“We are the future!” read the sign of one college protestor, as he and his fellow students ambushed then California candidate for Governor, Ronald Reagan, in his limo. Reagan grabbed a pen and paper, and hastily scrawled a message to display back at the young man. “I’m selling my bonds,” it read.

That sentiment continues, especially with today’s college students. We’re awash with stories of students living in a social justice haze where everything from words, to costumes, to your very gender is enough to be labeled offensive. It seems today that Universities are no longer here to churn out learned members of society, or training people for careers. They’re now victim factories that rob young men and women of free thought, and replace it with useless concerns about things like identity politics, sexual orientation, and over-sensitivity to one’s fee-fees.

In other words, it’s a place where would be adults are turned back into children.

California University is upholding this stunning and brave new tradition. In a story obtained by Heat Street through a FOIA request – not even joking – the University apparently put on a campaign all about “inclusive language,” which featured a colorful ball pit for students play in, and something called a “vent tent,” where students were given words via a colorful spinny wheel, and instructed to talk about why they were offensive on camera.

CSU-Northridge’s event stretched on for an entire week, teaching students about “potentially hurtful phrases” and cautioning that “using non-inclusive language can have a negative affect on others.”

The University Student Union, a student-led nonprofit campus organization, spent more than $1,000 in student fees on the event, according to invoices. Urging students to avoid hurtful language, USU came up with a list of offensive words — and then printed them in huge, all-caps text, hanging the poster on campus regardless of their supposedly triggering potential.

The Universities think that this is a good thing, as it’s enriching the student’s lives, and helping them to learn to think outside the box.

The Inclusive Language Campaign, which CSU-Northridge has hosted for the past two years, is “focused on raising awareness and consciousness, inviting students to think critically, which is at the heart of the academic enterprise and CSUN’s mission,” says the university’s spokesperson, Carmen Ramos Chandler.

 

There’s nothing about this that encourages critical thinking. They’re given terms, then told to explain why they’re an -ist or -phobic. They’re being lead to think a certain way, and out of all the students, only one thought to say that understanding shouldn’t mean censure. This apparently hasn’t occurred to CSU, who claims to have its cake while it eats it.

CSU-Northridge is committed to free speech, said its spokesperson. “Simultaneously, the university also takes very seriously its obligation to ensure that our students enjoy a learning environment free of discrimination and harassment,” she said.

You can’t have both, because you can’t control how students feel. In this day and age when people are encouraged to be victims, any innocuous phrase can be turned into an offensive statement. Being triggered is considered something close to honorable, because it means you’re a “virtuous” person who sees around how sexist, racist, or whatever ist our society has become. If your concern is to be your brother’s feeling’s keeper, then free speech has to go. So CSU has to pick one.

As it stands, it seems like they’re picking controlled speech, and an adherence to feelings. I hope they’re proud, because this line of education is going to breed a proud alumni of quivering cry-bullies whose primary skill will be complaining.