Posted on 06/09/2016 8:03:39 AM PDT by Altura Ct.
British thinktank boss says mollycoddled kids are breaking down in tears when asked to deal with controversial ideas
A top British thinker has claimed young women are in the grip of a “hysteria” which has made them unable to cope with being offended.
Claire Fox, head of a thinktank called the Institute of Ideas, has penned a coruscating critique of “Generation Snowflake”, the name given to a growing group of youngsters who “believe it’s their right to be protected from anything they might find unpalatable”.
Generation Snowflake
She said British and American universities are dominated by cabals of young women who are dead set on banning anything they find remotely offensive.
“It makes me sad that these teens and 20-somethings have become so fearful that they believe a dissenting opinion can pose such a serious threat,” Fox wrote in an article for Mail Online.
This hyper-sensitivity has prompted the University of East Anglia to outlaw sombreros in a Mexican restaurant and caused the National Union of Student to ban clapping as “as it might trigger trauma”, asking youngsters to use “jazz hands” instead.
The sombreros were seen as racist
Is the sombrero really too racist to be worn in Britain?
Books containing troublesome material are now slapped with “trigger warnings”, whilst universities and student unions are declared “safe spaces” where young people should not have to encounter anything they disagree with.
Fox described astonishing scenes at an event set up to discuss whether the public outcry against footballer Ched Evans was “social justice or mob rule”.
The academic said her mostly female audience broke down in tears after she “dared suggest (as eminent feminists have before me) that rape wasn’t necessarily the worst thing a woman could experience”.
Safe space: Should youngsters be protected from troubling material?
Fox added: “I expected robust discussion – not for them all to dissolve into outraged gasps of, ‘You can’t say that!’
“Their reaction shocked me. I take no pleasure in making teenagers cry, but it also brought home the contrast to previous generations of young people, who would have relished the chance to argue back.
“It illustrated this generation’s almost belligerent sense of entitlement. They assume their emotional suffering takes precedence. Express a view they disagree with and you must immediately recant and apologise.”
Are some ideas too controversial to be heard?
Generation Snowflake has also created a social minefield for young boys and men, who risk being labelled “sex pests” for twanging a girl’s bra at school, Fox continued.
She said women were opting to stay at home and socialise on the internet due to overblown fears about predatory men.
“There is a strand of self-absorption and fragility running through this generation; all too ready to cry ‘victim’ at the first hint of a situation they don’t like,” Fox concluded.
“We need a younger generation that’s prepared to grow a backbone, go out into the world, take risks and make difficult decisions. Otherwise the future doesn’t bode well for any of us.”
Claire Fox has penned a book about Generation Snowflake which is called I Find That Offensive and was published by Biteback in May.
That is just bizarre!! I work in a sector that I expect might have some eccentrics and socially challenged employees and I’m cool with it. However, I try to minimize potential conflicts (with me) by disregarding any resume that has a hyphenated surname—especially if it is coupled with a traditionally male first name. And looking for people that have a “experience” and not fresh out of school.
WOMEN are snowflakes? Excuse me, but the “men” are delicate doilies as well. Actually, they’re worse, because... well... they’re men.
You could be right. I disapprove of the Socratic method, which is why my response is not, “What an interesting conversation starter!” but, “Make your point already!”
I think that an instructor should state his contention and present his evidence for the hearers to evaluate, instead of weaseling his captive audience into whatever conclusion he’s chosen in advance, while trying to make them believe his is the only possible correct analysis.
People try to put us d-down (Talkin’ ‘bout my generation)
Why don’t you all f-fade away (Talkin’ ‘bout my generation)
This is my generation
This is my generation
I think it might’ve been Rush who “invented” this term for today’s fragile flowers.
These young women are validating every “neanderthal” anti-woman stereotype, showing themselves as being weak physically, mentally, emotionally.
I hear you.
I think the intent is to first teach how to critically think before expecting them to evaluate. Evaluating without thinking is just feeling, which is where we are now.
-PJ
Maybe. However, when educationalists say "think critically," they generally mean, "accept the leftist position on every issue."
I think analytic skill has to come first. What does the text say? What is the author's thesis? What evidence does he present? Does the evidence prove his thesis or support his thesis, or is it irrelevant?
I think that, even if the event (of the article) had gone as the author hoped, it would have generated much heat but very little light, because of the lack of clear arguments with structured evaluation.
BEHOLD TriglyPuff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y69tkCbeC5o
I had a girl living with me who was very much like that. (She’s now 31.) She was like something out of a TV show — volatile, funky. Drove me crazy with her save-the-planet advice, although she liked me a lot. Her father was a nice guy, but her mother was a bit off. (It’s always the mother, I noticed.) When her mother showed up at the door, I nearly mistook her for a bag lady and gave her a dollar.
Interestingly, this girl was coming into traditional Judaism, while struggling with her former SJW persona. During her conversions over the phone with people who wanted to set her up with Orthodox guys, I overheard her say, again and again, “Don’t tell them I was a dumpster diver.”
In the end she got married — to another kook — and I hope their marriage lasts. They seem happy, but I know that she is emotionally fragile. During their long engagement, they had had arguments.
LOL! The comments on that thread are hilarious!
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