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I bring this up because of this article. You can read the article if you wish, but the 13 boil down to the following:

1. Hating pumpkin-spice lattes was declared sexist.
2. A university language guide stated that the word “American” was “problematic.
3. A university study declared that we have to accept people who “identify as real vampires.”
4. The word “skinny” was deemed “violent.”
5. A university declared the phrase “politically correct” to be politically incorrect.
6. A room full of white people was determined to be a “microaggression”
7. A Harvard study declared that microaggressions can make people die sooner
8. Some students were ‘triggered’ by an anti-microaggressions exhibit.
9. A student newspaper felt the need to clarify that it was not being transphobic by associating menstruation and tampons with “women.”
10. The War on Pronouns
11. A yoga class was cancelled on the grounds that yoga is “cultural appropriation.”
12. The War on Charity Events

Now regardless of your own opinion of this website's obvious biases, the above items did occur last year and they really have me wondering: When did the US get so soft? Why do events like this continue to happen? Are we really approaching a point where this generation of college students will just be so completely incapable of operating outside of their campus safe-spaces that they cease to function?

And, perhaps a better question, what comes after this? Does this expand to the point where, well, this happens*, or will the next generation (or even the generations above this current student body) finally wise up and reject all this nonesene?



*Obvious exageration, but you get the pont.

I'm sure that if you looked for 13 wild crazy things that happened in any given year, you'd find them and it still wouldn't mean anything close to what you're trying to suggest

On the one hand, I have a strong suspicion that most of these kinds of incident get blown out of all proportion - there were spankers like this at uni when I went, and when my mum went, they were called "student politicians" Difference was, they didn't have the internet to help them organise and spread their message, plus the media was structured in a less partisan way and also didn't have as sophisticated an understanding of the internet(or in my mum's day, have an internet at all) so there was less incentive to report nonsense like this.

On the other; I have this horrible crawling sensation at the back of my skull that this is it, the "generation gap" has appeared for people of my age group, and in a few years kids will look at folk my age advocating privacy and a less stifling approach to free speech the same way I have to try and avoid looking at my grandad when he goes off on a rant about asians or black people...o_0

 LordofHats wrote:
I'm sure that if you looked for 13 wild crazy things that happened in any given year, you'd find them and it still wouldn't mean anything close to what you're trying to suggest

And as I said, all of those things did happen, so drop the cheap shots and maybe respond. It's difficult, I know, but give it a try.

My response is that this is hardly some special effect. It most likely happened last year as well, and the year before that. But now it is publicized.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 LordofHats wrote:
I'm sure that if you looked for 13 wild crazy things that happened in any given year, you'd find them and it still wouldn't mean anything close to what you're trying to suggest

And as I said, all of those things did happen, so drop the cheap shots and maybe respond. It's difficult, I know, but give it a try.

I don't think he's trying to cheap shot you, but just saying weird people are always going to say and do weird things. There was a science fiction story about it decades ago, I think, called , "The Silly Season".

A definition from Webster(I was surprised to find an official definition):

"Definition of silly season
Popularity: Bottom 30% of words
1
: a period (as late summer) when the mass media often focus on trivial or frivolous matters for lack of major news stories
2
: a period marked by frivolous, outlandish, or illogical activity or behavior"

It goes on to say it was a term first used in the mid 1800's. This year's crop is nothing new.

 curran12 wrote:
My response is that this is hardly some special effect. It most likely happened last year as well, and the year before that. But now it is publicized.

Of that I am certain, but that doesn't really address the point. Why is it happening? Why are people so seemingly accepting of this? How will this sheltered offended-by-everything generation handle the real world?

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Why do events like this continue to happen?

Because college students are idiots. Well, not really idiots, but they're suddenly placed in a role where they treated just enough like adults, and given just enough responsibility, that they think they can make a difference. The point isn't what college student papers or governments or other organizations produce, it's that they learn how to work in those structures.

Let me put this another way: when a child is playing with his toy kitchen, and the imaginary dish he creates is peanut butter and chicken finger soup, you don't assume that the current generation has lost all taste or ability to enjoy fine cuisine. You realize that he's a child, with a child's understanding of food, and just combined things that he knew.

Realize further that student "leaders" not only are a very small percentage of the student body, they are elected by a fairly small percentage (voter turnout is usually high single digits).

