The academic assault

Across the nation, thousands of irate students have taken to their common areas to protest a number of grievances that would seem trivial to most rational persons. Universities the land over are dealing with a rash of demonstrations, which range from “protecting black bodies on campus” to safeguarding the egos of those who cannot deal with the realities of the world in which they live.

To those who spend $3.50 on poster boards and markers, they are the champions of the next great social movement, but to those who recognize the utter insanity of their claims and subsequent demands, it’s entirely different. In this realm, fear transcends facts, and baseless allegations have become the foundation of a new hysteria that threatens careers, communities, and the very fabric of our nation. To watch young adults demand justice for unconfirmed “fecal swastikas”, or to witness triggered youths cry over representations in seasonal costumes, is to see America’s future populace as the feckless, entitled cretins that they are.

This is not a racial or gendered issue. Rather, it’s one that extends to all socio-economic groups, and sadly the picture is bleak. The chickens have truly come home to roost, and like a terrorist group’s declaration of war upon the House of Saud, the very institutions that gave rise to these cultural jihadis are those now reeling under their ideological tyranny.

Instead of confronting these nonsensical assertions, universities, as they have done for years, continue to placate their most vociferous factions. This has normalized such fundamentalist behavior and, at times, encouraged it.  Seminars exploring white privilege, the patriarchy, rape-culture, and other such fairytales, are celebrated and ubiquitous, while those rare guests who challenge this dogma, are enough to send young progressives into pseudo seizures.  

When Dr. Christina Hoff Sommers, an outspoken critic of third wave feminism, was invited to speak at Oberlin this past April, some demonstrators were so enraged that, not only was the event widely protested, but the organizers themselves were lambasted as rape apologists.

Similar lectures have even necessitated the establishment of “quiet areas,” where videos of puppies and the offering of cookies are meant to assuage the tormented soul.   This isn’t academia. It’s babysitting, and these embarrassing cases are hardly the only manifestations of inanity.

Emma Sulkowicz, an arts student at Columbia, rose to prominence for her “Carry-The-Weight” performance piece. Even with ample evidence discrediting her allegations of a sexual assault, the university permitted her to harass, vilify, and malign her alleged assailant on a daily basis. 

At Mizzou, pupils forced the resignation of the University President Timothy Wolfe for his failure to handle unsubstantiated grievances about racism, even as head of the Student’s Union admitted that he had fabricated the claims of the KKK’s presence on campus.

At the University of Virginia, a Rolling Stones’ article, detailing an alleged gang-rape in a fraternity house, managed to mobilize thousands against the particular chapter, even when the story was revealed to be a national farce.

And at Yale, undergraduates are currently demanding the termination of a faculty member for daring to pen an article that cautioned against an overreaction to Halloween attire.

Unfortunately, the same people who find validation in the struggle against nebulous specters, are the very same persons who need these apparitions to exist. Without them, their world view is nothing and, in that absence, they are nothing.

No one in this debate has discounted the presence of racism or sexism in our society, but somehow, people have been told to simply listen and believe exaggerated assertions. This isn’t a healthy discourse; it’s a lecture where the instructors have abandoned any semblance of logic or reason. Movements such as these would be a satirist’s goldmine, if not for the throngs of the perpetually incensed who would assuredly bury them under mounds of petitions, should they elect to exploit such a precious resource.

Dissent in this topsy-turvy world is akin to blasphemy, and evidence is now secondary to emotion.  What cannot be validated through proof is just one claim away from gospel, and to question that is to risk being tagged with a litany of pejorative “ists”. To these zealots, their feelings are sacrosanct and everyone else’s rights are subordinate to them. It’s a sense of entitlement they openly lament, but quietly relish.

This is problematic, as there is no impartial way to measure or value the fragile sensibilities of sheltered persons. It’s purely subjective. This has shamefully become a race to the bottom, and the most aggrieved positions in our nation are now the most coveted, as they shield one from criticism, while adding unearned weight to their voices. Their only solution to this conundrum is an invasive form of censorship, and that is patently unacceptable. 

Echo chambers help no one. Free speech was never reserved only for the topics with which we agree, and at no point is the sanctuary from hard truths or criticism a liberty we are assured. The world is a tumultuous place. There are no “safe-spaces” for adults in the boardroom, and there are no trigger warnings in geo-politics. ISIS doesn’t give a damn about privilege, and women in the third world needn’t hear about feminist struggles with “man-spreading.”

Ambivalence is not an answer. The failure to counteract this latest insipid wave, is to resign oneself and our looming fates, to a tsunami of indignation that is only growing with time. This cannot be allowed to transpire as the existential crisis this poses, endangers not just our fundamental rights, but the very the pillars of an open society itself.

Morris is Libertarian activist in pursuit of a masters’ degree in International Relations from the University of Oklahoma.