A flyer for a talk on free speech at UC Berkeley got taken down by the student union last month

They said it violated a policy on 'safe space' language. The same week, a different group put up posters for a talk on campus climate that was critical of the administration, and those stayed up. The difference was the second group framed it as a 'dialogue' instead of a 'debate'. Has anyone else seen this kind of wording being the deciding factor?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_grace2mo ago

The Berkeley incident shows how much power comes from picking the right label. Calling it a 'dialogue' frames it as a shared search for truth, while 'debate' implies winners and losers. That small word choice can make or break a campus event now, which is kinda wild.

taraw162mo ago

My life story is basically a series of badly labeled events.

wesley831mo ago

My buddy had this whole thing at work where his boss called a mandatory meeting a "collaboration session." Everyone showed up expecting to actually talk, but it was just the boss handing down new rules for an hour. The label totally set the wrong expectation and people left way more annoyed than if he'd just called it a staff announcement. It's crazy how much the name of something changes how you feel about it before it even starts.