A strange thing happened on the way to making a more tolerant society. We produced a less tolerant, more bigoted generation of American citizens.
For the last decade or so, we have seen what Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff rightly called the “coddling of the American mind” — the “safetyism” woven into all levels of education, and intentional minimization of students’ stressful experiences. Manifest in the now-pervasive “trigger warnings” and “safe spaces,” the coddling culture has resulted in increased sensitivity to stress, rendering many college students and other young adults unable — or at least unwilling — to listen to views with which they disagree.
Although many Gen Z-ers are stalwart conservatives very critical of abortion, socialism, censorship, the trans agenda, and other leftist values, on the whole, the generation tilts more to the left than previous generations of Americans. And the trend of generational intolerance of contrary points of view reflects this fact.
Today, many Gen Z college students struggle to tolerate those with whom they disagree. As hypersensitivity has grown more acute, their fears and accusations have expanded to the point of hysteria. Some even deploy the “silence is violence” meme, which construes the literal absence of words as tantamount to a physical attack.
How ironic, then, that so many Gen Z leftists defend the Hamas terrorist attacks on Oct. 7 and conduct anti-Israel demonstrations at colleges all around the country. The same generation quick to declare civil scholars, political commentators, and comedians offensive or even too stressful
