On mental illness, trigger warnings and safe spaces
It's Mental Health Awareness Week and I felt obligated to write something. Good job I picked a controversial topic, then!
Trigger warnings and safe spaces are two topics that attract heated debate - and by "heated debate", I mean "socially conservative commentators getting needlessly offended and calling each other nasty names over the internet". I'm not going to go into detail on my own position here, because it's irrelevant to the point I want to make and frankly it's not an argument I feel like having.
I know people who have mental health problems and are in favour of both of these things.
I know people who have mental health problems and are against both of these things.
I know people who have mental health problems and aren't entirely for or against either of these things.
I know people who have mental health problems and have no opinion about either of these things.
The point I'm trying to make here is that people with mental health problems are people, with all our associated quirks, faults, and total and utter lack of a hive mind. We're not tragic, enlightened angels; we're just as capable of being stupid or insensitive as the general population.
The arguments over trigger warnings and safe spaces don't seem to be going away, mainly because they're excellent clickbait and produce wonderful shiny ad revenue. A lot of them are also incredibly stupid, focusing more on strawmen of "whiny SJW feminazis" or "evil privileged people" than on actually addressing the other side's points.
So if we're going to have these arguments, let's at least make them smart ones. Let's abandon strawmen and the idea that mentally ill people are all capable of speaking for the hive mind.
Instead, let's concentrate on good reasons to have these things and good reasons not to have them. It's the only thing we have left if we want to properly support people with mental health problems. Sure, it's not as fun as calling people names over twitter. It's also infinitely more likely to make a difference and infinitely less frustrating to deal with for the people who do want to get things done.
Trigger warnings and safe spaces are two topics that attract heated debate - and by "heated debate", I mean "socially conservative commentators getting needlessly offended and calling each other nasty names over the internet". I'm not going to go into detail on my own position here, because it's irrelevant to the point I want to make and frankly it's not an argument I feel like having.
I know people who have mental health problems and are in favour of both of these things.
I know people who have mental health problems and are against both of these things.
I know people who have mental health problems and aren't entirely for or against either of these things.
I know people who have mental health problems and have no opinion about either of these things.
The point I'm trying to make here is that people with mental health problems are people, with all our associated quirks, faults, and total and utter lack of a hive mind. We're not tragic, enlightened angels; we're just as capable of being stupid or insensitive as the general population.
The arguments over trigger warnings and safe spaces don't seem to be going away, mainly because they're excellent clickbait and produce wonderful shiny ad revenue. A lot of them are also incredibly stupid, focusing more on strawmen of "whiny SJW feminazis" or "evil privileged people" than on actually addressing the other side's points.
So if we're going to have these arguments, let's at least make them smart ones. Let's abandon strawmen and the idea that mentally ill people are all capable of speaking for the hive mind.
Instead, let's concentrate on good reasons to have these things and good reasons not to have them. It's the only thing we have left if we want to properly support people with mental health problems. Sure, it's not as fun as calling people names over twitter. It's also infinitely more likely to make a difference and infinitely less frustrating to deal with for the people who do want to get things done.
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