In the pursuit of utopia, where there are never any hurt feelings, America’s wealthy, cosseted college campuses have given birth to the nonsense concept of microaggression, typically employed to denounce as “racist” anything someone (usually of a “protected class”) doesn’t like.  The beauty of the concept is that the purported perpetrator doesn’t have to be conscious of or have any intention of bigotry.

It hasn’t taken long for the concept to become self-discreditingly ridiculous.  Katherine Timpf reports in NRO (hat tip: Hot Air):

According to a Princeton University student, joking about the way he pronounces “Cool Whip” is a microaggression, and microaggressions are very serious because they cause binge drinking.

In a column for The Daily Princetonian, Tennessee freshman Newby Parton explains that he is from an area where people pronounce their “wh” sounds “hw,” and that this has caused hardship in his life — such as having to endure people asking him to say “Cool Whip”:

“I’ll say ‘Cool Whip.’ They’ll repeat it back to me with exaggerated emphasis on the /h/. I’ve been pulled into this conversation several times now, and each time I grow a bit more self-conscious.”

Parton wrote that he eventually decided he could no longer stay silent about this injustice. (snip)

“I am afraid because microaggressions aren’t harmless — there’s research to show that they cause anxiety and binge drinking among the minority students who are targeted,” he wrote.

I am sorry, but this is so ridiculous that I am surprised that deans, fundraisers, and admissions officers are not concerned that this is making Princeton look like a bunch of over-sensitive wussies.  There is even a Facebook page devoted to chronicling microaggressions at Princeton.

In China, they are laughing.  If this is our “best and brightest,” we have no future at all.  But fortunately, the former elite campuses are in the process of ceding the future leadership generation to other sources, including online education and (gasp!) skipping college.