“ASKED?” THAT’S PUTTING IT MILDLY.

I’m reading “Here’s a Fact: We’re Routinely Asked to Use Leftist Fictions” by John McWhorter (in the NYT).

“[W]e think of it as ordinary to not give voice to our questions about things that clearly merit them, terrified by the response that objectors often receive. History teaches us that this is never a good thing.”

McWhorter is underplaying the problem. We don’t just think it’s ordinary to refrain from saying certain things (such as, to name the example he stresses, the existence of race-preferences in higher education admissions). We think it’s abnormal to the point of toxicity not to refrain.

We (as a culture) are deeply engaged in teaching young people that they must lie. The “white lie” is no longer merely permissible. It’s required. I wonder if young people have retained any of the old-fashioned commitment to truth. It’s obviously not the highest value anymore.

That’s because leftism depends on a fog of lies for its survival.

Plus, from the comments: “This entire conflict is about the aristocracy demanding to be able to make rules for the little people that they do not follow themselves.”