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Analysis: The Coddling Of The American Mind

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“The Coddling of the American Mind”, was quite an interesting article to read. Many thoughts were forming in my head after every sentence or paragraph in which I’ve read. In the article Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt explained an issue that many college students are becoming overly sensitive about many discomforting topics and why it is causing a great damage to protect words that are being used that may cause microaggressions amongst college students. With generations changing and with new ideas forming, many are being cautious within their act. Throughout the article, both authors shared behaviors that were observed on college campuses. Voicing your opinion is a crime during these days of age. Do we really practice freedom of speech or do we abuse the concept of freedom of speech? Students are trying to eliminate subjects, words, or ideas that are being used or taught within the college campuses that make them feel uncomfortable or offended. Based on the article, trigger warnings occur when students are not prepared to hear certain thoughts or words in which upsets them or make them uncomfortable, in other words, trigger their emotions. Lukianoff and Haidt use many examples and resources to explain why eliminating or censoring such words is an issue for mental health.

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Due to many past issues that occurred over the years, I believe many became sensitive gradually overtime. “After the 1999 Columbine massacre in Colorado, many schools cracked down on bullying, implementing “zero tolerance” policies” (Lukianoff and Haidt p.6). Issues such as the 1999 Columbine massacre, enforced many to second think what they say before saying what they believe. In my opinion, professors should be careful in what they say due to many issues such as slavery where many were stripped into their own dignity. Our own president for instance, says many ignorant comments

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Text 1, written by Greg Lukianoff is an article titled ‘The Coddling of the American Mind’ taken from a website called www.theatlantic.com in the form of written text. Published in September 2015, it is intended with the purpose to inform and expose the truth about trigger warnings. The writer’s intended audience may be students who witnessed the occurrence trigger warnings within their campus and working adults in colleges and universities. The context of Text 1 is the writer presenting his personal opinion on trigger warnings based on his experiences. Text 2, on the other hand, is an article titled ‘An Optimist’s Guide to Political Correctness’ by Megan Garber.

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