[gruez]

From the OP:

>but we should stop encouraging and accommodating this “everything makes me feel unsafe” attitude. It harms everyone when we redefine safety to include awkwardness or very minor psychological discomfort.

It's pretty clear that the thing he's objecting to is the inflation of "feel unsafe" to include "awkwardness or very minor psychological discomfort", which might draw attention to the issue in the short term, but over the long term dilutes the term and makes the issue worse. It's like the euphemism treadmill but in reverse.

[madeofpalk]

Who are you (or OP) to tell someone how they should or should not feel.

If someone says they feel unsafe, maybe we should default to believing them rather than minimising them. A tiny bit of compassion and empathy goes a long way.

[gruez]

>If someone says they feel unsafe, maybe we should default to believing them rather than minimising them. A tiny bit of compassion and empathy goes a long way.

Okay but surely you must agree that there are limits to how much we as a society should believe? Portraying yourself as being oppressed is an effective way to garner sympathy and resources from society, so people are incentivized to use language that makes their plight seem worse. That's not to say everyone making such claims are acting in bad faith, or even misrepresenting their internal feelings, but we can't take everyone's statements at face value either.

[madeofpalk]

> but we can't take everyone's statements at face value either

In the context of this article, why not?

Why are we objecting to "the name on my credit card makes me feel uncomfortable and I wish I could change it"?

[mcphage]

> Okay but surely you must agree that there are limits to how much we as a society should believe?

There are limits, but the idea that American society is too nice, or takes concerns too seriously, is beyond laughable.

[GloomyBoots]

People can feel unsafe for a variety of reasons. Characterizing your "side" on this issue as the sole champion of compassion and empathy is a dishonest way to avoid rational debate.

We understand that people with schizophrenia have delusions which result from their condition. Those delusions often cause them to feel unsafe. We are compassionate and seek to treat the the underlying causes, not by joining in on their delusions. Gender dysphoria is much the same--transgender activists love to confound the issue by conflating dysphoria and intersex, but these are two entirely separate conditions. I have empathy and compassion for people struggling with dysphoria, and that expresses itself in my desire to help them get better.