Like most people, I have many weaknesses, but being thin-skinned isn’t one of them. I suspect it’s just my personality, but it’s also true that those of us who were born before 1980 were exposed to an oft-repeated phrase: “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.”
This empowering mantra is foreign to the modern generation, particularly those who have 21st-century college degrees because the culture has taught them the exact opposite: That words are everything, and they will crush you. As a result, we’ve churned out a generation of coddled kids. They can’t handle the truth. They can’t handle dissent. And they can’t make cogent arguments. Instead, they hurl insults, or they run and hide to their safe space.
That’s exactly what children do.
To wit, I recently posted a meme on my Facebook page from my 2011 book, The Flipside of Feminism. It was a bold attack on feminist ideals. I always welcome calm and reasoned dissent, but that is not what I got. Trolls came out in spades, got “triggered” as young people say today, and began labeling me in derogatory fashion — as though such behavior represents a viable counterattack.
The most common insult was “Ok Boomer.” I’d heard the moniker before, but never directed at me and never with such proud force — which was comical, since I’m not actually a Boomer, but part of Generation X. When the comment section got heated, I deleted the post of one young woman who’d used profanity or some other direct attack, and her mother got upset. As a result, she too hurled insults my way.
You see, it isn’t young people who are to blame for their immaturity but the lack of proper parenting and teaching to which they’ve been exposed. The younger generation is simply a product of its environment. Many teachers today will tell you that parents who routinely side with their children rather than with the teacher are one of their biggest stressors at work. In my day, students were held accountable by both their teachers and their parents. Giving kids participation trophies for simply showing up is another example of how adults have coddled kids.
But most disturbing is that many young people believe if a member of the previous generation tells them something that runs counter to what the culture has told them is true — namely, that they are not, in fact, oppressed — that person is a dangerous entity whose very existence must be squelched. We’ve spawned a generation that cannot successfully make a counterpoint and thus resorts to putting their hands over their ears while screaming “La la la la la.”
This phenomenon is particularly common on college campuses. Heather Mac Donald, who’s no stranger to protests, recently spoke at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, where some students “drowned out” her response to attacks “before filing slowly out of the room, still loudly announcing their victimhood and leaving dozens of seats empty that could have been filled by students who had been turned away for lack of space,” she writes in a piece headlined, “Why Are College Students So Afraid of Me?“
Where do these students go when they leave the room? Mac Donald explains:
Self-care rocks — to soothe the anxiety of not just students, but faculty after hearing an argument that challenged their worldview. This is madness and conditions these students to fail at life.
The courage to speak the truth is sorely lacking today, and it’s only destined to get worse. There just aren’t enough Heather Mac Donalds among us. This, in turn, gives the easily offended the opportunity to prevail.
If all of this were just kids being kids who will eventually grow out of it, that would be one thing. That parents and teachers are leading the way is another. Give it 10 more years, and we will rue the day we allowed it to happen.
Suzanne Venker (@SuzanneVenker) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She is an author, columnist, and radio host. Her newest book, WOMEN WHO WIN at Love: How to Build a Relationship That Lasts, was published in October 2019. Suzanne’s website is www.suzannevenker.com.
