- Washington Free Beacon - https://freebeacon.com -

Ours Is an Age Too Silly to Satirize

At some point yesterday in the early afternoon, I realized that our society is almost impossible to satirize.

Consider, for instance, that a feminist professor on a college campus was hit with a Title IX complaint for ... noting that the younger generation of feminists on college campuses, steeped in the culture of victimhood, was too quick to try to shut down debates that make them uncomfortable. Seriously:

A Northwestern University professor recently lamented the "intellectually embarrassing" atmosphere of moral panic concerning sex and rape on campus in a column for The Chronicle of Higher Education. Several students who didn’t appreciate her opinion—perhaps it triggered them—responded by filing formal complaints against her with the university’s Title IX coordinator.

On another college campus, meanwhile, one of the students argued that in order for there to be true freedom of expression, some viewpoints had to be banned from public consumption. Seriously:

But really, canceling the movie [American Sniper] is perfectly consistent with freedom of expression, and showing the movie is what contradicts freedom of expression. As we will see, doing so silences Arab voices, so it conflicts with the purpose of promoting free speech on campuses — to foster students’ intellectual growth through exposing them to many different perspectives.

And, finally, we have the case of Jon Ronson, an author who wrote a book about the danger of Internet outrage mobs stupidly and unfairly pouncing on people who express opinions. Surprise surprise! He was stupidly and unfairly pounced upon because he expressed an opinion. Seriously:

This story might as well replace the dictionary definition of irony: the man who wrote So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed is now being publicly shamed for something he decided NOT to publish in his book about shaming.

This is why I never get too upset when people don't understand that Everything's A Problem is a satirical site. It's tough to tell the difference between the perpetually aggrieved and mockery of the perpetually aggrieved. They're already living jokes.