Jonathan Haidt

Greg Lukianoff

'Excellent, their advice is sound . . . liberal parents, in particular, should read it' Financial Times The New York Times bestseller What doesn't kill you makes you weaker Always trust your feelings Life is a battle between good people and evil people These three Great Untruths contradict basic psychological principles about well-being, as well as ancient wisdom from many cultures. And yet they have become increasingly woven into education, culminating in a stifling culture of "safetyism" that began on American college campuses and is spreading throughout academic institutions in the English-speaking world. In this book, free speech campaigner Greg Lukianoff and social psychologist Jonathan Haidt investigate six trends that caused the spread of these untruths, from the decline of unsupervised play to the corporatization of universities and the rise of new ideas about identity and justice. Lukianoff and Haidt argue that well-intended but misguided attempts to protect young people can hamper their development, with devastating consequences for them, for the educational system and for democracy itself.

How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure

The Coddling of the American Mind

Something is going wrong on many college campuses in the last few years. Rates of anxiety, depression, and suicide are rising. Speakers are shouted down. Students and professors say they are walking on eggshells and afraid to speak honestly. How did this happen? First Amendment expert Greg Lukianoff and social psychologist Jonathan Haidt show how the new problems on campus have their origins in three terrible ideas that have become increasingly woven into American childhood and education: what doesn’t kill you makes you weaker; always trust your feelings; and life is a battle between good people and evil people. These three Great Untruths are incompatible with basic psychological principles, as well as ancient wisdom from many cultures. They interfere with healthy development. Anyone who embraces these untruths—and the resulting culture of safetyism—is less likely to become an autonomous adult able to navigate the bumpy road of life. Lukianoff and Haidt investigate the many social trends that have intersected to produce these untruths. They situate the conflicts on campus in the context of America’s rapidly rising political polarization, including a rise in hate crimes and off-campus provocation. They explore changes in childhood including the rise of fearful parenting, the decline of unsupervised play, and the new world of social media that has engulfed teenagers in the last decade. This is a book for anyone who is confused by what is happening on college campuses today, or has children, or is concerned about the growing inability of Americans to live, work, and cooperate across party lines.

New York Times Bestseller • Finalist for the 2018 National Book Critics Circle Award in Nonfiction • A New York Times Notable Book • Bloomberg Best Book of 2018 “Their distinctive contribution to the higher-education debate is to meet safetyism on its own, psychological turf . . . Lukianoff and Haidt tell us that safetyism undermines the freedom of inquiry and speech that are indispensable to universities.” —Jonathan Marks, Commentary “The remedies the book outlines should be considered on college campuses, among parents of current and future students, and by anyone longing for a more sane society.” —Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Something has been going wrong on many college campuses in the last few years. Speakers are shouted down. Students and professors say they are walking on eggshells and are afraid to speak honestly. Rates of anxiety, depression, and suicide are rising—on campus as well as nationally. How did this happen? First Amendment expert Greg Lukianoff and social psychologist Jonathan Haidt show how the new problems on campus have their origins in three terrible ideas that have become increasingly woven into American childhood and education: What doesn’t kill you makes you weaker; always trust your feelings; and life is a battle between good people and evil people. These three Great Untruths contradict basic psychological principles about well-being and ancient wisdom from many cultures. Embracing these untruths—and the resulting culture of safetyism—interferes with young people’s social, emotional, and intellectual development. It makes it harder for them to become autonomous adults who are able to navigate the bumpy road of life. Lukianoff and Haidt investigate the many social trends that have intersected to promote the spread of these untruths. They explore changes in childhood such as the rise of fearful parenting, the decline of unsupervised, child-directed play, and the new world of social media that has engulfed teenagers in the last decade. They examine changes on campus, including the corporatization of universities and the emergence of new ideas about identity and justice. They situate the conflicts on campus within the context of America’s rapidly rising political polarization and dysfunction. This is a book for anyone who is confused by what is happening on college campuses today, or has children, or is concerned about the growing inability of Americans to live, work, and cooperate across party lines.

Rikki Schlott

Cancel Culture Undermines Trust, Destroys Institutions, and Threatens Us All--But There Is a Solution

Canceling of the American Mind

A timely deep dive into cancel culture, an account of its dangers to all Americans, and the much-needed antidote from the team that brought you Coddling of the American Mind. Cancel culture is a new phenomenon, and The Canceling of the American Mind is the first book to codify it and survey its effects. From the team that brought you the bestselling Coddling of the American Mind comes hard data and research on what cancel culture is and how it works, along with hundreds of new examples showing the left and the right both working to silence their enemies. The Canceling of the American Mind will change how you view cancel culture. Rather than a moral panic, we should consider it a dysfunctional part of how Americans battle for power, status, and dominance. Cancel culture is just one symptom of a much larger problem: the use of cheap rhetorical tactics to “win” arguments without actually winning arguments. After all, why bother refuting your opponents when you can just take away their platform or career? The good news is that we can beat back this threat to democracy through better citizenship. The Canceling of the American Mind offers concrete steps toward reclaiming a free speech culture, with materials specifically tailored for parents, teachers, business leaders, and everyone who uses social media. We can all show intellectual humility and promote the essential American principles of individuality, resilience, and open mindedness.

