’s to blame for the way I feel now,” or “My parents caused all my problems.”
10. What if? You keep asking a series of questions about “what if” something happens, and you fail to be satisfied with any of the answers. “Yeah, but what if I get anxious?,” or “What if I can’t catch my breath?”
11. Emotional reasoning. You let your feelings guide your interpretation of reality. “I feel depressed; therefore, my marriage is not working out.”
12. Inability to disconfirm. You reject any evidence or arguments that might contradict your negative thoughts. For example, when you have the thought I’m unlovable, you reject as irrelevant any evidence that people like you. Consequently, your thought cannot be refuted. “That’s not the real issue. There are deeper problems. There are other factors.”
Xanthippa's Chamberpot 
November 12, 2015 at 21:00
Xanthippa:
Funny that you should post this. I just finished reading an excellent article in the September issue of the Atlantic monthly, The Coddling of the American Mind, in which authors Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt point out that the thought patterns underlying this obsession with “protecting” people from “offensive” speech bear an uncanny resemblance to those underlying psychological problems like depression and neurosis.
The cultural Marxist apparatchiks who push this agenda do it because it ensures that our students will internalize these pathological ways of thinking. When those students emerge from the cocoon of university life, they will face the real world crippled by depression and anxiety… in addition to the incompetence that comes from having learned nothing.
Here is a list of these cognitive distortions (lifted brazenly from the article). If forms a clear and concise parallel of the psychology of people who clamour for “safe spaces” and cower in fear “micro-aggressions”:
1. Mind reading. You assume that you know what people think without having sufficient evidence of their thoughts. “He thinks I’m a loser.”
2. Fortune-telling. You predict the future negatively: things will get worse, or there is danger ahead. “I’ll fail that exam,” or “I won’t get the job.”
3. Catastrophizing. You believe that what has happened or will happen will be so awful and unbearable that you won’t be able to stand it. “It would be terrible if I failed.”
4. Labeling. You assign global negative traits to yourself and others. “I’m undesirable,” or “He’s a rotten person.”
5. Discounting positives. You claim that the positive things you or others do are trivial. “That’s what wives are supposed to do—so it doesn’t count when she’s nice to me,” or “Those successes were easy, so they don’t matter.”
6. Negative filtering. You focus almost exclusively on the negatives and seldom notice the positives. “Look at all of the people who don’t like me.”
7. Over generalizing. You perceive a global pattern of negatives on the basis of a single incident. “This generally happens to me. I seem to fail at a lot of things.”
8. Dichotomous thinking. You view events or people in all-or-nothing terms. “I get rejected by everyone,” or “It was a complete waste of time.”
9. Blaming. You focus on the other person as the source of your negative feelings, and you refuse to take responsibility for changing yourself. “She’s to blame for the way I feel now,” or “My parents caused all my problems.”
10. What if? You keep asking a series of questions about “what if” something happens, and you fail to be satisfied with any of the answers. “Yeah, but what if I get anxious?,” or “What if I can’t catch my breath?”
11. Emotional reasoning. You let your feelings guide your interpretation of reality. “I feel depressed; therefore, my marriage is not working out.”
12. Inability to disconfirm. You reject any evidence or arguments that might contradict your negative thoughts. For example, when you have the thought I’m unlovable, you reject as irrelevant any evidence that people like you. Consequently, your thought cannot be refuted. “That’s not the real issue. There are deeper problems. There are other factors.”
November 13, 2015 at 20:59
Xanthippa:
Here’s a dramatization of this demented phenomenon:
Modern Educayshun
It’s intended to be satire, but it’s all too realistic for comfort.
November 13, 2015 at 21:25
Indeed, CodeSlinger, indeed…