To hate the term ‘unsafe’

[BernardBlacksBreakfastWine]

Bit niche, I admit. But here’s why:

Life is risky in lots of ways. Basically everything from getting in the car to go to work to playing sport to eating processed food - all carry risk. We generally manage this, and there are communally agreed thresholds in many cases (sometimes mandated by law - eg seatbelts in cars - sometimes not - eg dietary choices). It’s a sort of continuum, if you will, from ‘absolutely fucking reckless’ at one end, through to ‘wrapped entirely in cotton wool’ at the other.

When a choice or an activity strays too close to the ‘fucking reckless’ end of the spectrum, it seems reasonable to me to call it ‘risky’ or ‘perilous’ or ‘very dangerous’; these are all words/phrases that carry meaning of their own and denote different degrees of danger.

But to label a behaviour ‘unsafe’, to me, denotes a fictional situation in which everything one side of an arbitrary line is ‘safe safe safe safe…’ and then it suddenly and arbitrarily tips over into ‘unsafe’ in some sort of banal binary way. My problem with this is that it smacks of a sort of smug, unimaginative box-ticking mentality with no understanding of the nuances or variables of life. If you operate on this sort of model, it leads to a very black-and-white sort of thinking and eventually an abdication of real risk assessment.

I have similar feelings about the word ‘unwell’ instead of ‘ill’ but I’m not sure if that’s reasonable and I haven’t really formulated an argument on that one.

Anyone see where I’m coming from with the ‘unsafe’ thing?

You’re overthinking it.

First post nails it.

Maybe. But there must be a reason why this usage is creeping in. Language usually reflects societal shifts.

I don’t really believe there’s such a thing as ‘overthinking’ in most cases tbh. Most things bear scrutiny.

I agree. I think if you spend any amount of time in faux-progressive environments you will see this co-opting of the language of abuse. It makes me very angry.

It's part of the hyper-individualisation of society, where an individual's feelings about their own 'reality' have become more important than anything else.

It suits neo-liberalist capitalism very well, because no-one's looking at actual structural inequality.

Edited to add: I should have said 'language of the abused', perhaps.

Interesting and I agree.
Since Covid, this safe/unsafe thing is prevalent and depressing.
Also about unwell.

It's annoying in certain contexts, like in "woke" type online forums, where using certain words supposedly makes people "unsafe" but there's no actual intention of threat in the words iykwim.

In other contexts it's just a word.

Precisely. Can there be too much analysis or attempts to understand any given situation? No.

But again, that suits the status quo.

So what would the opposite of fail-safe be?

Nails are a bit unsafe. What with the sharp ends and all.

I think you should have gone with 'first post tethers it with soft but firm bindings '.

Thank you. That’s very interesting- the language of abuse. I hadn’t thought about it like that before. But I agree about the hyper-individualisation. 100%

I do get what you mean. Definitely speaks to a binary way of thinking. Choice of words and the broader discourse is powerful.

If somebody tells me something is unsafe and I think they are being unreasonable, I think I will ask them to explain a bit more about the danger they have identified. Quite a useful synonym, actually, to encourage reflection on what it is they are actually worried about.

Yep, it’s up there with “unalive”.

I agree with this, and it is stated here better than I could.

I kind of get where you are coming from - I prefer to use 'risk' rather than safety - I work with young people where risk is something they constantly need to assess and safety isn't really a thing! (eg gang involvement/county lines) so you can 'safety plan' - but really it's risk assessment and planning on what to do in risky situations - risk is always a thing for everyone - learning to assess that risk and make choices is how we all exist.

also 'safe' has a social/class/race/disability etc construct - eg 'stay home and stay safe' wasn't a great message for women experiencing domestic abuse!

One persons idea of 'safe' will be very different from anothers

Great post. What's particularly irritating is people who think that encountering an opinion different from their own somehow makes them 'unsafe'.

Yes, agree. People are increasingly using it to talk about their feelings, so that "unsafe" now has less to do with risk and is more a synonym for "uncomfortable".

What examples can be given of the poor use of the word safe? Am not sure if I am not noticing it or people around me don’t use it much. That said I hate the expression ‘safe space’ but likely because it’s overused by my woke corporate colleagues.

Have you been reading 1984?

Me? Not very recently. I have read it, yes. Is there an obvious link I’m missing?

Hmmmmm.... not sure what the problem is.

Safe is that it doesn't have the potential to cause harm i.e. is secure, unsafe is that it does have the potential to cause harm and is insecure.

I agree that sometimes it is used in the wrong context when people mean low-risk and high-risk e.g. medical procedures, but there are definitely times where the harm can be eliminated.

Can you give an example?

I understand the unwell one.

If a person feels nauseous that doesn't mean they are ill. People can feel nauseous for lots of reasons - morning sickness for example, you're not ill because your pregnant, you feel unwell because the pregnancy is making you feel nauseous. You would be ill if you had that serious sickness that puts pregnant women in the hospital - (can't remember the name, is it HG?). But when I had morning sickness I never took to my bed declaring myself 'ill', I would say - I'm not feeling well etc.

There are loads of other examples, you can feel unwell because you had too much sun, or you're in the midst of menopause, or you have terrible period pains - and these things can make you feel very very unwell but that doesn't mean they 'ill'. You can be 100% healthy and still have terrible period pain.

Likewise with the usual sort of headaches. The ones where you say - I don't feel well I'm going to take some paracetamol, go to bed early.

Unsafe/safe one I'm not as sure of but I do think there are black and white examples of something being unsafe vs safe. Doesn't safe vs unsafe usually tie in with safety measures? E.g driving without a seat belt is unsafe, for example, whether you wear or don't wear a seat belt doesn't mean your risk of an accident increases, it means your risk of serious injury or death if you get into an accident increases. That's what I think of when I think of something being 'unsafe'. But I probably need to give this a bit more thought.

Surely safe to unsafe is a continuous line....which people will translate or interpret in different degrees. I can't actually think of something that could be guaranteed to be 100% safe....could stay at home and stay in bed but have therefore a risk of developing a pressure sore or chest infection or loss of muscle strength quite quickly in some people. But I can think of things that I struggle to think people wouldn't agree are safe...... jumping off a ship in a force 10 gale for a swim, holding the chain end of a chain saw whilst it's running, jumping onto a train track just in front of a train are all surely to be deemed unsafe. And that's the point of risk ax- to look at the liklihood of something happening against the damage it could cause -the risks are different to different people in different scenarios therefore the world is not black and white, and things can be perceived as safe or unsafe differently