Do you ever get the sense that they’re just screwing with us? Trolling, as the kids call it? Some liberal ideas are so…out there…that it’s impossible to believe that anyone actually thinks this way. You can almost envision a group of academics sitting in a room clouded with pot smoke, dreaming up the most ridiculous ideas possible in an effort to make normal Americans angry.
Problem is, they aren’t just floating these inane beliefs on left-wing blogs or the Reddit comment section; they are actually lecturing grown adults from positions of authority. Telling them what they can and can’t say, right down to every last word.
Consider what they’re doing at the University of California. According to the watchdogs at College Fix, UC President Janet Napolitano has activated a series of training sessions meant to help faculty avoid so-called “microaggressions.” For the uninitiated, a microaggression occurs when a person of privilege (read: white, male, straight, etc.) inadvertently offends a minority through words or actions. It is a feminist invention made necessary by the fact that there are no real issues of inequality left to address. In the U.S., anyway; American feminists are less than concerned about the millions of women suffering overseas. Saudi Arabia is stoning a rape victim? How awful. Let’s turn our attention to something a little less unpleasant, shall we?
And so it is that these gutless liberals propose that phrases like “America is the land of opportunity” are offensive. And that’s what the UC staff is being forced to learn as these idiotic ideas invade the mainstream. According to the New Left, phrases like that promote the “myth of meritocracy.” Using them denies that factors like gender and race play a part in determining one’s success.
Other phrases deemed problematic include:
“There is only one race, the human race.”
“America is a melting pot.”
“Affirmative action is racist.”
“Everyone can succeed if they work had enough.”
In other words, any phrase that steals someone’s right to wallow in their victimhood is a microaggression and should be avoided at all costs.
The Myth of Meritocracy
If you ever wanted to encapsulate what’s so dangerous about liberal thought, you could hardly do better than that phrase: “Myth of meritocracy.” It says it all. It gives you the perfect window into the liberal mindset. Imagine how you would feel as a minority if you internalized that sentiment. You would come to think that it didn’t really matter how hard you worked. It didn’t really matter what kind of dreams you had for yourself. In the end, the white patriarchy was going to decide where you ended up. In jail, probably.
It’s a terribly disempowering notion. When you tell a person that their outlook is limited, they stop looking for ways around the obstacles before them. No one’s denying that it’s more challenging to be a black American than a white American, all other things being equal. But does that invalidate the belief that “everyone can succeed if they work hard enough?” No way. There are too many examples of people who have overcome the odds. Too many who rose above their circumstances, many of which were a damn sight more challenging than skin color.
Meritocracy is no myth. That’s not to say that life is fair or that you’ll always get exactly the success you were after. But don’t fall for the idea that it’s a rigged game. Hard work may not put you in the “One percent,” but it will almost always have a beneficial impact on the quality of your life.
It’s too bad that liberals don’t want young people to hear that message.
