How 'Safe Spaces' Stifle Ideas
"Nor are advanced thinkers who operate in this way to be found only on the political or cultural left. In France, to argue for divestment from Israeli enterprises, as a protest against Israeli actions in Gaza, is now regarded not merely as a terrible idea, which perhaps it is, but as a form of incitement to violence and thus a criminal offense. No doubt, in the wake of the recent terrorist attacks in Paris, further restrictions on political discourse will be introduced, always with the standard, high-minded appeals to solidarité and liberté. So much for openness and the clash of ideas in a Western-enlightenment capital, where the going consensus has it that, if you teach people not to have bad thoughts, you will save them from error, that is, from drawing unwanted conclusions about the things they see, and that you will thereby offer them an ambivalence-free life."
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