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What is a 'Safe Place' and why is it so Controversial?

             Where's your Safe place?

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary a safe place (as on a college campus) is intended to be free of bias, conflict, criticism, or potentially threatening actions, ideas, or conversations.

The idea of a safe space on campus enraged right-wing Republicans who called students snowflakes and other disparaging terms for seeking to protect themself from radicals on campus.

The concept of a safe place originated in the gay liberation movement and the women's movement during the 1980s. The first public safe places were gay bars and consciousness raising groups.

Conservatives considered the safe place culture as a violation of the First Amendment and a mechanism for retreating from opinions which contrast with one's own.

Opponents of safe places claimed they blur the line between security against physical harm and giving offense. 

In response, advocates for safe spaces asserted that people subject to hate speech are directly affected by it and that safe places help maintain mental health.

The battle over safe places have simmered for decades until I heard the term surface recently in the news.

To my utter surprise right-wingers are now defending the idea of a safe place!

One of the most prominent clowns in the crazy caucus in the House, Marjorie Taylor Greene, said she needs a... safe place!

"We are fed up," Greene told Fox News last week. 

"We are fed up with Democrat policies. We are fed up with the woke ideology being shoved down our throat. We are tired of our children being brainwashed into those same ideas. We want our own safe place, and we deserve it," she ranted.

This turnaround on safe places is at best amusing and at worse just another example of the hypocrisy coming from right-wing conservatives who will do or say anything if they think it'll further their cause, even if it is another humiliating MAGA flip-flop.

As it stands, my safe place is at home. I suspect it's the same for millions of other Americans.



This post first appeared on AS IT STANDS, please read the originial post: here

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What is a 'Safe Place' and why is it so Controversial?

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