• Login
  • Register
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Podcasts
  • Newsletter
  • Premium
  • Donate
  • Log In
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result

Open University Slaps Trigger Warnings on Classic Works of English Literature

by Toby Young
3 July 2022 2:08 PM

To be or not to be forewarned is the question troubling dons teaching the classics of English literature to today’s snowflake students, as the Open University attaches trigger warnings to a host of classical English texts, including Hamlet. The Mail on Sunday has more.

Undergraduates are informed that reading William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift, and Jane Austen’s Persuasion may trigger feelings of ‘distress’ and ‘trauma’.

Critics branded the warnings the “height of stupidity” and claimed that students could be deterred from discovering some of the world’s literary treasures.

Only Jane Austen’s Pride And Prejudice avoids the Open University’s trigger-warning list, obtained by the Mail on Sunday after a Freedom of Information request.

It states: “Apart from Austen’s Pride And Prejudice, the other set texts contain some material (including depictions of violence, assault or self-harm) that some students might find distressing.” Other works carrying warnings include the Shakespeare plays Julius Caesar and As You Like It, the Arabian Nights collection of stories and plays by French writer Moliere.

A briefing note for tutors states: “It is impossible to know how or why some students react negatively to potentially distressing content, as material that might be innocuous to some students might trigger traumatic memories in others, and vice versa.”

Fearful course students are also directed to a university-produced podcast “dealing with distressing content”, which features an imaginary scholar quizzing a senior tutor about potentially problematic works of literature. The university has three categories of warnings covering more than 30 topics likely to provoke “unwelcome emotions, memories and mental health issues”. These include suicide, self-harm, child abuse, racism, colonialism, divorce and common phobias such as needles, blood and spiders.

Worth reading in full.

Donate

We depend on your donations to keep this site going. Please give what you can.

Donate Today

Comment on this Article

You’ll need to set up an account to comment if you don’t already have one. We ask for a minimum donation of £5 if you'd like to make a comment or post in our Forums.

Sign Up
Previous Post

Teachers Were Fanatical About Lockdowns

Next Post

Vaccine Safety Update

Subscribe
Login
Notify of
Please log in to comment

To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.

Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.

11 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
1 year ago

“above baseless conspiracy theories”

Sigh.

82
-1
Free Lemming
Free Lemming
1 year ago

The BoE has been sloppy in its communications calling these features “programmable cash”, which the critics have leapt on as proof that CBDCs will be something like a physical device with embedded software implementing social credit scores and Net Zero, when in fact they just allow the owner to schedule or trigger payments, just as we do with direct debits or standing orders.

Come on Tony, I know you’re trying a different tact this time, but you’re not fooling anyone here. Still, these articles always put a smile on my face.

45
-3
Marcus Aurelius knew
Marcus Aurelius knew
1 year ago

Not a single mention of the BSV BLOCKCHAIN. Must do better.

18
-1
stewart
stewart
1 year ago

Privately produced cryptos are actively suppressed and sabotaged. And that’s to be expected. The state has monopoly over the production of cash and has every intention of holding on to it. So they suppress private digital options while rushing to produce their own. The state isn’t about to allow the free market of money any time soon.

And as I’ve said repeatedly when commenting on the articles of this author, the idea that the state will not abuse this extra new power as it does all other powers it has is naive to say the very least.

Worse still, this expanded state power granted by CBDCs will be captured by powerful private oligarchal interests, as always happens.

The last thing the state needs is more power, regardless of what the theoretical benefits of granting it might have.

74
0
transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
1 year ago
Reply to  stewart

Exactly

There you go indulging in baseless conspiracy theories 🙂

34
0
WyrdWoman
WyrdWoman
1 year ago
Reply to  stewart

…the idea that the state will not abuse this extra new power as it does all other powers it has is naive to say the very least…

-is being generous, when you consider that they’re already actively accessing and monitoring benefit claimant accounts ‘for fraud’ [sic], no doubt soon to be rolled out to state pensioners and then everyone else.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/dwp-confirms-every-bank-where-benefit-claimants-accounts-will-be-monitored/ar-AA1mZDHh

19
0
NeilParkin
NeilParkin
1 year ago

I recall this author trying to convince us that Up as Down, and Left was Right before.

Let me say it. For cashless to work requires absolute trust between bank and client, and a government that keeps itself out of our lives to the maximum extent…and that’s where the theory all goes wrong. Witness the Labour push on teeth cleaning for kids. Are we to be fined if toothpaste isn’t in our purchases this month.? Well that’s exactly the sort of authoritarian over-reach that CBDC will make all too easy. Will politicians be able to resist..? Of course not. Just like bankers wont be able to stop themselves ‘printing’ more money, and devaluing everything like they have for the last century.

45
-1
Freddy Boy
Freddy Boy
1 year ago

Bank Closures are speeding up at an alarming rate !

12
0
Ron Smith
Ron Smith
1 year ago
Reply to  Freddy Boy

All the profits Lloyds Bank make and they’re closing local branches at a fast pace. Something sinister is at play.

