What is a "safe space" and why do we use it to make fun of people here?

For me the term safe space originates for people that have PTSD that are experiencing a flashback or an extreme reaction because of their PTSD and need a place to temporarily isolate themselves so they are able to re-gain control of themselves. But I feel as though safe place has been adulterated and abused by those that don't want to hear people's ideas that they don't agree with. An example of the real need for a safe place would be somebody that hears the props of a black hawk helicopter and pretty much physically sees the deployed location again and their heart immediately starts racing and their adrenaline starts pumping and they feel like they are physically back there. Then they would need a safe place to do some deep breathing exercises and grounding techniques.

An example of the adulteration/abuse of the term safe place would be somebody that heard an apposing view on a specific topic and then told the person with the apposing view that they are triggering them and that they need a safe space.

I'll be bluntly and brutally honest here; we do NOT need 'Safe Spaces' anymore than the twerpies going to Great Lakes for basic [that's a laugh in today's P/C shit show called the Navy]need 'trainee time out blue cards'. "Blue cards" like 'SAFE SPACES' are B/S put there by senior members of command looking ton protect their career advancement gates and their pension post retirement consultancies who will nopt step up and make themselves accountable. Anyone who wants a"SafeSpace" is laughable and deserves to be ridiculed. When you have just had a shot of water in the steam lines it is the wrong time to be whining about a "Safe Space" and if i'm still an EOOW Underway I will make sure you never step foot in a fireroom ever again and you spend the rest of your hitch mess cranking in the scullery for Sailors who don't want to be in 'SafeSpace'. They are your betters and this is the place you can serve them best while not risking the safety of the crew of the ship. If wanting a "SAFE SPACE" is more important than being a good Marine, "Doggie" or JoBlow "white hat one each' get the "F" out and go pick out a college they have plenty of them, unfortunately they don't teach a "sh*******g" thing but that's okay you'll be Safe. You want a "SAFE SPACE" on a Ship or on-board a Mar.Corps installation you're a weasel; be sure to wear all the gee dunk medals they gave you for making quarters.

We weren't making fun of people who need and go to their safe place unless they were sniveling whiny millennials who couldn't cope with the upsetting victory of President Trump in the election. That was the only instance when we did poke fun at a few miscreants that wouldn't have been rioting or crying if they had an actual job. These little cry babies have no rights to fuss and cry themselves into a corner and frankly I find it embarrassing that they did it in the first place. Talk about people who were given participation trophy's their whole life and never had to deal with reality, these babies are poster children for that. I believe if you have a reason....a real reason, then yes by all means if it makes you feel safer then go to your safe place and rest, recharge your batteries, calm down and then get back to work. If that makes me a meany then so be it! I have been called so many worse things over the years and some were deserved. I am a product of my raising and we were told to stand up, be a man and get your ass back to work. I have striven my whole life to be the best I can be and this isn't some old ARMY advertising campaign that I am talking about. It's what my dad told me when I started my first job! Don't listen to complainers and whiners they will drag you down. Be the best man you can be and be a better man tomorrow than you were today! He never gave me the option to fail. He told me there is no "Can't" in the Ruether vocabulary. He didn't know about Webster's Dictionary as he only had an eighth grade education but he knew how to be a man and showed it everyday of his life.

I find it interesting that you have not defined in your post what specifically you mean by "safe space". If you are referring to the currently common usage - i.e. the sort of thing currently being discussed in reference to immature children found on college campuses and such, I find myself repulsed by the whole concept. By the time a person has reached adulthood they should have learned how to cope with disappointment, statements they don't agree with and tasks they do not wish to accomplish. It's called growing up. The best solution to this little problem in my view is immersion therapy, force the little snowflakes to grow up by subjecting them to viewpoints and scenarios they don't like. The notion that the rest of the world has to stop carrying out their own affairs or modify their speech out of deference to one's little problem is laughable and actually rather insulting. The primary assumption behind the idea of safe spaces really if you think about it is that these children are so much more special and precious than the rest of us that we must modify our behavior to satisfy them. If you are talking about GENUINE medically necessary isolation for some reason I am having some difficulty understanding why we even need to discuss this at all.

