On Dec.4, physicist Lawrence M. Krauss published a piece in Canada’s National Post entitled “The offence offensive.” Its subject is the absurdity of a Culture in which any statement deemed “offensive” by any individual or group is likely not only to be denounced as “hate speech” but quite possibly to spell the end of a career or reputation.
A theoretical physicist, Krauss is particularly dismayed by the impact this reign of terror is having on the scientific community. Even in the unlikely realm of chemistry, he says, the tyranny of political correctness has asserted itself, the Journal of the Royal Society of Chemistry recently adopting new guidelines in response to its publication of a paper from which some had chosen to take offense.
Krauss quotes directly from those guidelines: “Offence is a subjective matter and sensitivity to it spans a considerable range; however we bear in mind that it is the perception of the recipient that we should consider, regardless of the author’s intention.”
And with what subjects should the Journal’s editors exercise particular caution? “Any content that could reasonably offend someone on the basis of their age, gender, race, sexual orientation, religious or political beliefs, marital or parental status, physical features, national origin, social status or disability.”
As Krauss wryly points out, pretty much any statement made on any aspect of the human condition is likely to cause offense to someone! Among the Sciences, he says, the realm of Genetic Research is particularly susceptible, all studies which suggest that either Race or Gender is related to demonstrable genetic differences being an abomination to those blindly devoted to the egalitarian delusion that we are all really the same! Science no longer matters. Only feelings matter, the Royal Society’s willingness to defer to the subjective biases of its readers literally making the least evolved among us, the least mature, the least rational, the arbiters of contemporary public discourse.
As if to validate that point, Krauss cites the “hurt feelings” of yet another academic who appears to need psychological help: “An associate vice-president at Mount Royal University in Alberta, linda manyguns, eschews the use of capital letters, except when it comes to Indigenous people, because capitalization is a hurtful symbol of western hierarchy.”
So while people in Asia, Africa and South America are being slaughtered because of their race, politics or religious beliefs, our “intellectuals” are citing as evidence of the incomparable savagery of Western European Civilization, its ugly insistence on the use of CAPITAL LETTERS! Bravo, Academia!