4
0
Judy Watson
Judy Watson
1 year ago

I have asked this question before;

What happens when there is a power outage? Also what about places with patchy/non-existent internet coverage? My Alaskan friend is frequently out of internet range as her works in very remote places.

Think also about the internet blackout in Gaza. What happens then.

What happens when there is a problem with the bank being overwhelmed with transactions? – this happened to a friend of mine paying by a ‘qr’ app.

Apart from minimal on-line shopping I always pay in cash.

30
0
RTSC
RTSC
1 year ago

Isn’t it strange how, over the past 3 years or so, the “baseless conspiracy theories” have one-by-one turned out to be accurate.

I don’t doubt that the “baseless conspiracy theories” about CBDCs, surveillance, a social credit system and time-limited tokens, instead of money, will also prove accurate. Give the authoritarians an inch and they will take a mile.

I use debit and credit cards but I am also withdrawing and using cash far more than I was, even four years ago. Most fairly small, in-person transactions are now done using cash.
Use it, or you’ll lose it – and then you’ll be completely at the mercy of the Banksters and the authoritarians in the Establishment.

32
0
WyrdWoman
WyrdWoman
1 year ago
Reply to  RTSC

Hear, hear.

5
0
Epi
Epi
1 year ago
Reply to  RTSC

Absolutely spot on. I always make a point of using cash in the supermarket for our weekly shop I also make sure we use the manual checkout. Unfortunately one doesn’t seem to be able to get away from debit/credit cards but I try and keep it to the minimum.

Yes and over the last three years or nearly four now so called conspiracy theories seemed to have become spoiler alerts!

11
0
WyrdWoman
WyrdWoman
1 year ago

Not having a smartphone/personal tracking device by which to enforce payments and/or biometric identification (being implemented for everything from libraries to banks to govt) should be a protected characteristic.

“We have been made aware of instances where consumers have been told by their bank that, for example, they will not be able to shop online or access their account without a smart phone. This is not acceptable.”

https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/new-online-security-measures-what-if-you-dont-have-a-smartphone/

https://www.comparitech.com/blog/vpn-privacy/sim-card-registration-laws/

10
0
Swisswilson
Swisswilson
1 year ago

“Has an Austrian or libertarian version of money been demonstrated to work anywhere? If not we are stuck with state and central bank backed currencies for now.” Crypto surely meets this criteria and is working despite the onslaught of the world’s govt’s! If it wasn’t working, then why attack it and why try to copy it? 😉

2
0

NEWSLETTER

View today’s newsletter

To receive our latest news in the form of a daily email, enter your details here:

DONATE

PODCAST

Episode 36 of the Sceptic: Karl Williams on Starmer’s Phoney Immigration Crackdown, Dan Hitchens on the Assisted Suicide Bill and Tom Jones on Reform’s Local Council Challenge

by Richard Eldred
16 May 2025
0

LISTED ARTICLES

  • Most Read
  • Most Commented
  • Editor’s Picks

Chinese ‘Kill Switches’ Found in US Solar Farms

15 May 2025
by Will Jones

News Round-Up

16 May 2025
by Richard Eldred

Spy Agency Report on the Alleged “Extremism” of AfD Turns Out to Be So Stupid That it Destroys all Momentum for Banning the Party

16 May 2025
by Eugyppius

The Folly of Solar – a Dot on the Horizon Versus a Blight on the Land

16 May 2025
by Ben Pile

Civil Servants Threaten to Strike Over Trans Ban in Women’s Lavatories

16 May 2025
by Will Jones

The Folly of Solar – a Dot on the Horizon Versus a Blight on the Land

29

Civil Servants Threaten to Strike Over Trans Ban in Women’s Lavatories

25

Spy Agency Report on the Alleged “Extremism” of AfD Turns Out to Be So Stupid That it Destroys all Momentum for Banning the Party

19

News Round-Up

18

Chinese ‘Kill Switches’ Found in US Solar Farms

27

Trump’s Lesson in Remedial Education

16 May 2025
by Dr James Allan

Spy Agency Report on the Alleged “Extremism” of AfD Turns Out to Be So Stupid That it Destroys all Momentum for Banning the Party

16 May 2025
by Eugyppius

The Folly of Solar – a Dot on the Horizon Versus a Blight on the Land

16 May 2025
by Ben Pile

Renaud Camus on the Destruction of Western Education

15 May 2025
by Dr Nicholas Tate

‘Why Can’t We Talk About This?’

15 May 2025
by Richard Eldred

POSTS BY DATE

July 2022
M T W T F S S
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031
« Jun   Aug »

SOCIAL LINKS

Free Speech Union
  • Home
  • About us
  • Donate
  • Privacy Policy

Facebook

  • X

Instagram

RSS

Subscribe to our newsletter

© Skeptics Ltd.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Podcasts
  • Newsletter
  • Premium
  • Donate
  • Log In

© Skeptics Ltd.

wpDiscuz
You are going to send email to

Move Comment
Perfecty
Do you wish to receive notifications of new articles?
Notifications preferences