&gt; There&#x27;s a stark difference between what people who dislike the concept of &quot;safe space&quot; think a &quot;safe space&quot; is and what a &quot;safe space&quot; actually is.<p>The concept of safe spaces originally came out of the societal intersection of the LGBT, Riot grrrl and 3rd wave feminist movements of the late 80&#x27;s&#x2F;early 90&#x27;s, where there was an existential threat of violence and intimidation from opponents&#x2F;bigots&#x2F;homophobes&#x2F;just dicks.<p>As you say, vital for those movements and the people in them at the time.<p>Where the threat is not of violence and intimidation, but rather of hurt feelings due to encountering someone with different political or religious views from you, I think it&#x27;s better for society as a whole for those feelings to get hurt; or preferably some spirited and hopefully non-intentionally inflammatory discourse to occur between people of opposing views so that we can better understand each other and progress as a society.<p>I&#x27;m not saying that safe spaces are not needed any more, just that they seem to be increasingly used where they are not necessary.