People aren't belittling students for being offended, they are belittling them for feeling so entitled that they would suggest to "take it down" as a response. It's incredibly selfish to feel that anything that hurts your feelings should be censored out of your environment.

The equivalent would be if we all just flagged every post we disagreed with and it was removed by mods as long as you we include text saying that it triggered us.

If that was all there was to the discussion, it wouldn't be so explosive in places like HN. GP tries to phrase it as a "why now?" phenomenon, with a heavy dose of conservatism about the old days, when the idea of people feigning outrage for power has been going on forever (see: right-wing panics about race mixing, women voting, etc.).

I guess I'm in a relatively rare position around these parts of usually agreeing with the radical students' aims (demolishing certain kinds of speech, like "race realism" and "sex realism", taking down statues honoring unworthy figures from the past) and not their methods (legalizing em out of sight and squashing dissent vs taking them down via argument).

>>> I think that safe spaces / micro-aggressions may come from the perfect storm of a) a generation that was conceived after a period of widespread crime and social uncertainty, leading parents to coddle them and try to protect them from the world [see 'helicopter' parenting'], b) the self-esteem movement [everyone wins prize], and c) increasingly feminized primary and secondary education. The number of male teachers has dwindled rapidly over the decades.

> People aren't belittling students for being offended

As you can see, there is a strong identity component here.

> all part from the premise that when a student says "take this down, it offends me", they are actually being honest

As in all things in life there are nuances. This problem isn't even tied to this generation in particular, the only issue to contend today is that in this generation sensationalism breed views and views breed consensus, all in all this situation isn't that much different from people fighting against the N* racial slur in the last century, only the communication channels and consensus rules differ, especially regarding diffusion speed.

This is a part of a bigger problem: modern society ethics diffuse and segregate groups at a pace that has no precedent while not sporting the same mediation and dialectics needed by living in close physical social groups.

you're wrong. While there is plenty of powerplaying, many of these students really are outraged and entitled. They aren't after power, they are after breaking down so called structures that they think are unfair. The collective, fairness in their mind trumps freedom of speech. It turns them into useful idiots as well. Which is why you think it's all about power.

But if those students are useful idiots, then someone's about power...

Yeah the few are not the majority, that's what I'm saying. The Majority are deluded and believe what they are told. They are the SJW purists. They may be for change, but not necessarily power. Their leaders are often about power. More followers that leaders