One of the more simultaneously annoying and alarming developments on college campuses these days is how the idea of "microagressions" has regained visibility after four decades of previously well-deserved obscurity, largely under the establishment press's radar. Almost no one in "the real world" would know what microaggressions are if it weren't for stories and critiques at center-right media outlets and campus watchdog groups.
Cut through the clutter, and it's quite easy to see that "microaggression" is really a tool used by so-called "victim classes" to allege unconscious discrimination or "marginalization" in virtually anything people they don't like might say. The idea has taken particular hold at Oberlin College, where iconoclastic feminist Christina Hoff Sommers appeared last month. Fortunately, there are still sane people with a sense of humor about all of this. That cadre includes the "Oberlin College choir."
Because of Sommers' appearance, about 150 Oberlin students posted a "A Love Letter to Ourselves" (yes, that's what they called it). Before they began their diatribe, they had to issue "trigger warnings" — an essential step for those who are knowingly about to commit "microagressions" — telling readers they were about to see "Discussion of rape culture, online harassment, victim blaming and rape apologism/denialism." (That way, those who might get upset by reading about such things could abstain, or seek a shoulder on which to cry if they chose to read on.)
After the required forewarning, the letter falsely accused Sommers of being a rape denialist, and other allegedly scary things:
A rape denialist is someone who denies the prevalence of rape and denies known causes of it.
Christina Hoff Sommers believes that rape occurs less often than statistics (those which actually leave out a plethora of unreported rapes) suggest. She also believes that false rape accusations are a rampant issue and that intoxication and coercion cannot rightly be considered barriers to consent. ...
On April 13, Sommers tweeted: “The wage gap is a myth. So is 'rape culture.'"
Actually, Sommers quotes statistics from the U.S. Department of Justice and elsewhere showing that rape is far less prevalent than the "one-in-five" myth to which fevered feminists bitterly cling, and that rape is less prevalent on college campuses than in the rest of the "real world." Unless they can come up with a definitive quote demonstrating otherwise, it's quite safe to assume that their accusation that Sommers is okay with "coercion" (another term they're working on ruining) is a flat-out falsehood.
The "wage gap" is a myth. As I wrote a few weeks ago, with links: "Equal pay for equal work is the law, and the reality."
These fragile little flowers and emotional eunuchs essentially told the world that can't handle anything, including obvious truths, which might disturb their worldview.
The "Love Letter to Ourselves" authors announced the creation of an "alternate event," also known as a "safe space" (one of the letter's "tags") for those upset by the appearance of a meanie like Sommers on their campus so they might seek refuge and comfort.
The "Oberlin Choir" found all of this so off-putting that they composed and performed a deliciously funny song in response, and posted it on YouTube. The video runs the list of the foolish people who signed the "Love Letter to Ourselves" while using the old-fashioned "bouncing ball" to deliver their hysterical on-screen lyrics (HT Twitchy):
Oh snap. How could they have "forgotten" to include the trigger warnings?
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
