All of my life, progressives have had to endure people on the right calling us "bleeding hearts" and portraying us as pusillanimous cowards whose goal is to nanny Americans, thus creating a society of soft, weak, individuals unable to withstand life's normal trials and tribulations, and who would ultimately graciously submit to an overwe…
All of my life, progressives have had to endure people on the right calling us "bleeding hearts" and portraying us as pusillanimous cowards whose goal is to nanny Americans, thus creating a society of soft, weak, individuals unable to withstand life's normal trials and tribulations, and who would ultimately graciously submit to an overweening centralized power if it made them feel safe. Just because we sought to use government power to care for the less fortunate.
Which is why this kind of behavior by young progressives infuriates me. When we demonstrate that we *can't even listen to someone talk* without experiencing "harm", "hurt", "pain", "trauma" (my favorite), and ultimately feeling "unsafe", we are basically copping to that time-honored right-wing caricature.
The proper term for what these students are experiencing is "offense", and it is an insult to people's intelligence to characterize it as anything worse. And if someone can't deal with offense without likening it to a debilitating, life altering psychological experience, that person is not ready to be an adult in a free society. They'd be a better fit for a religious cult.
The people who are teaching high school and college students that such egregious, performative melodrama is the best way to steward a political movement are failing our kids. And I think it's evidence that too many grown adults are unable to let go of the callow self image of a young crusader fighting the good fight against the stodgy, staid older generations. And thus leading them to want to be accepted by the young as peers, lest they experience the periodic discomfort (and reminder of their age) that comes with the duty of acting as their authority figures.
All of my life, progressives have had to endure people on the right calling us "bleeding hearts" and portraying us as pusillanimous cowards whose goal is to nanny Americans, thus creating a society of soft, weak, individuals unable to withstand life's normal trials and tribulations, and who would ultimately graciously submit to an overweening centralized power if it made them feel safe. Just because we sought to use government power to care for the less fortunate.
Which is why this kind of behavior by young progressives infuriates me. When we demonstrate that we *can't even listen to someone talk* without experiencing "harm", "hurt", "pain", "trauma" (my favorite), and ultimately feeling "unsafe", we are basically copping to that time-honored right-wing caricature.
The proper term for what these students are experiencing is "offense", and it is an insult to people's intelligence to characterize it as anything worse. And if someone can't deal with offense without likening it to a debilitating, life altering psychological experience, that person is not ready to be an adult in a free society. They'd be a better fit for a religious cult.
The people who are teaching high school and college students that such egregious, performative melodrama is the best way to steward a political movement are failing our kids. And I think it's evidence that too many grown adults are unable to let go of the callow self image of a young crusader fighting the good fight against the stodgy, staid older generations. And thus leading them to want to be accepted by the young as peers, lest they experience the periodic discomfort (and reminder of their age) that comes with the duty of acting as their authority figures.