In theory, universities are the institutions that are responsible for advancing our freedom of thought and discourse through the work of independent scholars and the teaching of each generation of students. But for several decades, universities and other educational institutions have increasingly set up rules aimed at protecting individuals and groups from criticism that those newly empowered individuals and groups consider insensitive, offensive, harassing, intolerant and disrespectful, or critical of their core belief systems. Even though it has been claimed that disadvantaged interest groups have a right to use one-sided tactics of intolerance against those they consider to be responsible for their misfortunes in a democracy this is a fundamentally wrong policy that ultimately tears apart the social fabric. I believe that many of the outraged reactions to speakers’ phrasing in many areas where “outrage” is voiced are insincere and done primarily or exclusively for purposes of gaining political advantage. This “fake offensiveness”-- “OMG I am so hurt and offended”--occurs because it is the ammunition by which interest groups gain political advantage. Yet universities, our supposed hotbeds of free and critical thinking, are co-conspirators in suppressing the intellectual independence and discussions they are supposed to be instilling in their students. The Renaissance and the Enlightenment were intended to free us from centuries of darkness and ignorance in ways that allowed the full flourishing of humanity. Unfortunately it turns out that we are somewhat less as a species than hoped and considerably less interested in open-minded freedom of thought and expression. Albert Schweitzer argued decades ago: “The past has, no doubt, seen the struggle of the free-thinking individual against the fettered spirit of a whole society, but the problem has never presented itself on the scale on which it does to-day, because the fettering of the collective spirit … by modern organizations, [by] modern unreflectiveness, and [by] modern popular passions, is a phenomenon without precedent in history.” The situation has only become far worse today. In part the decline is due to the emergence of the Internet and related communications technologies. Although they offer incredible tools for the management and dissemination of knowledge, they have unfortunately bestowed power on fanatics and ideologues and in doing so opened an electronic “Pandora’s Box” full of hate, vitriol and ignorance. A result has been the rapid fragmentation into aggressive actors and indignant cults. This has produced a social and political balkanization dominated by single-interest groups that are intent on achieving narrow agendas. These groups and political activists often operate without any willingness to consider how their interests fit within the essential dimensions of an overall community in which balance is necessary and compromise is not weakness but the “glue” that holds us together.