“IT’S TIME TO SAY NO TO OUR PAMPERED STUDENT EMPERORS* — The Rhodes statue row can be blamed on a generation raised to believe that their feelings are all that matter,” British columnist Harry Mount writes in the London Telegraph:

The little emperors have grown up. The babies of the late 90s – mollycoddled by their parents, spoon-fed by their teachers, indulged by society – have now reached university. Some of the brighter ones are now at Oxford, demanding that the Cecil Rhodes statue at Oriel should be torn down, because of his imperialist, racist views.

We shouldn’t be so surprised. If you’ve had a lifetime of people saying “yes” to you, of never being told off, you remain frozen in a permanent state of supersensitivity. I wasn’t offended by the Rhodes statue when I was at Oxford 20 years ago. But, even if I had been, I wouldn’t have thought my wounded feelings should be cured by tearing apart the delicate fabric of a beautiful university.

Universities are reaping the whirlwind of two decades of child-centred education. That whirlwind has imported imbecilic trigger warnings – when academics have to warn students that western European literature, from the Iliad on, is full of sex and violence. It has also brought the pernicious idea of “no-platforming” – when students refuse to give a stage to anyone who doesn’t fit with their narrow view of the world.

Read the whole thing.

Related: “Remy: Students United! Collegians everywhere are asking tough questions: Why is our tuition so high? Where are our jobs? Can’t you see your words hurt me, you dumb piece of sh*t?”

* Personally, I prefer Iowahawk’s “Screaming Campus Garbage Babies” description, but perhaps that’s too provocative a characterization for the Telegraph.