Historically, the embrace of free speech has gone hand in hand with progressive politics. Public figures who tested the boundaries of free speech were invariably counter-culture heroes. Throughout recorded time humor, art, music and literature were understood to be inherently uplifting and liberating, because they were True expressions of human freedom and creativity.

…and any idea or activity considered to be ‘forbidden’ was probably EVEN MORE TRUE.

In my lifetime, a few names I can think of right off the top of my head are Lenny Bruce, Allen Ginsberg, Andy Warhol, Dick Gregory, Bill Hicks…Janis Joplin, Patti Smith, Iggy Pop, Billie Holliday, Jimi Hendrix, Ice Cube, Prince…J.D. Salinger, Maya Angelou, Hunter S. Thompson, James Baldwin…Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X…

If you were considered over-sexualized, somehow profane, offensive, blasphemous or distrustful of the government or a negro you had the automatic approval of progressive, politically astute people.

From the moment those shots rang out in Dallas, the neocons’ culture war has pitted waves of America’s disillusioned youth against warmongers and hucksters like Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Phyllis Schlafly and Anita Bryant – who all pledged allegiance to an America that never existed.

Those culturally-regressive elements were wedded to a ‘Leave It to Beaver’ version of America, where there was no institutionalized racism, no prejudice against gays or lesbians and no corporate or military excesses to worry about.

They believed America was the greatest nation that ever existed.

They believed that there was no need for Sex Education because people never had sex before marriage.

They believed that father always knew best and mom knew her place was in the home, ready to take a few punches now and then.

And most of all, they believed that all drugs are bad.

These were all obvious lies and young people back in the day could see right through them. They were disgusted by the way the saber-rattlers spent so much time and energy talking in circles around the obvious truths behind our morally-bankrupt society.

So the youth of the nation rebelled and instead turned to rock stars and actors and poets who proudly flaunted their sexuality; comedians who explored the most taboo of subjects; artists & photographers who captured reality as it really was and authors who wrote in the raw, unvarnished language people actually used in real life.

Not so much today.

The latest college campus bugbear is ‘political correctness.’ Academia’s new self-proclaimed free speech champions aren’t Mario Savio or Richard Farina-style intellectuals preaching peace and love, however. No, they’re future hedge-fund managers and drunken frat boys crawling over their own puke to scribble hateful slogans on campus walls.

America has devolved into a generation of extremely thin-skinned people who are obviously scared-shitless of the world outside and deeply offended by anything that might hurt someone’s feelings. The triumph of ‘self-esteem’ over knowledge is now complete.