{"id":44344,"date":"2021-08-01T10:29:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-01T14:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=44344"},"modified":"2021-08-13T16:46:30","modified_gmt":"2021-08-13T20:46:30","slug":"coddling-of-the-american-mind-3-untruths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/coddling-of-the-american-mind-3-untruths\/","title":{"rendered":"The Coddling of the American Mind: 3 Untruths"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What are the 3 untruths in <em>The Coddling of the American Mind? <\/em>What two big impacts do these untruths have in colleges?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the book <em>The Coddling of the American Mind<\/em>, there are 3 untruths among college students today: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-untruth-of-fragility\/\">the untruth of fragility<\/a>, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/emotional-reasoning\/\">untruth of emotional reasoning<\/a>, and the untruth of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/us-versus-them\/\">us versus them<\/a>. The book&#8217;s authors claim that these 3 untruths have two very serious consequences for college students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keep reading for details about the 3 untruths in <em>The Coddling of the American Mind<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Three Great Untruths<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>In <em>The Coddling of the American Mind<\/em>, Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt argue that 3 \u201cGreat Untruths,\u201d  have gained a strong foothold among young people, especially those on college campuses.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>You must strive to avoid bad experiences at all costs.<\/li><li>You must always <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/trust-your-feelings\/\">trust your emotions<\/a> over reason.<\/li><li>The world is a black-and-white battle between good people and bad people; there is no middle ground.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>These beliefs insulate students from ideas with which they disagree<\/strong>, are deeply dangerous to free expression and are harmful to students\u2019 emotional development. By succumbing to their own sense of fragility and wrapping themselves in the cloak of victimhood, young people today are developing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/cognitive-patterns\/\">cognitive patterns<\/a> similar to those of people suffering from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/low-mood-and-anxiety\/\">anxiety and depression<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ultimately, young people must develop the skills and fortitude to feel empowered<\/strong>. Being exposed to controversial ideas and unpleasant experiences is a vital part of human development. The key is not to crumple and retreat into <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/seligman-learned-helplessness\/\">learned helplessness<\/a> in the face of adversity; but rather, to overcome it and emerge better and stronger.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here are <em>The Coddling of the American Mind<\/em>&#8216;s 3 untruths:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Untruth #1: <strong>The Untruth of Fragility<\/strong><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The first untruth is that <strong>exposure to adversity or discomfort is inherently damaging. <\/strong>This is a falsehood\u2014stressors and risks are necessary parts of human emotional development. And young people are no exception.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Safetyism and the Alleged Danger of Speech<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>The people and institutions that are most responsible for young people\u2019s healthy development\u2014parents, teachers, schools, universities\u2014have actively shielded them from any form of adversity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is the ideology of safetyism\u2014the idea that one\u2019s freedom from emotional discomfort trumps all other moral concerns and trade-offs. In this formulation, \u201csafety\u201d increasingly means being sheltered from opinions that one doesn\u2019t agree with.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The Social-Media Natives of Generation iGen<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>It is unsurprising that this idea of safety is prevalent among the members of Generation iGen, who can best be described as social-media natives. In the online worlds of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, one truly <em>can <\/em>curate a world populated only by those who share one\u2019s cultural, aesthetic, and political preferences. Unfortunately, they expect to be able to replicate this in the real world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Defining Trauma Down<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>This language of safety and trauma is now applied to experiences and topics where it never would have been before. Increasingly, students conflate trauma with emotional discomfort. But emotional discomfort is simply not the same as trauma. At many colleges, students claim that mere <em>exposure <\/em>to certain classroom materials is traumatic and threatens their emotional and psychological well-being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is inherently poisonous to the atmosphere of free discussion of ideas, which is supposed to be a hallmark of academia.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Untruth #2: <strong>The Untruth of Emotional Reasoning<\/strong><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The second untruth is that you must always trust your emotions.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Too often, emotional reasoning causes us to misperceive the world around us. For young people, emotional reasoning can cause them to feel intentional slights where there are none and strengthen the desire to shelter themselves from emotionally triggering experiences\u2014even speech that they merely disagree with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Negative-Feedback Loops<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Emotional reasoning can have negative consequences.<\/strong> <strong>It often leads to negative cognitive <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/feedback-loop-meaning\/\">feedback loops<\/a>. <\/strong>Individuals who suffer from anxiety and depression often start from a place of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/consequences-of-low-self-esteem\/\">low self-esteem<\/a>. And because they feel so badly about themselves, they selectively seek out \u201cproof\u201d to confirm their negative self-beliefs. These \u201cproofs,\u201d in turn, further reinforce the original negative beliefs.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The Threat to Critical Thinking<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Alarmingly, these patterns of negative thought are strikingly similar to the ways in which overprotected university students interpret speech or ideas with which they disagree. Not only is this disruptive in a classroom setting, <strong>but it also inhibits the development of critical thinking\u2014the skill that enables people to absorb new information and revise incorrect beliefs.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Microaggression and Misperception<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Another dangerous manifestation of emotional reasoning can be seen in the phenomenon of so-called \u201cmicroaggressions.