Progress Requires Treating People Like Adults

Infantilizing minorities, the disabled and the young is regressive

In recent years, there have been well-documented movements that infantilize students and minorities. These trends in part involve helicopter and snowplow parenting. They are also rooted in a postmodernist social justice ideology that characterizes minorities as emotionally fragile victims within a fundamentally oppressive society. These infantilization and victimhood approaches are detrimental to both social relations and progress, hinder intellectual and emotional maturation, and contradict the fundamental principles of healthy learning, cognitive therapy, and common sense. 

These patterns have been thoroughly examined by Jonathan Haidt, a distinguished professor of social psychology at New York University and co-author of the seminal book, The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure. Haidt has shown that many children and young adults born after 1995 have not matured at the traditional rate, avoiding or delaying many normal experiences associated with growing up. 

Haidt argues that the proliferation of illiberal safe spaces, ideological bubbles, an excessive focus on microaggressions, and the concept of being emotionally "harmed" by words and ideas hinder emotional growth. These trends have contributed to a documented increase in anxiety, depression, and various other disorders among the youth. 

One of the most backward and damaging aspects of these movements is that many young people are taught that their subjective feelings are inherently true, and that challenging them is both wrong and harmful. Activists advocate for the unquestionable acceptance of minorities’ feelings and subjective opinions as indisputable truth-telling. Emotional thinking is a primitive, irrational and often objectively incorrect way of thinking that must be checked with evidence-based reasoning and critical thinking. 

Video: Why modern America creates fragile children | Jonathan Haidt - YouTube    

A new victimhood culture and caste system    

Sociology professors Bradley Campbell and Jason Manning have conducted extensive research and produced comprehensive literature on the emergence of a new victimhood culture. Their work documents the creation of a contemporary caste system by social justice activists, where those who identify as the most "marginalized" assert moral and social superiority over others. One's position in this caste system and the perceived value of one's opinions are not determined by personal character or merit, but rather by one’s immutable and related characteristics such as skin color, ethnicity, and gender. Many young people and minorities are taught that it is good to see and portray oneself as a victim.

Apart from the moral repugnancy and blatant bigotry of caste systems, the act of predominantly identifying oneself as a victim is mentally unhealthy. Instilling a victim mentality in children including minority children and urging them to perceive the world through a binary lens of victim versus oppressor is a form of child abuse. Such an approach sets them on a trajectory toward a lifetime of failure, unhappiness, and toxic relationships. 

An Excess of Woke Thinking May Harm Mental Health or Relationships by clinical psychologist Valerie Terico Ph.D.

“Protecting” people from diverse ideas    

In the pursuit of social justice, alarming trends have been well-documented, revealing a shift towards illiberalism, censorship, and the suppression of diverse viewpoints on numerous university campuses and other environments. Many social justice activists stifle and demean opposing views. A segment of students demand trigger warnings to shield themselves from encountering words and ideas they find disagreeable.

Some Harvard law students requested that professors refrain from teaching rape law and avoid using the word "violation" (as in “violation of the law”). Harvard law professor Jeannie Suk Gerson said this would be comparable to trying to teach “a medical student who is training to be a surgeon but who fears that he’ll become distressed if he sees or handles blood.”

Beyond treating students as emotionally fragile children, this trend contradicts fundamental values such as liberalism, freedom of speech, and the exchange of a diverse range of ideas— values required for thriving educational settings. Embracing these principles is crucial for learning, and preparing students for the challenges of a multicultural world. Encouraging students to listen to and consider diverse opinions and views is integral to expanding their minds, gaining knowledge, and nurturing a tolerant and open-minded mindset.

“The Long and Winding Road to Campus Illiberalism” by Tevi Troy

A movement that considers blacks as lesser human beings

The prominent black scholars Glenn Loury, a conservative economist and social scientist at Brown University, John McWhorter, a liberal linguist at Columbia University, and Erec Smith, a libertarian rhetorician at York University and founder of the Journal of Free Black Thought, contend that treating blacks as emotionally and intellectually fragile and implementing measures like the removal of standardized testing, which implies an inability to achieve, is not only racially prejudiced but also detrimental to the long-term success of blacks.

McWhorter harshly criticizes progressive ideas that teach whites to tiptoe around and rotely defer to blacks. He says this is condescending, discriminatory and promotes a damaging stereotype of blacks as “lesser human beings.” He called Robin DiAngelo’s book White Fragility “How to be racist in a new way.” Loury criticizes what he calls “the bigotry of low expectations” for blacks, categorizing it as a form of racism. 

Smith said, “I don't like being a victim. I don't like victimizing my black students. I don't like victimizing my black peers. I think a lot of what is going on with critical social justice is detrimental to black people.”  

Video: The Infantilization of Blackness | Glenn Loury & John McWhorter- YouTube  

I've personally observed classically liberal organizations damaged by these bad ideas. This includes Unitarian Universalism, where recent trends towards censorship, punitive measures against ministers and congregants with divergent views, and the promotion of a victimhood caste culture have greatly and some worry irreparably damaged the church. Longtime UU social justice activist and organizer Dick Burkhardt recently wrote that he sees the “UUA (Unitarian Universalist Association) in a state of moral collapse because it has abandoned critical thinking skills in favor of ill-conceived campaigns for ‘justice’ that are themselves unjust.”

Once intellectually vibrant with stimulating and challenging sermons and classes, I witnessed a dumbing down of my congregation. I’ve used the phrase “the infantilization of UU,” and my mother, who quit the congregation and UU as a whole, said, "I joined a religion, not a daycare." 

I actively endorse and participate in social justice initiatives. I agree that many societal structures, restrictive cultures, and laws contribute to injustice and inequality for many minorities. I agree that IQ and standardized tests can be culturally biased. I agree we all must listen to and learn from minorities that have historically been marginalized. Nevertheless, there are emerging trends that, while well-intentioned, are not only counterproductive but damaging to social progress and minorities. This post has documented several of them.

In short, treating people like fragile and dim children is a bad idea, especially when they are not.