An absolutely brilliant op-ed piece from Harvey Silvergate, “Parody flunks out,” unearthed courtesy of the NY Times Paper Cuts.

I remember quite well (though I wish I could disremember quite well) when the editor of the Daily Campus brought in new guidelines for “politically correct” speech (seriously, where the hell did these insidious rules come from?) that were to be enforced immediately unless the ol’ DC were to appear embarrassingly cretinous. (Even my dumbass brainwashed college-kid brain knew something was plainly wrong with these regulations, but I followed orders just like a good Nazi).

By [the late 1980s], the strictures of political correctness had seeped into all levels of American higher education and had utterly destroyed the sense of humor of so many college and university students. At the very least, this atmosphere stifled them from admitting (to anyone but their friends) that they even got a joke involving matters of gender, race, sexual orientation, religion, or any other hot-button issue at the center of the nation’s culture wars. And, as was predictable, the intellectual rot that began to infect the academy in the mid 1980s spread to the “real world” within a single generation.

Oh, and how that infection has become an epidemic.

Racist and sexist language — so-called hate speech — may not be pleasant, but it is nonetheless legally protected in public places governed by the Bill of Rights. Private campuses, however, are allowed to make up their own rules as to what speech is and is not acceptable. . . . For academic freedom to offer less protection for speech is a breathtaking departure from long-standing assumptions about the nature and purpose of the academy. As the cynics now note in Cambridge, one may not safely say in Harvard Yard what is constitutionally protected in Harvard Square. The same may be said for just about every campus where there once was a hallowed hall of learning, now converted to a humorless hall of conformity.

Thank you Mr Silvergate for speaking the truth. This column should be required reading for all.