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When the student speech code enforcer rises to a mid-level government job in 2020 …

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The Federal Theater Div. of W.P.A. presents "It can't h

Here’s law prof Mike Adams (Townhall , October 10, 2011) on the contribution oppression on campuses makes to failures to achieve:

The first dangerous idea embraced by postmodern America was the idea that one has the right to negate other ideas simply because they cause discomfort. This idea gained acceptance on our college campuses right after the fall of the Soviet Union. It resulted in a weakening of the character of the average college student. In fact, it served a counter-evolutionary function in the sense that it guaranteed that the ideas of the weakest students would be the ones to survive in the intellectual marketplace. It also did much to extinguish humility as a character trait among educated people.

The idea that one has a right to negate ideas simply because one is uncomfortable is narcissistic. Our speech codes reinforced that bad trait while simultaneously reinforcing the bad ideas that accompany it. Unsurprisingly, civility in discourse began to decline in the age of speech codes.

The decline has been hastened by the fact that speech codes are openly intended to protect presumed “vulnerable” people, which mean – among other things – that those people themselves can indulge freely in verbal hostilities against others.

It was not long before these students began to assert their “right to be unoffended” in a proactive way. Instead of waiting for speech that might offend them, they actively sought it out. They joined groups that held ideas contrary to their own – and did so knowingly. After joining these groups they asserted a right to lead the groups that were advancing the ideas they found to be objectionable.

The students who are allowed to indulge in censorship today will be social leaders tomorrow who do not see the point of protecting people, places, or ideas they don’t like. There is now about a century and a half of experience with that.

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