peridotx:

funereal-disease:

raydelblau:

funereal-disease:

glorious-spoon:

funereal-disease:

Claiming you don’t need or want a safe space of any kind because “life isn’t safe” is the most obnoxious kind of bravery debate.

Life as an entity/overarching concept isn’t safe, sure, but we’re not talking about safety from random happenstance; we’re talking about things we can control. You could get hit by a car tomorrow, but that doesn’t mean you should take a bath with your toaster. Similarly, the fact that some people out there in the world might be callous and cruel is not a reason to avoid callousness and cruelty when you have the option. On the contrary: it’s a reason to insist on more exacting standards when you have the chance to do so.

I always wonder how many of the people who say things like this actually deliberately hang out with unpleasant assholes IRL.

Or, like, sleep with the front door unlocked. Or invite the whole neighborhood on their next date. Or let strangers smoke on your porch. Because choosing who you want in your personal sphere would be a “safe space”, and safe spaces are for snowflakes, right?

I think a big problem is that “safe space” can describe anything from “place where people are treated with basic civility and respect” to “nightmare echo chamber that punishes anyone who expresses any idea that the group, or the leader of the group, doesn’t like.”

Assholes deliberately misrepresent the former as the latter. Silly snowflakes! How dare you ask that people not be dicks to each other!

Quoting myself from a previous clarification:

The context here … is a Facebook post I made asking my friends to
describe what discursive norms help them feel safest and most able to
thrive. A friend of mine commented that they don’t maintain emotional
safe spaces because safety is a farce, which is incredibly disingenuous
to me – just the fact of having friends you like is an emotional
safe space. Do you actively hang out with people who make you
uncomfortable? Do you require that your friends treat you with respect
as a requirement for hanging out with them? If yes, congratulations –
you maintain an emotional safe space.

*marries someone I hate*

*all my friends are transphobic, homophobic murder convicts*

*sleeps next to twelve starving tigers in a rusted cage*

*simultaneously has depression and owns several handguns*

*only eats food that is past its expiration date*

*house is located at the edge of a cliff*

*front door faces the cliff*

*bungee jumps to leave the house every morning*

*only music on my phone is Miley Cyrus*

TAKE THAT, SJWS