The Totalitarian Mindset of the 'Hurt Feelings' Industry

Is America a Nation of Intolerant Narcissists?
By Scott Lazarowitz
Jun. 11, 2015

Has freedom of speech become a thing of the past in America? College campuses now are intellectual prisons, and the thin-skinned offendotrons are the guards. And in post-9/11 America you can’t criticize the Regime without being called a “traitor” or “unpatriotic.” The political and social fascists and control freaks really seem to be trying to drive people into silence these days.

For example, on college campuses if you say something deemed offensive, you might actually receive a formal complaint from another student. Or if you’re a professor, you might receive an official reprimand because just one student complained about a book or material that was “offensive.”

Now a brainwashed zombie can assault your life with a complaint because she felt “triggered” by an innocent word or phrase. And I do mean “assault,” as these complainers aren’t merely complaining against other students or professors, they are turning them in to the Dean’s office or otherwise school authorities who then take formal disciplinary actions which go on the “offenders” record permanently. Or in some cases the police are actually called.

One professor who has consistently received high student evaluation scores writes that, out of fear, he has changed his class sources and material to prevent complaints that could get him fired, something he has already seen happen to other professors and grad students. The professor notes that many other professors have been making changes to their material as well.

He also notes that, while professors have always received a complaint or two, the nature of complaints today is based mainly on the complaining student’s emotions.

The students now seem unwilling or even incapable of considering uncomfortable ideas, because, the professor notes, “the immediate, emotional reactions of students contain all the analysis and judgment that sensitive issues demand.”

And this is not new, either. Way back in 2004, Professor Hans-Hermann Hoppe was discussing time preferences and present- and future-orientation in a lecture on money and banking. Dr. Hoppe happened to refer to homosexuals as a group “because they typically do not have children, tend to have a higher degree of time preference and are more present-oriented.”

A student then made an informal complaint because he was homosexual and Dr. Hoppe’s example made the student “feel bad.” But when Dr. Hoppe in a subsequent talk clarified the point by attempting to explain the difference between “all” and “average,” in his citing as another example “that Italians eat more Spaghetti than Germans …” that “this does not mean that every Italian eats more Spaghetti than every German. It means that on the average Italians eat more Spaghetti than Germans.”

That actually made things worse, and the one who “felt bad” formally complained against Dr. Hoppe, followed by a farce of a hearing and a year-long ordeal as one might find in communist countries.

This is the totalitarian mindset of the “hurt feelings” industry now.

Even recently Dr. Hoppe’s writings and lectures have been targeted by activists, including so-called libertarians in Sweden and Finland.

So the way I see it, the problem our culture faces today is irrationality and ignorance combined with a narcissistic hyper-sensitivity to just about anything that causes even the slightest discomfort.

Because the young people have been raised as Mommy’s little cupcake and the whole world revolves around Cupcake, anything or anybody who might rock the boat in Cupcake’s self-absorbed world is to be destroyed.

It all has to do with silencing others to protect the fragile emotions of the little Cupcakes of the next generation.

Comedian Jerry Seinfeld, in a recent interview in which he criticizes today’s culture of political correctness and intolerance, says that he is told by other comedians to avoid performing at college campuses altogether. In the recent ESPN radio interview Seinfeld described the young people as referring to things as “sexist” or “racist,” which aren’t at all sexist or racist.

But it isn’t just the young people who are behaving in such irrational ways now, and the high schools and college campuses aren’t the only places of such irrational political correctness. Despite comedian Jay Leno’s very high ratings, last year Leno became another victim of overly thin-skinned grown adults, as he had perhaps mocked Barack Obama’s medical takeover one too many times.

And reinforcing Seinfeld’s assertions about today’s young people and their irrational labeling as “sexist” or “racist” things which clearly have nothing to do with sexism or racism, Leno recently told Seth Meyers of an incident in which when Leno stated he didn’t really like Mexican food, a college intern then responded by exclaiming, “Whoa, that’s kind of racist.” Thankfully in his telling of the story, Leno clearly asserted that “being anti-guacamole is not racist,” referring to the racism accuser as an “idiot” and a “moron.” We need more of that kind of honesty in today’s public figures (and the private ones as well).

But today’s society isn’t just plagued with political correctness and intolerance as dictated by the fragile emotions of a new generation of morons, leftists and do-gooders. Many oldsters and conservatives are just as bad, and a big reason for that is this post-9/11 hysteria, ignorance and nationalistic authoritarian deference to our same “leaders” whose decades of militaristic aggressions overseas have been ruining those foreign countries and are now bankrupting America.

