Forward Inc.

Citizen Cieslewicz:
‘It’s O.K. to reject critical race theory‘ (excerpted)
I still meet most of the liberal litmus tests. I’m pro-choice, pro-labor and pro-environment. … But I start to get off the liberal train at the identity politics station. … I find it both unconvincing and deeply offensive.

The basic idea is that the world is divided into “oppressors” and victims and that none of us control which group we fall into — that’s determined only by our race and gender. So, if you are a Black woman who went to Harvard Law you are a victim. If you are a white guy with a high school education who cleans her office, you are an oppressor.

Once we abandon the idea of individual responsibility, that undermines everything.

Individual actions (and with it personal responsibility) are devalued, if not eliminated. It doesn’t matter what you do, what you think, or what your intentions are. You are not an individual, but a member of a group. …

If all success in life is due only to “privilege” and all failure only to “oppression,” why even try? It’s a form of nihilism. Nothing matters. This undercuts the whole idea of personal initiative.

Once we get rid of the idea of basic fairness and actually endorse discrimination, when does it end? When do we decide that the balance has finally been struck, and who gets to decide?