Are we really approaching a point where this generation of college students will just be so completely incapable of operating outside of their campus safe-spaces that they cease to function?

No. In fact, if you look at nearly all of these stories, you won't find an actual person requesting these things for themselves. Oh, it happens, but most of this is misplaced empathy and concern. Which aren't bad traits to have in people.

A generation that spent four years experiencing radical inclusion is going to be far more open to thinks like reasonable accommodations for disability access, or adjusting schedules to allow people of all cultures to celebrate their holidays.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 LordofHats wrote:
I'm sure that if you looked for 13 wild crazy things that happened in any given year, you'd find them and it still wouldn't mean anything close to what you're trying to suggest

And as I said, all of those things did happen, so drop the cheap shots and maybe respond. It's difficult, I know, but give it a try.

Why? Anyone who grabs 13 random things that happened and tries to spin a yarn of 'college students gone crazy' out of them, is making a tempest in a tea pot. What is there to really do but point out that this is 'muchado bout nothing?'

If you want an intelligent discussion, maybe pose an intelligent question.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 curran12 wrote:
My response is that this is hardly some special effect. It most likely happened last year as well, and the year before that. But now it is publicized.

Of that I am certain, but that doesn't really address the point. Why is it happening? Why are people so seemingly accepting of this? How will this sheltered offended-by-everything generation handle the real world?

Well, how widespread is it all?

Deeming a room full of white people to be a micro-aggression is pretty off the wall and to a degree just stupid (what about a room full of muslims, or women, or dog owners, or green-eyed people) but is it something that happened in one university and got put on this list because it was so unusual, or is it an official policy of at least say 10% of university governing bodies?

I advocate bringing back the "paddle" in school, Dodgeball, school fights, and banning social media till the age of 21.
I advocate no Xbox/PS4/game console, cellphones, use only wooden pencils, and 56 dial up internet along with a set of encyclopedia (books) for everyone below 21
I Advocate the removal of "packages" from cable providers and force the providers to give the channels the parents want shown on their flatscreen

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
How will this sheltered offended-by-everything generation handle the real world?

Without any problems, because the biggest problem with millennials are largely the fake ones manufactured by outrage farmers as examples of how their generation was better.

 Ouze wrote:
Without any problems, because the biggest problem with millennials are largely the fake ones manufactured by outrage farmers as examples of how their generation was better.

So the things in that list didn't happen? They were manufactured by "outrage famers" in some asinine attempt to prove that their gen... Jesus wept I can't even finish that sentence it's so fething slowed.

Really Ouze? Really? You're going to sit there with a angry-shark aeroplane face and tell me that everything in that article I posted is just invented by people trying to prove that Boomer/X/Y/whatever generations were better?

I'm going to tell you that if you are willing to compile a list of 13 non-events and extrapolate that list out to make sweeping observations about a population of 14 million college students, that I can't say anything to make you see why that's foolhardy.

Thank you Polonius for the well-reasoned response. You and KK might be the only people who got the original question. You have made me view this from a different angle and for that I thank you.

But, speaking of people who continue to not get it...

 LordofHats wrote:
If you want an intelligent discussion, maybe pose an intelligent question.

Yeah this has been a long fething time coming. I'm so done with you...

 Ouze wrote:
I'm going to tell you that if you are willing to compile a list of 13 non-events and extrapolate that list out to make sweeping observations about a population of 18 million college students, that I can't say anything to make you see why that's foolhardy.

Nope. You don't get to do that.

You don't get to pretend like these events are somehow not something we're seeing every God-damned day in America (and occasionally in the UK) and that this kind of amazingly silly behaviour, further increased by social media (and places like Tumblr and Reddit), is just a blip on the radar. Made into a bigger deal than they really are, sure, I'm willing to accept that, but the fact that we keep seeing these things happens means that they are having an impact.

So answer the question: Why is this happening? Saying "No it's not!" isn't good enough.

In college, I knew single people who could have and did come up with far more than this list each year. And I knew a lot of those individuals. We isolated them together in student government. It was pretty amazing.


To be fair, many of them were probably performing rather than true believers, but due to Poe's law you could never be sure.

Well, for one, the list of 13 outrages that show how America is going soft include two examples from Canada. My guess is that the average millennial is probably aware that Canada is not a part of the United States, so they've already got that going for them.

