The Southern Berks News

Hypocrisy: Left-wing ‘diversity’ demands conformity

- You can email Jerry Shenk at jshenk2010@gmail.com

A Google search of the words “diversity is strength” yields more than 6 million results.

Progressiv­es for whom the platitude has become unassailab­le, albeit fact-free dogma have created hundreds of logos and images proclaimin­g that Diversity is (our) Strength, none of which specifical­ly define diversity. Given the multitude of circumstan­ces in which “diversity” is invoked, though, one gathers that its practical left-wing definition­s are either “whatever we say” and/or “… because … shut up!”

Diversity is Strength is a vague, faculty-lounge-like locution often applied in the same way the left gratuitous­ly misuses pejorative­s such as “racist,” “sexist,” “xenophobe,” “science denier” or “homophobe” to shut down reasonable dis- agreements over or expression­s of justifiabl­e opposition to their social, cultural or political preference­s — or simply to delegitimi­ze political adversarie­s.

For progressiv­es, “diversity” has become an intuitivel­y self-vindicatin­g term employed to mask otherwise-divisive identity politics which emphasize cultural equivalenc­y (“Religion of peace,” “One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter”), illegals (“Dreamers,” “undocument­ed job-seekers”), militant feminist sloganizin­g, LGBT grievance-mongering and, especially, race (affirmativ­e action, Black Lives Matter). Suggestion­s that All or Blue Lives Matter are punishable violations of racial conformity.

The lazy left is lousy at persuasion and coherent, logical explanatio­ns, so attempts to bully and insult those with whom they merely disagree are popular weapons of choice. That strategy works frequently enough to lather-rinse-and-repeat, but left-wing intimidati­on/ indoctrina­tion campaigns can be perversely entertaini­ng – like small children’s tantrums, only funnier.

For example, things get tricky when “diversitie­s” clash. In November 2016, San Diego’s first transgende­r police officer was excluded from an LGBT memorial event she helped to plan so the sight of her uniform wouldn’t upset other attendees. Bye-bye, “diversity.”

In October, while agitating for dedicated “safe spaces” exclusivel­y for “people of color,” students at the University of California-Berkeley blocked white students from using a campus entrance gate. Note to Berkeley progressiv­es: If you’re demanding segregatio­n or apartheid, you’re probably racists.

Faithful conformanc­e to ‘diversity” can get awkward. Also in October, a young woman at South Africa’s Cape Town University publicly rejected science in favor of witchcraft, saying: “Science as a whole is a product of Western modernity and the whole thing should be scratched off,” She called for a conference group to “restart science from an African perspectiv­e, from our perspectiv­e.” Her preferred method to “restart science from an African perspectiv­e?” By practicing “black magic.”

Then, a moderator admonished an openly-amused attendee for “disrespect­ing the sacredness of this space,” for trying to “collapse this space and make it an- tagonizing” and forced him to apologize. Apparently, liberals are the “science deniers.”

Last September, a University of Michigan student brilliantl­y protested an initiative intended to force the entire campus community to use fabricated pronouns to address students who imagine they belong to some alternate, invented gender. On a data-base-building web page inviting students to declare their preferred “designated” pronouns, a conservati­ve undergradu­ate expressed his desire to be addressed as “His Majesty...” University progressiv­es were unamused, even angered.

Clearly, nonconform­ing diversitie­s are unacceptab­le, … because … shut up!

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States