Disapeering thread and things we can't talk about

I wonder if there is a generational thing going on here.

I note the new definition of 'safe' and in an online context it appears from my experience on this forum that talking about anything that 'triggers' or upsets another member can make them feel 'unsafe'.

I have noted that in the past when there have been disagreements on the forum, it's tended to only be younger members who have talked about 'safety' and have left because of feeling 'unsafe' in this context but us older members just shout at each other (slight exaggeration but heated disagreements have taken place and I'm included in that).

If the forum is over moderated it will just become very anodyne.

Another reminder from the mods of what we can and can't talk about, gee thanks mods...not.

Debbie I think you're right, there is an age difference, some people seem to be a sence of offence looking for somwhere to manifest, others want everything to be pink and fluffy and start getting upset when they realise the world is not only multicoloured but that not everyones garden is rosey and there are nasty bits to life and particularly its ending that DO need to be talked about.

I think too many people feel they have a right not to be offended, and this gets dangerous, its how the really bad stuff happens, genocide, extreme politics etc. 

I'm not sure I feel safe in a space where there's so much I cant say, that I can't talk about, that from some people's reactions that I'm not supposed to think! That's really scary.

Nobody seems able to agree to disagree anymore, things seem so polarised, theres seems little space for nuance anymore and yet it's in the nuance, the grey areas, where most people actually live. Why does my feeling that there are times that women need women only spaces make me, in the eyes of some, transphobic, when I'm anything but.

I would like to have my thinking challenged, not shut down, but to be discussed in a rational albeit heated manner and I want to be able to do that to others. It seems bizarre that a generation that seems to dislike anything vanilla, should wish our social discourse to be so contrained.

People need to remember, opinions are like A**eholes, everybodies got one!

Another reminder from the mods of what we can and can't talk about, gee thanks mods...not.

Debbie I think you're right, there is an age difference, some people seem to be a sence of offence looking for somwhere to manifest, others want everything to be pink and fluffy and start getting upset when they realise the world is not only multicoloured but that not everyones garden is rosey and there are nasty bits to life and particularly its ending that DO need to be talked about.

I think too many people feel they have a right not to be offended, and this gets dangerous, its how the really bad stuff happens, genocide, extreme politics etc. 

I'm not sure I feel safe in a space where there's so much I cant say, that I can't talk about, that from some people's reactions that I'm not supposed to think! That's really scary.

Nobody seems able to agree to disagree anymore, things seem so polarised, theres seems little space for nuance anymore and yet it's in the nuance, the grey areas, where most people actually live. Why does my feeling that there are times that women need women only spaces make me, in the eyes of some, transphobic, when I'm anything but.

I would like to have my thinking challenged, not shut down, but to be discussed in a rational albeit heated manner and I want to be able to do that to others. It seems bizarre that a generation that seems to dislike anything vanilla, should wish our social discourse to be so contrained.

People need to remember, opinions are like A**eholes, everybodies got one!