So is Safe Space™ the new bogeyman for people afraid of civility?  It's come up often enough in this conversation that it obviously means something to many of you but I'm just not getting the reference.  Is there a specific threat that's being referenced here, or do people just not like to be judged by their interactions?

From what I can tell the difference between this comment forum and Facebook (aside from the fact that I can comment without implicating my employer) is that we can provide some of the same social cues as we would at a party.  If someone says something too outrageous, we just tend to drift away to different conversations towards the people who interest us more (represented in this case by the people who tend to get "likes").  What am I missing?