14 Anatomy of a ‘trigger warning’ scandal
-
Gabriel Moshenska
Abstract
The use of ‘trigger warnings’ has become a popular attack-line for right-wing critics of liberal academia in the ‘free speech wars’. Trigger warnings are regarded as a form of self-censorship by academics, who are either bullied by or pandering to their intolerant ‘snowflake’ students. In 2016 there was an abortive attempt by right-wing and libertarian commentators to engineer a trigger warning controversy in British academia. The author of this chapter was one of two academics targeted in this campaign, which included a series of hostile articles in forums ranging from the Spectator, Times and Guardian to Breitbart, Spiked and The Tab. The attacks focused on a brief content warning included in the handbook for a graduate-level course on the archaeology of modern warfare. The aim of this chapter is to offer a dispassionate account of the mechanisms of this manufactured scandal. Based on a close reading of twelve of the comment pieces about the course, it examines the subtle art of manufacturing outrage: rhetoric, omission, misrepresentation and fabrication; links with other ‘free speech war’ issues; and the network of individuals and organisations bridging the US and UK branches of this movement (e.g. Furedi père et fils).
Abstract
The use of ‘trigger warnings’ has become a popular attack-line for right-wing critics of liberal academia in the ‘free speech wars’. Trigger warnings are regarded as a form of self-censorship by academics, who are either bullied by or pandering to their intolerant ‘snowflake’ students. In 2016 there was an abortive attempt by right-wing and libertarian commentators to engineer a trigger warning controversy in British academia. The author of this chapter was one of two academics targeted in this campaign, which included a series of hostile articles in forums ranging from the Spectator, Times and Guardian to Breitbart, Spiked and The Tab. The attacks focused on a brief content warning included in the handbook for a graduate-level course on the archaeology of modern warfare. The aim of this chapter is to offer a dispassionate account of the mechanisms of this manufactured scandal. Based on a close reading of twelve of the comment pieces about the course, it examines the subtle art of manufacturing outrage: rhetoric, omission, misrepresentation and fabrication; links with other ‘free speech war’ issues; and the network of individuals and organisations bridging the US and UK branches of this movement (e.g. Furedi père et fils).
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of contributors viii
- Introduction 1
-
Protecting freedom of speech
- 1 Protecting the freedom of speech 23
- 2 Open-air free speech 30
- 3 The problem of neutrality and intellectual freedom 43
- 4 In a diverse society, is freedom of speech realisable? 53
- 5 Training readers as censors in Nazi Germany 63
- 6 Is boycotting for or against free speech? 74
-
Free speech as a weapon
- 7 When is free speech not about freedom? 87
- 8 Drinking the hemlock 95
- 9 Secularism, Islamophobia and free speech in France 103
- 10 The logic of nonsense 115
- 11 Weaponised Swissness 131
- 12 Free speech and the British press 143
-
Free speech on campus
- 13 Free speech and preventing radicalisation in higher education 157
- 14 Anatomy of a ‘trigger warning’ scandal 168
- 15 Grad school as conversion therapy 180
- 16 Teaching ‘freedom of speech’ freely 192
- 17 The politicisation of campus free speech in Portugal 200
- 18 Do we need safe spaces? 211
-
The internet: the Wild West of free speech
- 19 A postmodern neo-Marxist’s guide to free speech 227
- 20 Free speech and online masculinity movements 239
- 21 Choose your fighter 251
- 22 Free speech in the online ‘marketplace of ideas’ 261
- Index 271
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of contributors viii
- Introduction 1
-
Protecting freedom of speech
- 1 Protecting the freedom of speech 23
- 2 Open-air free speech 30
- 3 The problem of neutrality and intellectual freedom 43
- 4 In a diverse society, is freedom of speech realisable? 53
- 5 Training readers as censors in Nazi Germany 63
- 6 Is boycotting for or against free speech? 74
-
Free speech as a weapon
- 7 When is free speech not about freedom? 87
- 8 Drinking the hemlock 95
- 9 Secularism, Islamophobia and free speech in France 103
- 10 The logic of nonsense 115
- 11 Weaponised Swissness 131
- 12 Free speech and the British press 143
-
Free speech on campus
- 13 Free speech and preventing radicalisation in higher education 157
- 14 Anatomy of a ‘trigger warning’ scandal 168
- 15 Grad school as conversion therapy 180
- 16 Teaching ‘freedom of speech’ freely 192
- 17 The politicisation of campus free speech in Portugal 200
- 18 Do we need safe spaces? 211
-
The internet: the Wild West of free speech
- 19 A postmodern neo-Marxist’s guide to free speech 227
- 20 Free speech and online masculinity movements 239
- 21 Choose your fighter 251
- 22 Free speech in the online ‘marketplace of ideas’ 261
- Index 271
