the coddling of the american mind the atlantic

The authors wonder how it is possible that students can demand protection from words and ideas that displease them or make them unhappy, in the name of ‘emotional wellbeing’. This book shows how prominent figures such as Madeleine Allbright (former US Ambassador to the United Nations under President Clinton) and Christine Lagarde (the first female managing director of the IMF and President of the ECB) were both denied a voice. These examples of no-platforming fit in seamlessly with a series of shocking cases in the book The Coddling of the American Mind by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt. A number of students (and lecturers) did not think that we should provide a stage for this ‘controversial speaker’, who is affiliated with the Dutch right-wing populist party Forum voor Democratie.

And our own university caused commotion last year, after the announcement of an address by Paul Cliteur during the Night of Philosophy (Nacht van de Filosofie).

It was another event in a series of recent no-platforming incidents a conservative former-minister was banned from speaking just half-an-hour before she was due to begin, after objections from an international gender organization. This is why Todd’s planned visit was cancelled the students branded her ‘transphobic’. The main worry is that men may take advantage of the situation to gain access to women-only domains, such as women's toilets. The latest speaker to be rejected was Selina Todd, Professor of Modern History and involved in the feminist organization Woman’s Place UK, which is opposing proposed legislation to allow people to identify as men or women without medical substantiation. This leading university is regularly discredited on account of students refusing to allow ‘controversial’ speakers, a practice known as no-platforming. It was just a small article in the newspaper on 9 March 2020: the British Minister for Education warned the University of Oxford that it must protect freedom of speech. How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas are Setting Up a Generation for Failure. New York, Penguin Press, 2018 Book Review: Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt. The Coddling of the American Mind.

The coddling of the american mind the atlantic