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I learned about this bizarre, illogical preciousness while researching a story about how my former student newspaper, Imprint, was about to be kicked out of its offices in the Student Life Centre on campus. As executive editor Aliya Kanani suspects, the eviction “may be retaliation” from the student government for coverage of the very issue of secret board meetings . (Ironically, the decision to terminate Imprint’s lease was at one of those very meetings.)

What’s bizarre about this story is not that a student paper is losing space thanks to an over-zealous student union, which has happened time and time again, but rather the use of the language of persecution to avoid public scrutiny.

By adopting the rationale of “safe spaces” intended for marginalized groups, these young politicians are tapping an academic culture that is growing increasingly, absurdly uncomfortable with offending anybody. The habit is already stifling debate and limiting free speech at university; now it’s being used to shield budding politicians from criticism.

The abject fear of questioning someone’s request for a ‘safe space’ can have dangerous consequences for democracy

A tenured Louisiana State University professor was fired last month for using the word “fuck.” University of California professors who refer to their country as a “land of opportunity” or debate the benefits of affirmative action are guilty of “microaggressions.” And the Vagina Monologues has been banned on many campuses for being exclusionary of women who don’t have vaginas. It would be hysterically funny if it weren’t so, well, hysterical.