Trigger warning: this story contains an unbelievable amount of clueless hand-wringing from pampered college students who think hearing from someone who disagrees with them is literally an act of aggression against their person.
Students at Oberlin College in Ohio and Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. have been losing their minds because the American Enterprise Institute’s Christina Hoff Sommers—who produces The Factual Feminist series—was coming to their campuses. Sommers specializes in making incisive conservative arguments against the left’s exaggerated claims about things like the supposed prevalence of rape and the mythical “gender wage gap.”
Over the past few days, Sommers has been tweeting all the hysterical reactions she has received from students. Prepare to be horrified:
Spoke at Georgetown last night.
Lots of trigger warnings and safe spaces. pic.twitter.com/04z7A7WVxn
— Christina H. Sommers (@CHSommers) April 17, 2015
Oberlin students, meanwhile, posted a nauseating letter about their objection to Sommers that came with–you guessed it!–its own trigger warning: “Content Warning: This letter contains discussion of rape culture, online harassment, victim blaming and rape apologism/denialism.” The very idea of Sommers coming to their school is so horrific that some may not be able to read about without permanent trauma. Stay strong, guys.
Told students that women could narrow wage gap by changing majors from, say, sociology to engineering.Room erupted.Horrified gasps & jeers.
— Christina H. Sommers (@CHSommers) April 21, 2015
During my talk a kindly philosophy professor stood up & urged students to be civil. He was jeered, mocked & crowd angrily yelled "Sit down."
— Christina H. Sommers (@CHSommers) April 21, 2015
Also at Oberlin, two delightful young ladies informed the crowd that they would provide a safe space away from Sommers (who, meanwhile, needed a police escort to keep her away from protesters), which they would be “gatekeeping.”
Richard Dawkins/all sane people had trouble understanding their PC rambling:
@CHSommers What language are they speaking? Is it English? English is my native language and I couldn't understand a single word they said.
— Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins) April 21, 2015
(Dawkins followed that up with tweeting this amazing parody, if you need some comic relief.)
Or you could just check out some of the protesters’ signs, for some unintentional/tragic comedy.
It’s super-inclusive of Oberlin to admit students who don’t know how to spell “participant” @CHSommers pic.twitter.com/w14DToczXZ
— David Frum (@davidfrum) April 21, 2015