Triggered summary

The great American civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. once famously described a dream he had of a world where people were judged on the content of their character rather than the color of their skin.

For all their talk of equality, the American left today is calling for us to do precisely the opposite; to pay more attention to the color of everyone’s skin than the content of their character.

And not only the color of their skin, but also their gender, and sexual orientation. The left works hard to accentuate everybody's differences even while they claim to want to reconcile them.

Indeed, people on the left wear identity labels like medals on their lapels. These labels give you a certain social capital in leftist circles. And the more “oppressed“ identity categories a person belongs to, the more social capital they have. If you identify as a genderqueer, pansexual person of color, you’ve pretty much got all your bases covered.

These labels signify to others on the left how much weight to accord a person’s experiences and opinions. While these identities no doubt hold personal importance for the people who express them, they also function like status symbols among leftists.

Of course, there are a few identity labels that aren’t in vogue. If you find yourself in the wrong circle and you’re unfortunate enough to be afflicted by wealth, whiteness or masculinity, you would be well advised to keep your mouth shut. Your opinion isn’t wanted, and anyway, your admittance to these circles is only provisional until you slip up and say the wrong thing.

If you belong to the right identities, however, you can practically speak with impunity. The truth is, the value that the left accords to a person’s opinion has more to do with who’s speaking than with what they’re saying.

For example, when people began questioning the actor Jussie Smollett’s story of being attacked by two white men wearing Make America Great Again hats, they were immediately labeled racist online for the mere act of doubting a person of color. It turned out in the end that Smollett had fabricated the story.

By some strange logic, the left has determined that the views of people who have been oppressed are beyond reproach. But this is prejudicial thinking. We shouldn’t be assessing people’s claims and arguments differently depending on whose mouth they come out of.