The College Fix

I admit I was a little surprised by the wave of hate mail and tweets and I received after my column from two weeks ago.

Nevertheless, interspersed in all the derision were comments from people who actually went beyond the headline and read the piece.

Not to mention, in response to paroxysms of annoyance regarding those responsible for centennials’ fragility (boomers, of course), many of these same folks had to point out just which boomers: It’s otherwise bright people engaging in this sort of foppish nonsense.

What is it, for example, that makes someone who deals in quantum computing worry about how a common word is perceived? Do they think they get a pass from criticism because of their intelligence?

Check out this recent story from Kenyon College: In a student newspaper article about school officials acknowledging that the school sits on white settler-colonized indigenous land, Vice President for Student Affairs Meredith Harper Bonham said the following:

It’s become common practice in the field of student affairs to acknowledge the land’s connection to the indigenous people who occupied it before others claimed it. Much like how it’s common practice to introduce yourself with pronouns, [indigenous land acknowledgements] would be a practice we’d ease into Kenyon.

“Common practice”? It may be common practice at places like Kenyon, which cost over $70,000 in tuition, board, and fees, and whose student population (a whopping 1,800) is over three-quarters white and Asian. But elsewhere?

And from the geniuses who treated New York City schools to this nonsense comes the following, via the city’s taxi regulator:

New pronoun guidance (“Inclusive Language Tips”) from @nyctaxi, the city’s regulator. pic.twitter.com/8AN4RgbqFT

— Matthew Chayes (@chayesmatthew) December 12, 2019

I’d give real money to see the reaction of a typical NYC cabbie after reading this.

It’s no surprise, then, that NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio was one of the Democratic presidential candidates who made note of their pronouns, along with Julian Castro and Elizabeth Warren.

For his part, Castro also advocated publicly funded abortions for “biological males incapable of baring children,” while Warren’s also tried to be politically correctly hip by making use of the term “Latinx.”

Over the last four and a half years we’ve witnessed a societal revolt against this sort of inanity. What else truly explains the successes of a deeply flawed person like Donald Trump, especially with the full force of the cultural elite (the media, Hollywood, academia) arrayed against him?

And it’s certainly not just an American phenomenon. As Andrew Sullivan opined yesterday regarding the Tories’ UK election blowout,

In the last week of the campaign, the [Liberal Democrat] leader, Jo Swinson, got caught in long discussions about what she believes a woman is. She didn’t just lose the election, she lost her own seat. It is clearer and clearer to me that the wholesale adoption of critical race, gender, and queer theory on the left makes normal people wonder what on earth they’re talking about and which dictionary they are using. The white working classes are privileged? A woman can have a penis? In the end, the dogma is so crazy, and the language so bizarre, these natural left voters decided to listen to someone who does actually speak their language, even if in an absurdly plummy accent. [Emphasis added.]

Will progressives listen? Or will they keep upping the temper tantrum ante, whether via a specious impeachment or by screaming and yelling in the streets?

MORE: ‘Latinx’ and the power of a progressive narrative

MORE: ‘Pro-Trump’ book for first graders angers progressive teachers, parents

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