A recent Brookings survey of 1,500 current undergraduate students at U.S. four-year colleges and universities revealed something frightening.

The survey results establish with data what has been clear anecdotally to anyone who has been observing campus dynamics in recent years: Freedom of expression is deeply imperiled on U.S. campuses. In fact, despite protestations to the contrary (often with statements like “we fully support the First Amendment, but…), freedom of expression is clearly not, in practice, available on many campuses, including many public campuses that have First Amendment obligations.

That’s right, boys and girls. Snowflakes who are infesting today’s college campuses, raised by their helicopter parents to believe they should never experience criticism, to be shielded from failure, to “win” participation trophies lest their tiny, delicate labia be damaged by defeat, and to be protected from dissenting or disturbing opinions ever permeating their little sheltered worlds, vocally and proudly proclaim the First Amendment does not protect expression they find odious, controversial, or in any way offensive.

This is particularly chilling when you realize that this horde of butthurt troglodytes is where tomorrow’s leaders will come from.

These perpetually offended cryceratops are the future of our society.

They believe it’s perfectly acceptable to shout down speakers with whom they disagree.

They believe it’s perfectly acceptable to use government force to silence political opposition.

They believe it’s perfectly acceptable to limit free expression, as long as it’s their tender feelings that are protected from wrongthink.

And 19 percent of them support the use of violence to muzzle opposition. That’s nearly one-fifth. Any number above zero that agree it’s acceptable to use violence to censor those with whom they disagree is unacceptable, and given the actual question, that number is awfully high.

I note that 30 percent of males interviewed believe violence is an acceptable way to shut down political opposition. This was actually surprising to me, given the number of men I know who are passionate about the freedom of speech and have sworn to protect it and other constitutional rights when they took that military oath. But maybe my population sample is screwed, because the presence of spoiled rotten snowflakes in the military is relatively small compared to today’s college campuses. Are parents raising a bunch of entitled, infantile, emasculated would-be terrorists, whose gonads shrivel at the thought of hearing unpopular ideas, but who have no problem tossing a Molotov cocktail or four at the source of said ideas? Anything to silence that which chafes their tender foreskins?

Apparently in their twisted worldview, words hurt, but actual violence is OK, because words hurt.

As Catherine Rampell wrote in yesterday’s Washington Post, the problem with labeling speech as violence is that violence then “becomes a justifiable response to speech.”

The scary thing is that a fairly large percentage of today’s snowflakes actually believe this to be an acceptable principle!

I blame parents and public schools first and foremost.

Parents have abdicated their responsibilities to raise secure, mature, independent, free-thinking individuals, who don’t confuse the concept of being polite to others with the notion of being protected against offense at all costs. Instead they have created perpetually offended ass crackers, who think their precious FEELZ matter more than others’ ability to speak their minds. They’ve abdicated the very principles of freedom on which this nation was built in favor of wrapping themselves in metaphoric bubble wrap to prevent them from hearing anything that might offend their delicate sensibilities. Just as they insist on protecting their precious cupcakes from such hideous experiences as fun, and at the expense of the joys of childhood, such as playgrounds, dodge ball, and Cowboys and Indians, they insist on insulating their kids from ideas, choosing instead to ban classics such as “Huckleberry Finn” from school libraries, because they dare mention the n*word and the Harry Potter books because OMGOCCULTWITCHCRAFTSATANISMNO!

And schools have repeatedly reinforced the idea that everyone must be protected from offense, no one should be allowed to fail, every child (instead of learning how to read and write properly) should be protected from red ink marring their work and informing them they are less than perfect! This atrocious watering down of standards then bleeds over into colleges and universities where grade inflation has become the norm, because dog forbid some students receive “Fs” for their lack of effort and preparation!

Why, then, are we surprised when these coddled snowflakes enter our colleges and universities with the perception that their FEELZ matter more than most?

Why are we shocked when they demand special treatment, and when they don’t get it, they hurl accusations of racism, sexism, and any other “ism” they can invent, so they can feel special, appreciated, and respected without actually having to earn said respect?

Why are we somehow astonished when these very same snowflakes, who have never been taught about society, about true diversity of ideas and thoughts, about failure, about working hard to overcome obstacles, and about the principles on which America was founded, proceed to advocate violence in order to insulate themselves from wrongthink?

Why are we amazed when Hillary Clinton spews complete falsehoods about the moral of Orwell’s “1984,” and only gets challenged by the conservative media?

The result of this effort to coddle kids from cradle to grave and insulate them from anything offensive, harmful, salty, sweet, filled with gluten, GMO, non-organic, or difficult, and the failure to challenge their lunacy, when a girl claims she’s a boy, and proceeds to allow herself to bleed freely on her white pants to “prove” that point has directly contributed to this phenomenon.

College is supposed to challenge our kids.

It’s supposed to expose them to ideas that may be uncomfortable, and teach them how to analyze those ideas – and if need be, oppose them rationally and logically, instead of with violence.

A college education is supposed to give young people the tools to lead this world into the future.

Instead, college administrators are genuflecting before the unreasonable, obsequiously capitulating to the irrational, and surrendering to the lunacy that starts in the home, where parents heap more and more entitlements, unearned praise, and reassurances of how special and deserving they are on their crotch fruit.

They’re allowing “safe spaces” where students can be protected from unpopular ideas.

They alter testing schedules to allow for student “activism,” and offer counseling for the trauma of seeing a candidate they didn’t support elected President! COUNSELING??? What kind of candy-ass, weak bullshit is that?

They hire and promote professors based on skin color, rather than knowledge and skills.

They allow campus bullies to intimidate professors and drive them from campuses.

Parents today have created monsters, who don’t understand that once you allow ideas to be shouted down, or physically beaten down, any ideas can become targets at any time.

And while I hold no love or admiration for trolls like Mike Cernovich, or white supremacist trash like Richard Spencer, I fully understand and support their right to spew their garbage and my right to condemn and ridicule them.

Once we give these snowflakes the power to silence unpopular speech, we will be giving future government leaders the moral authority to silence all speech.

Because once you give them that authority, there’s no turning back.