Online harms to trigger warnings: safetyism versus freedom | Ella Whelan

Trigger warnings and microaggression policies have become increasingly familiar on campus. But while we can snigger at ‘de-stressing parties’ with colouring books, are students any different from the rest of society? After all, many people believe we face an unprecedented range of threats. Anxiety allied to yearning for safety is evident in warnings over formula milk and processed foods, panics over drink-spiking and catcalling, and paranoid parenting that is creating a generation of ‘cotton wool’ kids.


What happened to resilience and how do we explain our existential insecurity? What is the balance between safety and freedom, and how do we successfully argue for taking risks? In the face of society-wide preoccupation with safety, what are the arguments we need today to renew the case for liberty?

SPEAKERS
Ella Whelan, journalist; co-convenor of the Battle of Ideas Festival

READ ON
Letter on Liberty: The case for women’s freedom Ella Whelan, Academy of Ideas, July 2022
https://academyofideas.org.uk/letters...


Letter on Liberty: Beyond the Harm Principle Rob Lyons, Academy of Ideas
https://academyofideas.org.uk/letters...

The danger of safetyism Matthew Crawford, UnHerd, 15 May 2021
https://unherd.com/2020/05/the-hypocr...

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