Van Jones: “I Don’t Want You to be Safe Emotionally”

I learned about this 2017 speech by Van Jones from an article by Jonathan Haidt. We need a lot more of this and a lot less ideological fragility.

There are two ideas about safe spaces: One is a very good idea and one is a terrible idea. The idea of being physically safe on a campus—not being subjected to sexual harassment and physical abuse, or being targeted specifically, personally, for some kind of hate speech—“you are an n-word,” or whatever—I am perfectly fine with that.

But there’s another view that is now I think ascendant, which I think is just a horrible view, which is that “I need to be safe ideologically. I need to be safe emotionally I just need to feel good all the time, and if someone says something that I don’t like, that’s a problem for everybody else including the administration.”

I think that is a terrible idea for the following reason: I don’t want you to be safe, ideologically. I don’t want you to be safe, emotionally. I want you to be strong. That’s different.

I’m not going to pave the jungle for you. Put on some boots, and learn how to deal with adversity. I’m not going to take all the weights out of the gym; that’s the whole point of the gym. This is the gym. You can’t live on a campus where people say stuff you don’t like?! And these people can’t fire you, they can’t arrest you, they can’t beat you up, they can just say stuff you don’t like- and you get to say stuff back- and this you cannot bear?! [audience applause]

This is ridiculous BS liberals! My parents, and Monica Elizabeth Peak’s parents [points to someone in the audience and greets her] were marched, they dealt with fire hoses! They dealt with dogs! They dealt with beatings! You can’t deal with a mean tweet?! You are creating a kind of liberalism that the minute it crosses the street into the real world is not just useless, but obnoxious and dangerous. I want you to be offended every single day on this campus. I want you to be deeply aggrieved and offended and upset, and then to learn how to speak back. Because that is what we need from you in these communities. [applause]

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Facebook Censors as “Hate Speech” Users’ Comments that Men Aren’t Women

This reminded me that FB is a filtered environment. Not only are many users afraid to weigh in on Wokeness issues for fear of being called names, but FB is actively censoring content. Too bad we don't know the algorithms FB uses, but this post for "Partners for Ethical Care" gives a recent example. Here's an excerpt:

In what has become an all-too-common event, a woman’s posts defending the existence of women as a category were removed because Facebook deemed them “hate speech.”

In response to a Partners for Ethical Care video showing autogynephilic men who claim to be lesbians, a woman commented, “Nothing biological or real about this male claiming to be a woman.” Facebook removed the comment, labeled it “hate speech,” and suspended the commenter’s Facebook privileges for 30 days.

Facebook is engaging in censorship of thought.

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My Birthday Wish

I think I insulted my 88 year old mother today. I called her today (it's my birthday) and told her that I like being out in the world. I told her that I like it better out here than being in the womb, which was too dark and there was no furniture, no museums, no running paths. And my prefrontal cortex was paltry back then.

On a serious note, here is what I want for my birthday: I'd like everyone reading this to go find someone they disagree with and have a heart-to-heart conversation on a difficult topic. For those who voted for Biden, for example, you could visit with a neighbor or relative who voted for Trump. Ideally, this should be a conversation that involves a lot of listening so that you come away from it with a better ability to see the world through that other person's eyes. If this sounds scary, I'd doubly recommend it. If you do this right, you will come away from it with a gift of your own.

This is not just a good idea. I believe that it's the only way forward. "Love your enemy" is a good idea for all of us, not only Christians. You'll find more resources from two of my favorite organizations: Heterodox Academy and Braver Angels. Good luck. Be brave!

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Eric Barker: How to Make Emotionally Intelligent Friendships

Eric Barker is back with another episode, offering us psychological insight and analytics into friendship. He summarizes some fascinating research, including the work by Robin Dunbar, making his entire article well worth a visit. That said, here are Barker's take-aways on how to make and sustain emotionally intelligent friendships:

  • Stay in touch: Friendship is not an arena where you want to play hard to get. What are you, a carnival prize?

  • Gratitude: If we’re more kind to strangers than to friends, we are definitely doing something wrong.

  • Quality > Quantity: Share emotional experiences. That’s the secret to those friendships where you can just pick up where you left off.

  • Budget appropriately: Time is limited. Allocate it wisely. And this is yet another reason to ditch the jerks in your life.

  • How to party: Eat. Laugh. Reminisce. Avoid small talk. The more the merrier. (And maybe a bit of booze.)

  • Make your best friend better: You influence each other more than you know. Make yourself better and help make them better, because, in the end, those two are the same thing.

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