Consider the following excerpt: At least, that\u2019s what happened when the American Enterprise Institute scholar spoke this month at Georgetown University and Oberlin College. Campus feminists kicked into high alert, warning students that her lecture on feminism and criticism of the college \u201crape culture\u201d could make them \u201cfeel unsafe.\u201d<\/em> (From Washington Times<\/a>).<\/p>\n It isn\u2019t only conservatives that are disturbed by this. A professor wrote an essay for Vox titled, \u201cI\u2019m a liberal professor, and my liberal students terrify me.\u201d<\/a>):<\/p>\n I am frightened sometimes by the thought that a student would complain again like he did in 2009. Only this time it would be a student accusing me not of saying something too ideologically extreme \u2014 be it communism or racism or whatever \u2014 but of not being sensitive enough toward his feelings, of some simple act of indelicacy that\u2019s considered tantamount to physical assault.\u00a0As Northwestern University professor Laura Kipnis writes<\/a>, \u201cEmotional discomfort is [now] regarded as equivalent to material injury, and all injuries have to be remediated.\u201d Hurting a student\u2019s feelings, even in the course of instruction that is absolutely appropriate and respectful, can now get a teacher into serious trouble.<\/em><\/p>\n Furthermore: In 2015, such a complaint would not be delivered in such a fashion. Instead of focusing on the rightness or wrongness (or even acceptability) of the materials we reviewed in class, the complaint would center solely on how my teaching affected the student\u2019s emotional state. As I cannot speak to the emotions of my students, I could not mount a defense about the acceptability of my instruction. And if I responded in any way other than apologizing and changing the materials we reviewed in class, professional consequences would likely follow.<\/em><\/p>\n It may be no big shock to learn that Christian content might induce a trigger warning. In fact here<\/a> is a passionately written atheist\u2019s perspective on this: \u201cThat last point requires a bit more explanation, because I failed to mention that for some formerly devout people, church and churchy talk can actually be triggers for some very negative emotions. I don\u2019t think our friends and family understand this, which makes perfect sense if you think about it. For them, this stuff is all wonderful. It thrills them and they can\u2019t understand why others wouldn\u2019t have the same reactions to songs about Jesus, about sin, about going to heaven and about getting saved from Hell. It seldom occurs to them that the very same songs, turns of phrase, and even mannerisms which feel so right to them can feel so wrong to someone else, especially someone to whom they are closely related.<\/em><\/p>\n In an ironic twist, Duke University students who are Christians are now being \u201ctriggered\u201d by a book. Read more at\u00a0Washington Post<\/a>. It appears that on their way out of the public sphere, Christians have learned a bit from their leftist foes, and are using this kind of reasoning as a rear guard action to opt out of reading material that is offensive to them as Christians:<\/p>\n It\u2019s also the case that these Christians are simply exercising the newest right on campus: the right to not be exposed to ideas or materials exposure to which might result in a bad emotional or intellectual reaction. Leftists on campus, it is well documented, routinely insist that they be warned if they might come within hearing distance of a conservative idea, book, or speaker, lest they find themselves with a case of the vapors. I have no use for such theatrics, especially inasmuch as it has become an authoritarian movement demanding the abridgment of free speech. Nevertheless, what\u2019s good for the goose should be good for the gander. Except that for some, it isn\u2019t.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nYou wouldn\u2019t know it to look at her, but Christina Hoff Sommers is apparently the kind of speaker whose very presence on college campuses is so alarming that students require advance notice, also known as a trigger warning.<\/em><\/p>\n