Cancel Culture Undermines Trust and Threatens Us All—But There Is a Solution

The Canceling of the American Mind

The Codling of the American Mind

Freedom from Speech

"A timely deep dive into cancel culture, an account of its dangers to all Americans, and the much-needed antidote from the team that brought you Coddling of the American Mind. Cancel culture is a new phenomenon, and The Canceling of the American Mind is the first book to codify it and survey its effects. From the team that brought you the bestselling Coddling of the American Mind comes hard data and research on what cancel culture is and how it works, along with hundreds of new examples showing the left and the right both working to silence their enemies. The Canceling of the American Mind will change how you view cancel culture. Rather than a moral panic, we should consider it a dysfunctional part of how Americans battle for power, status, and dominance. Cancel culture is just one symptom of a much larger problem: the use of cheap rhetorical tactics to "win" arguments without actually winning arguments. After all, why bother refuting your opponents when you can just take away their platform or career? The good news is that we can beat back this threat to democracy through better citizenship. The Canceling of the American Mind offers concrete steps toward reclaiming a free speech culture, with materials specifically tailored for parents, teachers, business leaders, and everyone who uses social media. We can all show intellectual humility and promote the essential American principles of individuality, resilience, and open mindedness"--

Cancel Culture Undermines Trust, Destroys Institutions, and Threatens Us All--but There is a Solution

David A. French

Harvey A. Silverglate

FIRE's Guide to Free Speech on Campus

Why bother refuting your opponents, when you can just take away their platform or career? Greg Lukianoff was one of the first to raise the alarm about the troubling social and psychological consequences of the growing intolerance of opposing viewpoints on university campuses in America; a phenomenon which then swept through the English-speaking world. In this new book, he teams up with Rikki Schlott to show how this trend has spread to a wide range of workplaces and cultural spaces, which are giving up on a culture of free speech in favour of cancel culture. Drawing on original research and data, along with hundreds of new examples from publishing to psychotherapy, comedy, science and medicine, this book shows how the left and the right both work to silence their enemies in different ways. It's not simply a matter of Twitter spats; people are losing their jobs, livelihoods and sometimes their lives over it. Eye-opening, urgent and transformative, The Canceling of the American Mind argues that cancel culture is not merely a moral panic, but a dysfunctional way in which people battle for power, status and dominance: moving us away from being able to argue productively, listen generously and ultimately be civil when we disagree. This book offers concrete steps towards reclaiming a culture of free speech, with materials specifically tailored for parents, teachers, business leaders and all those who use social media. It shows how we can all harness intellectual humility to become more resilient and open minded.

How Cancel Culture Undermines Trust, Destroys Institutions, and Threatens Us All

campus censorship and the end of American debate

Unlearning liberty

O carte-radiografie despre cum a ajuns un trend intelectual american să amenințe un drept esențial: libertatea de exprimare. Consecințele apariției unei generații de studenți incapabili să se angajeze în schimburi de idei care nu coincid cu propriul punct de vedere, pe motiv că le consideră inconfortabile, sunt grave pentru societate în ansamblu, pentru că deschid calea unor forme de totalitarism. ( The New York Times Book Review ) Intoleranța crescândă față de punctele de vedere diferite este o provocare nu numai în universități, ci și la nivelul întregului discurs politic american. ( Michael Bloomberg) Lukianoff și Haidt explică fenomenul parentingului de tip „elicopter“ și pericolele lui – modul în care protecția excesivă amplifică fricile copiilor și le diminuează șansele de a deveni independenți la maturitate. De mici, ei trebuie supuși provocărilor, inclusiv unor puncte de vedere diferite, pentru a se dezvolta ca adulți puternici. ( Susan H. McDaniel )

cum intențiile bune și ideile proaste pregătesc o generație destinată eșecului

Mofturile rațiunii americane

For over a generation, shocking cases of censorship at America’s colleges and universities have taught students the wrong lessons about living in a free society. Drawing on a decade of experience battling for freedom of speech on campus, First Amendment lawyer Greg Lukianoff reveals how higher education fails to teach students to become critical thinkers: by stifling open debate, our campuses are supercharging ideological divisions, promoting groupthink, and encouraging an unscholarly certainty about complex issues. Lukianoff walks readers through the life of a modern-day college student, from orientation to the end of freshman year. Through this lens, he describes startling violations of free speech rights: a student in Indiana punished for publicly reading a book, a student in Georgia expelled for a pro-environment collage he posted on Facebook, students at Yale banned from putting an F. Scott Fitzgerald quote on a T shirt, and students across the country corralled into tiny “free speech zones” when they wanted to express their views. But Lukianoff goes further, demonstrating how this culture of censorship is bleeding into the larger society. As he explores public controversies involving Juan Williams, Rush Limbaugh, Bill Maher, Richard Dawkins, Larry Summers—even Dave Barry and Jon Stewart—Lukianoff paints a stark picture of our ability as a nation to discuss important issues rationally. Unlearning Liberty: Campus Censorship and the End of American Debate illuminates how intolerance for dissent and debate on today’s campus threatens the freedom of every citizen and makes us all just a little bit dumber.

Greg Lukianoff

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