"Get Off My Lawn! I Mean, Campus!": The Angry Old Man In The Body Of The Politically Correct College Student
That's the perfect tweet from "Peat Moss" aka @DrinkerOfScotch (I like him already) to describe the attitude to the indignant little twats (too many college students these days) who are actually the embodiment of some stiff, angry, highly conservative old man.
Nick Gillespie has a piece at Reason. The headline says it all:
Today's College Students[*] Aren't Just Politically Correct, They're Tediously Insisting on Didactic Art Too: [*] Not all students, of course, but this Huffington Post author who admonishes Jerry Seinfeld.
An excerpt via Mediaite from Seinfeld's appearance on Seth Meyer's late-night show, in which he explains why he won't do appearances on campus:
When Seth Meyers noted that there are more people than ever now who will "let you know you went over the line" in comedy than ever before, Seinfeld agreed."And they keep moving the lines in, for no reason," Seinfeld said, citing the uncomfortable feeling he now gets from his audience when he tells his joke about people who scroll through their phone like a "gay French king."
"Are you kidding me?" he asked. "I could imagine a time where people say, 'Well, that's offensive to suggest that a gay person moves their hands in a flourishing motion and you now need to apologize.' I mean, there's a creepy PC thing out there that really bothers me."
Nick explains the new environment on campus -- entirely contrary to the one I experience in the 80s at the University of Michigan, where people would bare their breasts to protest anything short of the sidewalk, but where alternate points of view were allowed to survive (not squashed in campus kangaroo courts):
Let's also point out that the actual problem with campus political correctness--which seeks not simply to enforce ideological or political orthodoxy but to shut down debate and discussion via overt acts of censorship and sustained campaigns to delegitimate as racist, sexist, classist, whatever free expression and inquiry--attaches to students and faculty that are hounded into administrative hearings and/or silence.
Anthony Berteaux, one of these newly minted angry old men has "An Open Letter to Jerry Seinfeld from a 'Politically Correct' College Student" on the HuffPo, in which he shows how extensively he just doesn't get it. Gillespie quotes precisely the right part of this long-winded wrongheadedness:
Yes, Mr. Seinfeld, we college students are politically correct. We will call out sexism and racism if we hear it. But if you're going to come to my college and perform in front of me, be prepared to write up a set that doesn't just offend me, but has something to say.
Gillespie:
To my mind, this sort of formulation is, as Seinfeld's Kenny Bania might put it, the worst. There is nothing more conservative than insisting that entertainment be didactic and serious--that it have "something to say." That is the impulse that underwrote not just leftists influenced by the Frankfurt School--who saw mass media and frivolity as a means of controlling the masses--and reactionaries such as former Secretary of Education Bill Bennett and Attorney General Janet Reno, who wasted hours of everyone's time denouncing rap music and "violent" cable TV during the 1980s and '90s. If you believe that everything from pop songs to standup comedy needs to have deep meaning, you can't let any opportunity pass without insisting that it all send the "right" message.
Yes, the kids on campus are the neo-angry old men demanding more authoritarianism.
The actual old people these days, the ones removing their bras and protesting something, and then letting other people speak without sending them before some Kafkaesque court proceeding, they're the cool, open, "live and let live" types.
"write up a set that [...] has something to say."
Read: bashes republicans.
dee nile at June 10, 2015 9:19 AM
the NEW angry-old-men™
SwissArmyD at June 10, 2015 9:31 AM
Camille Paglia from March in reason saying much the same.
http://reason.com/reasontv/2015/03/19/everythings-amazing-and-camille-paglia-i
jerry at June 10, 2015 10:05 AM
I like what a friend on Twitter said: these college students are lucky Lenny Bruce or George Carlin aren't around. They would be merciless.
Mike at June 10, 2015 10:08 AM
Tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands in student loans, and all they can say is "you can't say that?" No wonder they want to default. They didn't learn anything.
MarkD at June 10, 2015 10:58 AM
Actually Mike that is why there isn't a Lenny Bruce or George Carlin around. These people are merciless. And it doesn't stop with the Kafkaesque court proceeding (which are run by those older 'live and let live' types). Harassing people at home, at work, and in public is also fair game. Look at mattress girl.
Ben at June 10, 2015 10:59 AM
Amended to say "We will call out sexism and racism if we hear it [where it's convenient and safe for us to do so, protected by the sexist and racist institutions of the US government. Don't ask us to call out sexism or racism in hostile countries or of groups that might physically attack us for doing so. Don't ask us to pick up a rifle and join a company of Marines liberating an oppressed people. However, we'll be happy to point out how sexist and racist those Marines are.]."
