Ralph Nader Blasts 'Sensitive' Black Lives Matter Activists, 'Absurd' Trigger Warning Campus Culture

Five-time presidential candidate Ralph Nader apparently takes issue with certain behaviors prominent on many college campuses today.

According to Nader, who sat down for a wide-ranging discussion with the Pacific Standard, Donald Trump's rise to the Republican nomination for president is, in part, the result of the increased sensitivity on modern American college campuses.

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Nader characterized the cultural shift by noting how "repressed" white male construction workers who "like to flirt" used to "stand on a corner and whistle at a pretty lady," but "they can’t do that anymore."

"Multiply that across the continuum," Nader said. "You can’t say this about that, and you can’t say that about this. And the employer tells you to hush. And perhaps your spouse tells you to hush, and your kids tell you to hush."

"A lot of these people grew up on ethnic jokes, which are totally taboo now," he continued. "They used ethnic jokes to reduce tension in the 1930s, ’40s, ’50s. And they’d laugh at each other’s jokes and hurl another one. But it still flows through ethnic America, you know. There are hundreds of things that people would like to say."

From there, the famous liberal activist set his sights on so-called trigger warnings, which he called "absurd." He described today's young men as "far too sensitive because they've never been in a draft."

"They’ve never had a sergeant say, 'Hit the ground and do 50 push-ups, and I don’t care if there’s mud there,'" Nader commented.

Additionally, he is concerned with young adults' "shorter attention spans" and frequent internet activism that rarely turns into legitimate action. According to Nader, young Americans are "drowning in petitions," noting how often activists send followers to Change.org.

Among the most notable activist groups Nader focused on was the Black Lives Matter movement, which he said has become "so sensitive to injustice" that "they don’t see any response to their work." He also noted that, in his view, the oneness of their success depends on the media.

"What will happen when the press turns on them?" he asked. "The press finished off Occupy. The minute they were ejected it was no longer news. Not that they knew how to organize anything. Not that they knew how to take any advice from the ’70s and ’60s."

(H/T: The College Fix)

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