\u201d <strong>Microaggressions are minor, often inadvertent slights that members of minority groups are often exposed to in the course of daily life. <\/strong>An excessive focus on these incidents can cause the recipient to misperceive <em>intentional <\/em>slight where there was none.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>De-Platforming<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>One more product of faulty emotional reasoning is the phenomenon of de-platforming. <strong>De-platforming occurs when controversial guest lecturers, speakers, or debaters who are invited to a university campus to discuss issues are unable to speak due to protests by student activist groups.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Untruth #3: <strong>The Untruth of Us Versus Them<\/strong><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The third untruth is that the world is defined by a black-and-white struggle between the forces of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/good-versus-evil\/\">good and evil<\/a>. <\/strong>Psychological research shows that the human mind is hardwired to sympathize with members of our in-group and fear and distrust members of an out-group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Common-Enemy Identity Politics<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/identity-politics-in-america\/\">Identity politics<\/a> is a form of political mobilization based on some shared group characteristic, often race, ethnicity, nationality, gender expression, or sexual orientation.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Common-<\/strong><strong><em>enemy<\/em><\/strong><strong> identity politics uses the alleged <\/strong><strong><em>threat <\/em><\/strong><strong>of a shared adversary to mobilize its supporters. <\/strong>Usually, the enemy is cast as an oppressor and the mobilized group casts itself as a marginalized population struggling to remove its shackles.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This contrasts with common-<em>humanity<\/em> identity politics, as practiced by the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., which grounds its appeal in a universalist message of justice and decency.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Call-Out Culture<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Call-out culture is the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/public-shaming\/\">public shaming<\/a> of \u201coppressors\u201d on campus, often for the most trivial offenses<\/strong>. Social media makes call-out culture much more pervasive and cruel, as it gives the online attackers a sense of anonymity that allows them to relax their moral inhibitions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Call-out culture has a chilling effect on free speech on campus, as students, faculty, and administrators are forced to resort to self-censorship <\/strong>out of fear of being socially vilified for politically incorrect opinions.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Bad Impact #1: The Suppression of Speech<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>These untruths have major consequences. Their first negative impact is that they have convinced students that violence and intimidation are acceptable\u2014even necessary\u2014responses to speech that they dislike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One disturbing idea is that <strong>certain forms of speech ought to be considered a form of violence. <\/strong>The logic of this argument is that inflammatory speech can cause emotional distress. Emotional distress, in turn, can have harmful effects on one\u2019s physical health. Therefore, since some forms of speech can lead to physical harm, such speech ought to be considered the moral equivalent of physical violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>By this logic, of course, almost <\/strong><strong><em>anything <\/em><\/strong><strong>could be considered an act of violence, since anything is likely to be emotionally stressful to at least <\/strong><strong><em>someone<\/em><\/strong><strong>.<\/strong> This becomes an open invitation for a listener to respond to nearly <em>any <\/em>speech with which she disagrees with <em>actual <\/em>violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In March 2017, an outbreak of violence occurred at Middlebury College in Vermont. There, controversial right-wing author Charles Murray was scheduled to speak. Murray, in his 1994 book <em>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-bell-curve\/\">Bell Curve<\/a><\/em>, argued that social and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/global-economic-inequality\/\">economic inequality<\/a> is the result of innate genetic differences that render blacks, Latinos, women, and the poor intellectually inferior to white men. <strong>Students at Middlebury responded by rioting, destroying property, and even physically threatening Murray and members of the faculty.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Bad Impact #2: Orthodoxy and Groupthink on Campus<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The second negative impact of these ideas is that they have led to ideological orthodoxy and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/causes-of-groupthink\/\">groupthink<\/a> on college campuses\u2014and the persecution of those who are perceived to be dissenters.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As opinion within academic circles has grown more uniformly left-wing, it has become less tolerant of diverging viewpoints.<strong> <\/strong>Scholars increasingly evaluate one another\u2019s work not on its merits, but on the basis of whether or not it deviates from shared left-wing orthodoxy.<strong>&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Recent years have seen <strong>a disturbing willingness within academic journals and publications to censor views that contradict left-wing orthodoxy<\/strong>, particularly when it comes to matters of race and class. One professor who merely questioned the fairness of a \u201cDay of Absence\u201d (during which white students were asked by activists not to come to campus for a day) was vilified, harassed, and attacked by students and even fellow faculty\u2014and eventually forced to leave the campus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What are the 3 untruths in The Coddling of the American Mind? What two big impacts do these untruths have in colleges? In the book The Coddling of the American Mind, there are 3 untruths among college students today: the untruth of fragility, the untruth of emotional reasoning, and the untruth of us versus them. The book&#8217;s authors claim that these 3 untruths have two very serious consequences for college students. Keep reading for details about the 3 untruths in The Coddling of the American Mind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":44389,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,9,24],"tags":[446],"class_list":["post-44344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-psychology","category-society","tag-the-coddling-of-the-american-mind","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Coddling of the American Mind: 3 Untruths - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In the book The Coddling of the American Mind, the authors share 3 &quot;Great Untruths&quot; that are widely accepted in colleges today. 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