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.