What are they putting in the water in the University of Wisconsin system? On the heels of UW-Madison students trying to get a conservative student organization declared a “hate group,” we have the “Check Yourself Educational Campaign” at UW-River Falls.

Yes, that’s what it’s called. And it’s here to prevent your children from saying offensive things such as … “you guys”:

You Guys Why not: Erases the identities of those who are in the room. Generalizing a group of people to be masculine.

Folks: if you feel your identity being “erased” from hearing “you guys,” thats a “you” problem. No one else’s.

Here’s another from their list:

Illegal Alien Why not: Reduces undocumented immigrants to something less than human. Fixates on legal status instead of people as individuals. Asserts that some people belong here more than others do. Ignores political, social, and economic factors that impact people of color.

Yawn.

Another:

Ugly Why not: Word is used to put down someone for the way they look, can be connected back to white supremacist, ableist, sizeist standards of beauty.

Yeah, you read that right. No, seriously, go back and read it again if you don’t believe me.

Yes, they actually claim that saying someone is ugly is “white supremacist,” and not simply a (rude) thing to voice about the attractiveness of the person.

Whoever came up with this list is crazy — oops, that’s on the list too.

They are outright manufacturing new reasons to be offended. Taking a phrase that’s been used for decades — often by women speaking to a group of other women — and claiming that it’s erasing the identities of people in the room?

The big lie here is that the authors of this list genuinely care about individuals. No, this is about power. This is a political effort, part of a much broader push to break people into groups according to superficial features like skin tone and sexual orientation, and to silence opposing viewpoints about the politics behind this.

Maybe some day the social justice crowd will start working on real problems — like persecution of women and gays in the Middle East — and stop creating division where none exists.

Is pointing out that gays and women are treated like crap by Muslims in the Middle East “problematic” for you? Toughen up and learn something useful for a change.

Hat tip: Campus Reform