Thread by @jbarro

I remember reading this piece seven years ago and it's amazing how mainstream the subcultural dysfunction described here has gone in the following seven years. thenation.com/article/archiv…

Particularly this sort of stuff, where anyone who can say their identity is marginalized can declare something "harmful" and that's supposed to be the end of the discussion, no matter how ridiculous they're being.

... and the power associated with ability this has caused bizarre efforts to classify new categories of marginalization, such as "college student" (in the Alex Morse fiasco) or "reporter."

It's all built around hacking people's norms of politeness, not wanting to argue with people expressing emotional distress. But of course that just leads to more expressions of emotional distress, whether real, fake, or induced.