Andrew Server
aserver@uwyo.edu
This piece is not written in intent to be part of the overdone trend of bashing Millennials. It does not seek to continue the overdone and largely incorrect argument that “all Millennials are lazy.” I have great faith in my generation. That being said, far too many Millennials- particularly those Millennials in college- are becoming pitifully and disdainfully sensitive to beliefs that simply are different from those they are taught to have. Far too many Millennials have become so petulant to actually desire the infringement of the First Amendment for those who they happen to disagree with. Safe spaces, unjustified and frivolous use of trigger warnings and movements to ban certain ideas and language are all ways in which so many Millennials are making victims and outright pansies of themselves. It is largely the result of our generation being severely steeped in egocentrism.
Allow me to describe a society for you. In this society there are set rules in how to conduct oneself and what you can and cannot say- lest you upset the sensibilities of a portion of the population. If you think the described situation sounds Orwellian or directly out of 17th century colonial America, you’re right. But it also describes the atmosphere felt by many on most university campuses. Instead of being worried about offending the sensibilities of the “weaker” sex, we must now cater and impede our language lest we offend the sensibilities of college liberals and social justice warriors (SJWs). Having to censor one’s language at all through societal coercion is wrong in both of the above cases. It is societal suicide on many university campuses to ignore/oppose political correctness, since the instant one decides to do so they are slapped with the proverbial scarlet letter of being a “bigot.”
Recently at UMass, SJW Millennial college students became so incensed at a panel of speakers who were speaking against political correctness that they appeared to lose control of their motor skills in their protest of the presentation. If you have the chance, search the event on YouTube. You won’t be disappointed. Students on various campuses across the nation have protested conservative speaker upon conservative speaker because their views did not match their own. Campuses like the University of Nebraska-Lincoln have launched campaigns to censor even basic language like “crazy” from the mouths of their students. All in the name of being politically correct and protecting those fragile SJW sensibilities. This is at least in part a product of parents pressing upon their Millennial children that their feelings and ideas matter more than anyone else’s. This is a supremely unhealthy atmosphere and it is blatantly dangerous. Millennials are the generation proving to be amiable toward socialism and censoring free speech.
The university was- at least at one point- supposed to be a marketplace of ideas. It was a place where a plethora of ideas, a plethora of opinions could be expressed and discussed whether they were opposing or similar. President Barack Obama described the college experience to be like the above description. Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg was booed when he spoke out against safe spaces and banning speech at his commencement address to the University of Michigan graduating class. Both of these notable democrats are correct. Yet they must realize that their ideology and radicals in their party have brought about this juvenile atmosphere on campus. In real life and outside this ivory tower of university, Millennial college students will have to face adversity and opposing ideas.
If one is with integrity, nothing else matters. If one is without integrity, nothing else matters.
