Individualist feminist Wendy McElroy participated in a debate (video here) at Brown University with feminist Jessica Valenti. McElroy of course, being the more sensible of the two, asserts that there really isn’t a “rape culture.” She had this article in Reason regarding this debate and the statistics which just don’t back up the alleged existence of the so-called “rape culture.” I think that mainly they are talking about such a culture being on college campuses. But given the attitude against diverse points of view on college campuses these days, we can guess how this sort of debate will go, especially when some activists organized a response event to occur at the same time as this debate in a different room at the university. In fact, after McElroy gave her talk for about 23 minutes, her debate opponent Valenti came up to the podium and stated, “I think like a lot of people I’m exhausted of having to talk about rape culture in a framework that assumes its existence is up for debate.” Well, from what I’ve heard and read in recent years, there is more of a “hate men” culture than a “rape culture.”

In my view, if the activists are so insecure in their beliefs regarding the existence of “rape culture,” then why do they seem so intolerant of its being challenged? Why do they have to schedule another discussion in a different room at the same time as this debate, just because such a debate might “trigger” hurtful emotions? And another issue is the problem that some people have with the English language. To some people, “rape” includes several other behaviors, or even words spoken by men, that don’t even involve actual physical acts of force and violence against a woman.

Another problem now is that the younger people are brainwashed to be hypersensitive about everything. Certain forms of speech cause them to perceive and interpret such speech as “acts of aggression,” or as “threats.” Many people in Amerika are easily threatened now by opposing points of view in many different topics of discussion, as Brendan O’Neill pointed out here. And it isn’t just on college campuses, it’s everywhere. (Such as talk radio. If a caller challenges the neocon or American Exceptionalism view, that call will not last very long. Unlike in the old days with David Brudnoy and Gene Burns. But I digress.)

But sadly, college campuses really are places of intellectual intolerance and censorship, and thank God I went to college in the early 1980s and not the 2000s or 2010s. There was none of this **** back then. Back then, there was actual freedom of speech. But, I think that this attitude and culture of intolerance on campuses is merely a reflection of society as a whole, and how it has declined in maturity and intellect.

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