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College Insurrection Tag

The fragile college student mind is getting more fragile by the day. As if the normal run of political correctness were not enough, we now have "Trigger Warnings" -- the notion that students need to be warned that the material they are about to read in class may "trigger" emotional upset. The concept has been growing on campuses over the past couple of years.  The New York Times reports:
Colleges across the country this spring have been wrestling with student requests for what are known as “trigger warnings,” explicit alerts that the material they are about to read or see in a classroom might upset them or, as some students assert, cause symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder in victims of rape or in war veterans. The warnings, which have their ideological roots in feminist thought, have gained the most traction at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where the student government formally called for them. But there have been similar requests from students at Oberlin College, Rutgers University,the University of Michigan, George Washington University and other schools. The debate has left many academics fuming, saying that professors should be trusted to use common sense and that being provocative is part of their mandate. Trigger warnings, they say, suggest a certain fragility of mind that higher learning is meant to challenge, not embrace. The warnings have been widely debated in intellectual circles and largely criticized in opinion magazines, newspaper editorials and academic email lists. “Any kind of blanket trigger policy is inimical to academic freedom,” said Lisa Hajjar, a sociology professor at the university here, who often uses graphic depictions of torture in her courses about war. “Any student can request some sort of individual accommodation, but to say we need some kind of one-size-fits-all approach is totally wrong. The presumption there is that students should not be forced to deal with something that makes them uncomfortable is absurd or even dangerous.”
Of course, how the trigger is defined says much about the theory behind the movement -- it almost always serves left-wing critical race and gender theories, as at Oberlin, as the Times further reports:

Much has already been written about the Satanic black mass which was supposed to take place at Harvard last week but I feel MSNBC's recent participation in the story warrants one more post on the subject. In the video below, MSNBC's Chris Hayes attempts to make some moral equivalency between Satanism, Christianity, freedom of speech and freedom of religion. What he fails to understand and neglects to adequately explain to his handful of viewers is that the outrage over the Harvard black mass wasn't an attempt to squelch the religious rights of Satanists as much as it was recognition of extremely poor taste on Harvard's part. Whether you like the school or not, Harvard is one of the nation's most prestigious institutions of higher learning and is therefore held to a higher standard. In short, people expect better from Harvard. As a spiritual entity, Satanism would not exist without Christianity. The very central premise of Satanism is the rejection and mockery of Christianity, which explains why a host on MSNBC would rush to defend it. One has to wonder if MSNBC would defend free speech and freedom of religion if a group of Harvard students decided to burn a Koran on campus. Jim Geraghty of National Review recently noted the irony...
Dear Harvard Satanists: Go to Hell. I Hear You’re a Fan of the Management:

Checking your privilege is all the rage on college campuses these days. Harvard’s Freshmen May Be Forced into ‘Check Your Privilege’ Training College Theater Production Features “White Privilege” Blame Game Funding for Cornell Student Groups Depends on ‘Diversity and Inclusion Plan’ Of course, if you don't want to check...

We have covered Migroaggression Mania before, 2014 – Year of the Microaggression. It's no secret that MTV leans left but a new PSA from the channel aimed at young people clearly plays into the left's everyone-is-racist-and-sexist meme. Truth Revolt, for which Ben Shapiro serves as editor, recently noted that MTV partnered with organizations such as CAIR and the Southern Poverty Law Center to create the ad...
MTV Launches Project to Fight 'Hidden Bias' Among Millenials On Thursday, MTV announced that it would be launching a “Look Different” initiative designed to uncover “hidden racial, gender and anti-LGBT bias.” MTV will be creating a documentary on Millenials’ perceptions of race and fairness temporarily titled “Untitled Whiteness Project,” a public service announcement series, an “Implicit Bias Quiz” and a week-long “Racial Bias Cleanse” program to help re-educate young Americans about their bias. The campaign will be co-sponsored by the Anti-Defamation League, the National Partnership for Women & Families, The Trevor Project, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, National Council of La Raza, and the NAACP, among others.

Have you gotten a sense that idiots have taken over higher education? UCLA Considers Diversity Requirement for Undergrads Student Alleges Prof Warned Ted Cruz-Teabaggers to Leave Class or go Home in Body Bag Professor Tries to Ban God at Graduation, Fails College in NM Spends $5 Million on Solar...

Sometimes learning new things is uncomfortable. Jonah Goldberg Discovers a Clever Student Group at Williams College Sometimes certain words make people uncomfortable. Student Groups at Duke Appoint Themselves Word Police College ‘Trigger Warnings’ Get Noticed by the MSM Some people are made uncomfortable by religion. Man Says College Rejected Him Over...

We have addressed J Street multiple times before. J Street is the progressive lobbying and political action group created as an alternative to AIPAC and other mainstream pro-Israel groups. J Street was co-founded by Jeremy Ben-Ami, with major early funding from George Soros and a mysterious Hong Kong financier.  J Street initially denied the Soros funding, but that was exposed, as we wrote in 2010, Yup, Soros Is Behind J-Street. J Street has grown rapidly, and is on the verge of being accepted into the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations. J Street's critics argue that J Street is nothing more than a Trojan horse, meant to weaken American support for Israel. The J Street Challenge, a movie being screened now, presents the case against J Street. Under the guise of supporting Israel's right to exist, J Street allegedly relentlessly criticizes Israel, and plays into the anti-Israel narrative behind the BDS and other movements, even if it doesn't support such movements openly. Gullible liberals, particularly liberal students, it is argued, fall for the J Street line, and thereby legitimize the demonization and delegitimization of Israel.  J Street calls many of the accusations Myths. Part of the drama between AIPAC and more traditional pro-Israel groups, on the one hand, and J Street, on the other hand, plays out on college campuses, where J Street U -- the very active college division of J Street -- routinely hosts anti-Israel speakers and fails to push back against anti-Israel agitation. Brandeis University is one place where that tension has been sharp the past academic year, as Daniel Mael, a religious Jew who writes for pro-Israel websites like TruthRevolt.com, has exposed and criticized J Street. Mael has been a relentless critic of J Street and its college chapters, authoring at least the following articles (these were pulled from Mael's Twitter feed, where he has been tweeting the links):

Noted rich liberal to teach income inequality for a gigantic pile of cash. CUNY to Pay Paul Krugman $225K to Teach Income Inequality Everyone reacts differently when they feel they're not being treated equally. Some people just give up and cheat. Academic Dishonesty on the Rise at Harvard Or deny...

Always look for the union label. Violence Breaks out during Grad Student Protests at UC Santa Cruz UCLA Student Reports from the Frontlines of Student-Workers Union Strike Don't count on everyone to be on board though. Not All College Athletes Are for Unionization Northwestern Scholarship Football Players May Say “No”...

Last month racist writing on a dormitory door shook Grand Valley State University near Detroit in Michigan. Here's a photo of the student's dorm door: Grand Valley State Dorm Door Racist Writing Much like the notorious Oberlin College racism hoax, the incident caused much turmoil on campus, as reported by MLive:
Students who live in the residence hall said they were surprised by the incident, saying signs of racial tension haven’t been present in the past. One resident, Andrew Seawood, a freshman from Stevensville, said the slurs were upsetting because the residents of Copeland typically get along with one another. “It was a little surprising when they did say something was written,” he said. “Everybody gets along with everybody.” Others were angry.