Conan the Grammarian at June 10, 2015 11:05 AM
I don't disagree to the larger point.
But Seinfeld shouldn't appeal to today's college students, for heaven's sake, and he shouldn't expect to. He's their parents' comic. His show debuted in 1989. There are people who have graduated from four-year universities who weren't even born when his sitcom debuted. I agree that today's collegians can be fusty as hell, but Seinfeld sounds like he matches them fust-for-fust here.
As to today's Lenny Bruces and George Carlins, I'd argue that Dave Chappelle and Amy Schumer occupy roughly the same territory. I'm sure there are people who would say they're not a patch on Bruce or Carlin, but they're mining the same vein of uncomfortable social comment.
Kevin at June 10, 2015 11:11 AM
Debuted, yes. However, his show is syndicated on every channel 24/7. Everyone from 7 to 70 knows what Festivus is.
Making Seinfeld references may date one as an old fogey, but they're understood.
Conan the Grammarian at June 10, 2015 11:23 AM
The Community of the Wrongly Accused has some harsh comments:
http://www.cotwa.info/2015/06/havent-we-all-had-enough-of-generation.html
He has been banging at this for years now,
Jim at June 10, 2015 12:06 PM
The title, for starters, is right on:
"Haven't we all had enough of the generation of nitwits dictating public discourse?"
Amy Alkon at June 10, 2015 1:16 PM
Seinfeld is still funny. As is "Blazing Saddles." As are Larry David's shows. Even if you do not live in his Hollywood/fro-yo/Jewish/suburbanite's suburbanite world and find it rather foreign.
Amy Alkon at June 10, 2015 1:18 PM
What I was a student (Florida, 80's), it was the alumni who would protest about the inappropriateness of acts at Gator Growl, not the students. I think Robin Williams got banned for sticking a camera down his pants and taking a picture while on stage. But, again, it was the alumni complaining, not the students. The next year, Bob Hope was brought in to appease the alumni (which went over like a lead balloon with the students).
Dwatney at June 10, 2015 4:00 PM
Lately I've found myself wanting to say to an authority figure, or to an internet message board(s), "So-and-so did/said something that others might find objectionable, even though I do not. Just sayin'"
Example: (I'm guilty of this) Blowing in people who park badly or take handicapped spots to the manager of the business at which they parked.
I refrained from speaking/posting because it made me feel a bit smarmy and I thought I ought to examine my motives to decide whether I was offended and wouldn't admit it to myself, or not offended and just minding other people's business. But if safety is involved, all norms should go out the window.
Amy, any insights into whether this is a kind of groupthink, where people are not acting as they truly feel, but as they think they're expected to feel? I think what Robin Williams reportedly did is hilarious, but saying so could be risky. Here's another example: public figures who are outed for past minor indiscretions, like smoking pot, drinking beer as a minor, etc. While it's generally smart to appease one's constituency, my skin crawls when someone genuflects over such things, rather than challenging whomever took issue with their behavior as to why it's their business.
DaveG at June 10, 2015 4:44 PM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2015/06/10/get_off_my_lawn.html#comment-6060040">comment from DaveGPainfully unfunny attempt to be funny while attacking Seinfeld:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jun/09/politically-correct-jerry-seinfeld-comedy-marginalised-voices
Amy Alkon at June 10, 2015 6:43 PM
Dave, yes, there absolutely is a kind of groupthink (and behavior) -- it's akin to religion when it isn't a religion itself -- and I just gave a talk (way too fast!) at the ev psych conference that explains this kind of thinking and behavior. Gregg has the video and we're both busy, and I want him to edit in my slides.
Amy Alkon at June 10, 2015 6:46 PM
And it doesn't stop with the Kafkaesque court proceeding (which are run by those older 'live and let live' types).
Ben is on to something.
A sizable portion of the Free Speech crowd from the 60s are now at or near the top of the food chain in academia. I think they have dementia, as they seem to have forgotten the whole "Free Speech" thing and cheerfully persecute anyone having BadThoughts.
Who knew Orwell was off by 30 years? sex as a duty to the state (to provide children). Almost there.
I R A Darth Aggie at June 11, 2015 7:06 AM
@"be prepared to write up a set that doesn't just offend me, but has something to say"
Ah, but he does have something to say: That you're an overly-easily-offended twat who uses feigned offense and 'PC-ness' as a stick to bully people with and force others to bend to your whim. You just don't want to hear it.
Lobster at June 12, 2015 1:22 AM
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