Readers know of the phenomenon at college campuses regarding charges of \u201cmicroaggressions\u201d\u009d and \u201ctriggers.\u201d\u009d It\u2019s been going on for a while and is part of a growing censorship movement in which professors, administrators and others are accused of racism, sexism, homophobia, classism, gender bias and ethnocentric thinking, among other things. Connected is the rejection or harassment of commencement and other campus speakers who are not politically correct. I hate that phrase, but it just won\u2019t stop being current.<\/p>\n
Kirsten Powers goes into much of this in her book, \u201cThe Silencing.\u201d\u009d Anyway, quite a bunch of little Marats and Robespierres we\u2019re bringing up.<\/p>\n
But I was taken aback by a piece a few weeks ago in the Spectator, the student newspaper of Columbia University. I can\u2019t shake it, though believe me I\u2019ve tried. I won\u2019t name the four undergraduate authors, because 30 years from now their children will be on Google, and because everyone in their 20s has the right to be an idiot.<\/p>\n
Yet theirs is a significant and growing form of idiocy that deserves greater response.<\/p>\n