A simple principle of the universe I’ve divined from the Current Year culture wars is this:
If you avoid telling an uncomfortable truth and instead replace it with a comfortable lie, you leave yourself open to all sorts of less comfortable lies.
Race relations is a shining example of this danger. Traditional conservatives say: “race doesn’t matter. All races are equal.” Most probably know on some level that this isn’t true, but they say it anyway because it feels good and it sounds nice. It’s a comfortable lie. The truth, of course, is that there are large variations in aptitudes and behavioral proclivities among races. But this is an uncomfortable truth, so most of us don’t say it out loud.
But what everyone sees (except perhaps the most willfully self-deluded) is the results of the truth, not of the lie: that gross disparities persist between intelligent, civilized races and unintelligent, violent races. But since we (allegedly) believe that all races are equal in temperament and ability, this pretty much forces us to the conclusion that the greater races are beneficiaries of unearned “privilege”, and the lesser races are subject to systemic racism. This is the uncomfortable lie that comes from the comfortable lie.
The innocent white police officers shot, the old white men set on fire, the young white men beaten up by mobs of “peaceful protesters”, the young white women revenge-raped, etc. over the last year alone are just a few of the casualties of this comfortable lie. I think few if any traditional conservatives intended such outcomes; I believe they were genuinely just trying to be nice people. But they are responsible all the same. They need to be shown that covering up the truth for the sake of being nice is not doing the world any favors.
OMG RACISM CALL THA POLICE! 