Sp4 Byron Skinner. I don't see any humor in this activity but I would think that any person who requires such a facility is in the wrong place if he or she is in the US Armed Forces. Serving in the military is about, team work, rules, sacrifice for the common good, doing acts that you might wish you were not ordered to do etc. I'm not questioning the validity of this syndrome but people who suffer from it really don't belong in the Military.

I think that those who need a safe space should ask themselves if they are really strong and resilient enough to handle being in the military and going to war?

Are there any "safe spaces" in Afghanistan right now? I didn't think so...

War is hell and the military must be ready for it. If a coddled child/adult cannot handle a simple
Difference of opinion based on gender/sexual orientation/race (you tagged this post feminism, LGBT, and Racism) without needing a safe space, then I don't think they have the mental toughness to go to war.

To me the "Safe Space" is a farce developed by some grad student to get their Masters or greater. In the military we tend to be realists and the concept of Safe Space is like having a force field to protect the troops from IEDs, rocket attacks, bullets, fragments, you name it. Technology is not there presently so we rely on tactics. The kids are self inflating there importance and insecurity to gain attention by sitting down in the middle of the floor and kicking and screaming.

If safe spaces were real we would provide them to the citizens of South Chicago, where over the "Holiday" weekend 40 people were shot. It is similar to the Black Lives Matter movement. If they truly believed this, they would be creating walls in front of the innocent residents where lives are lost or threatened daily. Instead they created an environment where the actual people who try to create safe spaces may have eased up their efforts because it is safer (personally and professionally) to do so. I believe they called it "sandbagging" in Vietnam, where the patrol goes out of sight and sets in rather than risk getting killed for something they do not believe in at their level.

I am retired from SF and as a police officer. I give this as a qualifier of my opinions which are slanted away from neutral.

SSG Jessica Bautista I never heard of safe space until today, but after doing some researching on what safe space is used for today, the following meme clearly states my opinion about it.

I don't have a "safe space". I try to make one in my head when the dreams come back, or when I see something that I know will set me off. I try to get away from the situation, but when the mind keeps playing your thoughts on instant replay and you're just there for the ride, the safest place can be the most dangerous place. I thought my safe space was on my bike or in my car speeding. I'm trying to outrun a dream, a hurt, or a pain that won't let go. Faster. That should do the trick. No. It. Doesn't. It's like looking in the passenger seat and at 150 you still see what you're running from. On the bike, when I hit 150, I knew one mistake and that's it. I'd be dead before I hit the ground. Faster. Death will be instant, and you won't care. Well VA state police did, and while I got off scott free, I still need the feeling of speed. I need to feel the power under my foot, and I don't care about anything else. I know many like me say get a woman. When you live in an area where most of the population is retired from some branch or another, kinda hard not to show the real you, when she's going through it too. I ask myself why put my burden on her? And once I close that feeling down, I'm cold, distant, and arrogant. I'm protecting me from me, and you. If I follow what the fellas say, I have to let you in, and every time I've done it, that shaft goes deep with no Vaseline. Staff, and anyone else...can you tell me what a "safe place" is? I apologize for running off with the gums, but I haven't found a safe place yet. Going to the range is about it. You're back into what you were, and you listen as if it was an Army led range (fucked up I know, but the Army would've have it any other way). I feel so alive behind the gun, and euphoric when I look at the target on a good day and think "I've still got it". I'm about to finally grow up, and move away from here. I'm hoping a new start in a new town where no one knows me, or who I was, will accept me as me, and I'll finally find my safe place and not be afraid of feelings and people.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-S-PaMWhwI

I don't know what the actual term means (but have been educated through this thread). I believe (also IAW DoD regs) that everyone has the opportunity to come to work in the military and be treated with dignity and respect. To me (if we do that correctly), we make "safe spaces".

If a "safe space" implies someplace where you won't be challenged (physically or intellectually) I don't think that's useful for mature adults...especially in this profession.