I'll start the list for 2016:

1. Outrage about outrage.

 d-usa wrote:
I'll start the list for 2016:

1. Outrage about outrage.

So you're going to ignore the question for cheap shots as well? Thanks.

I advocate mandatory conscription in the US Armed Forces for 3-4 years. Active, Reserves, or National Guards
I advocate the creation of Young Work Force for those not willing to join the US Military to serve 3-4 years cleaning up parks, highways, neighborhoods, and whatever else needs cleaning.
I advocate the removal of Justin Beiber back to Canada

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 d-usa wrote:
I'll start the list for 2016:

1. Outrage about outrage.

So you're going to ignore the question for cheap shots as well? Thanks.

You are bitching that some people bitched about stuff last year. That's not a cheap shot, that's you being outraged at outrage.

Of course one look at the "about us" page of your source shouldn't really result in any surprises: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/223549/our-mission-statement-william-f-buckley-jr

And it's also no surprise that a person that spend 2015 complaining about PC and SJW and Tumblerinas starts of the year 2016 with the same kind of posts. But here is to another year on DakkaDakka, where the circle jerk never ends.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 d-usa wrote:
I'll start the list for 2016:

1. Outrage about outrage.

So you're going to ignore the question for cheap shots as well? Thanks.

Something isn't a cheap shot just because it proposes that the point is... well pointless. And yes. "The problem isn't real" is always an option and we totally can do that. Just because behavior is observed does not indicate that it is significant, and most certainly 13 given microevents do not correlate into a larger trend just because it serves the purpose of an argument that people have been making for hundreds of years. College kids to crazy stuff. Always have. The world is still turning per usual.

#2 for 2016 outrage about a lack of outrage (?)

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

So answer the question: Why is this happening? Saying "No it's not!" isn't good enough.

That's SJBs for you... largely perpetuated by how saturated our social media has become.

So, no similar types of 'strange things' happened in 2015 in Australia, the UK, Europe, Asia, etc.?

There seems to be an odd anti-American undercurrent showing up in the OT as of late.

Unless it has always been there?

 Alpharius wrote:
So, no similar types of 'strange things' happened in 2015 in Australia, the UK, Europe, Asia, etc.?

There seems to be an odd anti-American undercurrent showing up in the OT as of late.

Unless it has always been there?

Australia not as much, because the Aussie attitude is generally that we don't care enough to do anything about anything (unless it's sport related!). The UK yes, but not as pronounced, but then again that is most likely due to coverage rates vs actual rates of occurrence. Probably happens just as much but no one covers it.

As for non-Western non-First World countries? Well of course not. They have real issues to worry about.

 Alpharius wrote:
So, no similar types of 'strange things' happened in 2015 in Australia, the UK, Europe, Asia, etc.?

There seems to be an odd anti-American undercurrent showing up in the OT as of late.

Unless it has always been there?

Nah... we're the big 'Murrican meanie so we're a ripe target.

I mean, wasn't there a dakka posting a while back that someone in UK/EU went to jail for a facebook post?

 whembly wrote:
I mean, wasn't there a dakka posting a while back that someone in UK/EU went to jail for a facebook post?

And an example in Australia where it was ruled that unfriending someone on Facebook constituted workplace bullying. Of course there's a bit more to it than that, but it's not something you can really laugh at now, as much as you want to.

I suppose really what I should have asked them is when did Western society in general get so soft. America just represents such a big part of that society that's easy to get caught up with how America-centric the whole thing tends to appear as.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 curran12 wrote:
My response is that this is hardly some special effect. It most likely happened last year as well, and the year before that. But now it is publicized.

Of that I am certain, but that doesn't really address the point. Why is it happening? Why are people so seemingly accepting of this? How will this sheltered offended-by-everything generation handle the real world?

Most of us are not accepting of most of that bologna. It looks to be mostly isolated "Liberal Arts Professors" that like to get in the news or say outrageous things to "make us think."

Bah I say to hippyism!

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
And an example in Australia where it was ruled that unfriending someone on Facebook constituted workplace bullying. Of course there's a bit more to it than that, but it's not something you can really laugh at now, as much as you want to.

I like how with the latter sentence, you freely admit that's not the whole story, but handwave it away anyway because feth it, forge the narrative.

 kronk wrote:
Bah I say to hippyism!

Yeah but you say that to everything.