A left-leaning member of Parliament said that she received all the "archetypal" flak one would expect after writing a book blasting cancel culture on college campuses – but much of the criticism did not come from young people.
Claire Fox, a member of the United Kingdom's House of Lords, wrote "I Find That Offensive!" in 2016 to explore why today's youth "take offense so easily." Fox is a former member of the Revolutionary Communist Party who now describes herself as a "left-leaning free speecher."
"It's funny it came out in a second edition," the UK politician told Fox News Digital. "Honestly you could have 10 editions. You could keep rewriting it."
"When I wrote it, it was a very short, modest contribution - and it was kind of addressed to Generation Snowflake," she said.
Her aim, Fox said, was to actually address what was happening in the U.S., and to draw attention to the trends that appeared to making their way across the pond.
American colleges in recent years have seen students call for safe spaces, or protest the presence of speakers with whom they may disagree. In some cases, the protests have been so disruptive that speakers have canceled their visits, such as when former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice decided to bow out of her commencement speech at Rutgers University in 2014.
Former President Obama was among the surprising voices to sound off on the trend.
"Anybody who comes to speak to you, and you disagree with, you should have an argument with them," he said in 2015. "But you shouldn’t silence them by saying, ‘You can’t come because, you know, I’m too sensitive to hear what you have to say.’ That’s not the way we learn either."
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"We could see some of those identity politics issues, in particular," Fox said. "Just the assaults on academic freedom."
Those patterns were just starting to present themselves around the time of her first edition of the book. For instance, she noted the attempt to remove a statue of 19th century South African politician Cecil Rhodes at Oriel College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford, "on the basis that she had in the past been associated with slavery," Fox said.
"What you were seeing was university authorities wobbling even then and sort of not being sure how to respond," the Baroness Fox of Buckley recalled.
She said her book also served as a personal "exercise" for her to try and understand why young people at the ages of 18 would be "demanding safe spaces."
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"The idea is you leave home, you go to work, or you go to university or whatever… and it's an adventure," Fox said. "You take risks. You don't demand that the authorities keep you safe. This seemed extraordinary to me."
Fox said she pinned the blame on her own peers for having "reared a generation into safetyism and told them that everywhere they looked they were under threat, and that they couldn't and wouldn't be able to cope unless they were protected."
The result was a "less resilient generation," she lamented.
Fox received backlash for "I Find That Offensive!" when the book came out, but noted much of the criticism came from people her own age.
"When I wrote it, the critique - I thought I was going to get slagged off by all these young people - I thought Generation Snowflake might come after me - but guess what? Actually a lot of young people really appreciated the book," she said. "And people who were out to cancel me most were my contemporaries who worked in education authorities. It absolutely archetypally - They said I was a bully, that I didn't understand the dilemmas of the young. And they also said I was exaggerating and that it was hyperbole."
"The truth is, I didn't go far enough at all," she added. "I had completely underestimated. So I'm really rather proud of the book for having identified the trends, but I probably held back from realizing just how pernicious, nasty and toxic it would become out there."
So went further, saying her generation and the following generation have "betrayed" young people.
"We have created a world in which they genuinely get upset by ideas and words and it's become a fait d'accompli that they will not cope. And what a horrible legacy that is."
Fox is the founder of the Academy of Ideas think tank, whose mission it is "to expand the boundaries of public debate."
The group initiated an annual national debating competition for 16 to 18-year-olds called Debating Matters. The event, Fox said, is intended to help young people understand there are "legitimate opposing views" in an argument.
The students provide their arguments, and then three judges cross-examine them.
This year, the competition is coming to the House of Lords in March, when lords and baronesses from every political party will serve as judges.
"We hope to demonstrate to the students… the virtues of debate and considered exchange of ideas," she said in expectation. "And I'm also hoping to demonstrate to my fellow peers… that young people, if you set them a high enough challenge, will rise to it."
