the dumbest thing you'll read today

A British university student union (U. Manchester; they call it a "student senate," apparently) has elected to ban all clapping because the noise might "trigger anxiety" in some students. Instead, students will be encouraged to cheer through the use of "jazz hands" (i.e., the extension of the arms and the delicate fluttering of the hands—see here for one version; a more painful-to-sit-through version is here).

Christ, Britain, what's happening to you? It's almost as if the jokers on Instapundit are right, and you're using Orwell's 1984 as a how-to manual instead of taking it as a warning. One of that novel's biggest tropes was ironic naming: the Ministry of Truth was about lies; the Ministry of Love was about hate, etc. One U. Manchester newspaper advocated jazz hands because they "would be a more inclusive form of expression." Wow. Just wow.