Safe Spaces: Modern Berlin Walls

I'm taking a course in comparative politics this semester, and I found an interesting historical tidbit today in studying German political history: the Berlin wall was constructed, according to East German propaganda, as an "anti-fascist" barrier to protect East Germany from "depopulation, espionage, sabotage, and aggression from the West."

Hilarious.

All the Berlin Wall did, granting the East German propagandists' "protective" position, was to substitute one form of perceived totalitarianism (democratic, capitalistic society with comparatively little central authority) with an objectively worse form of actual totalitarianism. Sure, democracy has its problems, and democratic nations are guilty of some serious wrongs in history, but East German propaganda amounted to the proverbial pot calling the kettle black.

The best part of all of this is that the stated purpose of the Berlin Wall was, essentially, to create a "safe space" where people of a particular political polarity could "protect" themselves from outside criticism, the upshot of which was to hold hostage both political allies and ideological opponents.

Sounds a lot like college safe spaces to me.