Just one example of that naive, nationalistic deference was how the neanderthals at a South Carolina Presidential debate booed Ron Paul when he dared to suggest applying the Golden Rule to U.S. government foreign policy. You know, as we wouldn’t like it if a foreign government invaded our territory, bombed U.S. cities, and set up their own military bases here, then perhaps we ought not do those things on their lands over there.

What? Apply the rule of law and property rights to ourselves that we demand on foreigners? Why, the neanderthals have never heard of such a thing. And that has much to do with the rise in narcissism across the political spectrum in America for decades. That is what “American Exceptionalism” really is, after all.

Dr. Paul’s criticizing the U.S. government’s policies of aggression overseas hits a fragile, insecure nerve among the little reich-wing Cupcakes in the audience, so they rudely and loudly “boo” those principled ideas of morality, peace and liberty.

The truth is, many of Dr. Paul’s critics have been guided by ignorance of the U.S. government’s actual aggressions overseas prior to 9/11 (or perhaps they selectively forgot). And they are also guided by their authoritarianism. Always obediently believe what the Rulers tell you. Support our government, right or wrong and all that.

And above all, as with the aforementioned nudniks and social activists, the views of today’s conservatives and nationalists are based mainly on their emotions and not rational thought. And we can see that clearly in their anti-immigration and anti-gay marriage views and their flag-waving and military worship. It really is the same kind of unthinking emotionalism as we hear from the anti-science climate change crowd who want to throw in jail those stubborn “deniers” who think that actual scientific evidence is important.

So America really needs to be a place of freedom of thought and expression. We should have the freedom to speak out against militarists and warmongers whose wars of aggression have done nothing but provoke foreigners to retaliate, just as much as we should have the freedom to give our opinions on the new transgender phenomenon and how feminists are tyrannizing the boys in school and indoctrinating peaceful college males to believe they are presumed-rapists.

Speaking of transgenders, I think that if Bruce Jenner wants to be called “Caitlyn,” that is his right. But no matter how much invasive or mutilating surgery he has, or whatever women’s garments he wears or how much make-up he puts on, he is still a male. I hope he doesn’t sue me for expressing my opinion on that.

Getting back to the narcissism of Americans, a transgender male is still a male and should use the “men’s room,” and that’s my view on that. (However, if I said that on a college campus I would probably be arrested and charged with harassment or assault, even though that kind of action against me in and of itself would be an act of criminal harassment and assault. And I would turn the tables against such accusers prosecutorially, that’s for sure. And I’m not a big fan of the government-monopolized judicial system, but exceptions can be made in the name of self-protection, I think. But I digress.)

So instead of using the men’s room, now the transgender male wants to use the ladies room because, he says, using the men’s room makes him uncomfortable. So, these self-centered ones want to use the ladies room, and make all those ladies in there uncomfortable! That really gets me. Is using the men’s room that big a deal? You are a male, for crying out loud, whether you like it or not! And no, I’m not referring to Bruce or Caitlyn Jenner, I’m just referring to all those confused and self-centered people out there who would rather make others uncomfortable to serve their own needs, that’s all.

I hope I haven’t “triggered” anyone’s fragile emotions, as I am not intending to do that, unlike Pamela Geller, the anti-Muslim activist who held a “draw Muhammad” contest to deliberately provoke “jihadists.” She says she believes in freedom of speech, yet she herself wanted to shut down a whole opera production which depicted the Palestinian hijacking of a cruise ship and the murder of a Jewish American passenger. I hope that Ms. Geller doesn’t sue me for writing what a hypocrite she is. (And we’re not allowed to speak out against the Israel Lobby, either, or criticize Israel, as that would be way politically incorrect!)

And football is a really stupid game. Am I allowed to say that? It should be of no surprise that so many millions of Americans love to watch a bunch of grown men running into each other, bashing their heads together, giving each other concussions and brain damage, and then suing the NFL. I’m sure that neanderthals love that stuff (and maybe transgenders as well, who knows?).

To conclude, I think that college students and professors who are accused of speech “crimes” because of possibly making some innocent remark or giving an opinion on something, should seriously consider making formal complaints of harassment against the accusers. And consider financially suing the thin-skinned accusers for causing emotional distress as well.

Speech dictators and opinion-silencers should not have the kind of power they have now. Their innocent victims need to fight back.
_
Scott Lazarowitz [send him mail] is a libertarian writer and commentator. Please visit his blog.

Image source: OpenDemocracy via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0