Guest Editorial by David Ruffner

Widespread perception of certain concepts as taboo may be reasonably attributed to the neurotic adherence to political correctness prevalent throughout mainstream culture, but such a simplistic and basal comprehension of the problem fails to serve any purpose besides virtue signalling to fellow conservatives. More intense scrutiny reveals that the compulsion to avoid touchy subjects may be attributed to hampered maturation due to insufficient exposure to conflict early in life. Today’s youth remain in an intellectual vacuum devoid of any opposing viewpoints or complex ideas until they complete high school at approximately eighteen years of age. At the cusp of adulthood, they are equipped with a diploma before they experience even the smallest altercation with opposition. The vacuum they are so accustomed to and comfortable within is sustained well into adulthood by technology, in that any threat to one’s valued beliefs may be met with a swift “block.” With the press of a button, spineless millennial ideologues of all shapes and sizes can make the uncomforting thoughts go away, and it allows their echo chambers remains intact.

Such modern luxuries aren’t the first crackdown on conflict between peers essential to normal human development. Intellectual disarmament of America’s youth truly began when American adults overcame the struggles of generations that preceded them. With leisure time to spare, mothers and fathers began concerning themselves with hardships faced by their precious offspring. Parental inclinations to shelter children from all harm have historically existed in equilibrium with the impracticality of monitoring children around the clock and solving their problems for them, but modern academic institutions have offset this equilibrium in their hybridization with daycares. In this metamorphosis, quality of education was exchanged for assurance that children would be sheltered from the real world and all of its challenges. In this way, schools were unwittingly converted into propagators of the absurd degree of coddling responsible for the crop of disappointments we now reap by the recurring democratic insistence that individuals are unable to overcome adversity on their own, and that government should intercede to solve their problems.

Such an unfortunate outcome plaguing the heirs of tomorrow poses many potential hazards, but how much more damage would we inflict upon the strife-deprived youths if we spent the remnants of our reign over them angstily stewing about their corruption? I implore you, classical-conservative curmudgeons, make the most of the last influence you hold in the lives of the forthcoming defective generation. Approach them with sympathy, and bear in mind their total lack of independence and familiarity with critical thought. You may, at first, be required to hold their hand as you introduce them to concepts they aren’t familiar with, and yes, they’ll more than likely take offense to new information that poses a challenge to their incomplete comprehension of the world they live in.

In due time, you may find that this “conflict-therapy” promotes maturation and intellectual growth. Building an independent thinker capable of skepticism and rationality from the ground up isn’t easy, and to be quite frank excepting that you are the parent of a dysfunctional young adult, it isn’t your responsibility. While you are not obligated to repair America’s broken generation, it would at least be more productive than dismissively calling them cucks on Twitter.