It’s an essential part of student life to commit yourself to terrible ideas, which is why the decision by the Oxford Student Union to hire “sensitivity readers” to prevent the student paper Cherwell from running “problematic” content is both depressing and predictable. Depressing, because it shows a terrible timidity from people whose age ought to give them the most licence. Predictable, because submitting a newspaper to sensitivity readers is a terrible idea. That’s not because sensitivity readers are a universally bad thing. They are often used by novelists, the principle being that if you’re writing about a particular experience, you should invite early feedback from somebody who’s had that experience.

Source: The Times June 21, 2021 23:03 UTC