THE END OF CIVILIZATION? – AT 11:04 A.M. ET:  A member of the Yale University staff wrote something in defense of free speech, and you'd think from some of the reaction that civilization had come to an end.  From the Yale Daily News: 

A Friday email sent by Silliman College Associate Master Erika Christakis decrying the censure of costumes deemed culturally appropriating incited campus controversy over Halloween weekend.

Christakis’ message, sent just after midnight Friday, came in response to an email the Intercultural Affairs Council — a group of administrators from the cultural centers, Chaplain’s Office and other campus organizations — sent to the undergraduate student body on Wednesday. The council’s email asked students to be thoughtful about the cultural implications of their Halloween costumes, citing blackface and turbans as examples of details that could offend or belittle others. In Christakis’ email, she defended students’ rights to wear potentially offensive costumes as an expression of free speech, arguing that the ability to tolerate affront is one of the hallmarks of a free and open society. Her email compared adults selecting costumes to children playing dress up, and she asserted that imagination should be encouraged and not constrained.

“Is there no room anymore for a child or young person to be a little bit obnoxious … a little bit inappropriate or provocative or, yes, offensive?” Christakis, who assumed the position of associate master of Silliman this fall, wrote. “American universities were once a safe space not only for maturation but also for a certain regressive, or even transgressive, experience; increasingly, it seems, they have become places of censure and prohibition.”

In response, more than 740 undergraduates, graduate students, alumni, faculty and even students from other universities have signed on to an open letter telling Christakis that her “offensive” email invalidates the voices of minority students on campus. The letter, posted Friday night, states that Christakis misrepresented the Intercultural Affairs Committee’s call for sensitivity as “censure.” It also states that in describing the call for sensitive costumes as coming “from above, not from yourselves,” Christakis implies that only administrators, and not students, have called for sensitivity.

Silliman student Ryan Wilson ’17, who wrote the letter with input from other students, argued that Christakis failed to distinguish between dressing up as fictional characters and misrepresenting actual groups of people. Giving room for students to be obnoxious or offensive only invites ridicule and violence onto minorities at Yale, and it decreases the space in which marginalized students can feel safe, Wilson wrote.

COMMENT:  Read the whole story.  There's room for optimism.  Many comments at the end are supportive of Ms. Christakis, understanding that she was asking for common sense and true free speech. 

Free speech by its nature is offensive.  We don't need a First Amendment to protect popular speech.  I guarantee you that no person in human history has gone to prison for agreeing with his government.

There is an attempt by the politically correct to infantilize students.  It is intentional.  Infantilization is the first step on the road to controlling a population, making that population feel that it is in danger and in need.  I think there's a backlash building.  I hope so.

November 2, 2015