I‘m no Michael Bloomberg fan. His micromanaging of the lives of New York City residents by way of soda taxes and his endless campaign against the Second Amendment go against my libertarian leanings.
So it came as quite a surprise when the former mayor of New York City derided campus “safe spaces” and “microaggressions” while addressing the University of Michigan’s graduating class.
“The most useful knowledge that you leave here with today has nothing to do with your major. It’s about how to study, cooperate, listen carefully, think critically and resolve conflicts through reason,” Bloomberg said as he opened his speech over the weekend. “Those are the most important skills in the working world, and it’s why colleges have always exposed students to challenging and uncomfortable ideas.”
He then went on to excoriate the epidemic of campus “safe spaces” and “trigger warnings” — words added to the top of the text to alert students to content they may find objectionable.
“The fact that some university boards and administrations now bow to pressure and shield students from these ideas through ‘safe spaces,’ ‘code words’ and ‘trigger warnings’ is, in my view, a terrible mistake,” he said. “The whole purpose of college is to learn how to deal with difficult situations — not run away from them. A microaggression is exactly that: micro. And one of the most dangerous places on a college campus is a safe space, because it creates the false impression that we can insulate ourselves from those who hold different views.”
Bloomberg added that we shouldn’t try to hide from opposing views, “not in politics or in the workplace.”
Bloomberg, a liberal darling, was booed for his comments by the sensitive students who want to be shielded from opposing viewpoints.
The students who booed him will learn real quick that he was trying to prepare them for the real world. Previously, college was supposed to be a transition between mommy and daddy’s house and the real world. In recent years, it has become its own bubble for students who don’t want to grow up. Now those students are (possibly, if they majored in something useful) going to have to get real jobs and rely on themselves — they won’t be able to bully employers into coddling them.
It’s great to see someone like Bloomberg finally standing up against the crybullies and their demands.
Ashe Schow is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
