Who Were the Sea Peoples?

Here : "This dynamic operates most visibly at our universities, where well-off, mostly white liberals—the post-Protestant WASPs—rule. The legitimacy of this elite depends upon its commitment to 'include' the 'excluded.' It goes without saying that an Ivy League administrator must manage the optics very carefully to sustain 'marginality' among the talented students who have gained admission. 'Microaggression' and other key terms in the ever-­evolving scholasticism of discrimination thus play very useful roles. They renew the threats of discrimination and exclusion, and this reinforces the power of liberal elites. Their institutional ascendancy is necessary to protect and provide patronage to the 'excluded.' I’m quite certain that if political correctness succeeds in suppressing 'microaggressions,' we’ll soon hear about 'nano-­aggressions.' The logic of solidarity in marginality requires oppression, and solidarity in margina...

I saw a character in a TV show chastise another character for having hash oil in her purse by saying, "Drugs are still illegal." Of course, not all drugs are illegal! Alcohol is not, tobacco is not, and aspirin is not. If the character speaking had wanted to be precise, she would have said, "Illegal drugs are illegal." But then we have a mere pleonasm! And that formulation might lead us to question why some drugs are legal, and others are not. A similar situation occurs when someone asserts that a Christian bakery should not be able to refuse to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding because "discrimination is wrong." Of course, such people are perfectly happy to discriminate among many other possible sorts of weddings, e.g., brother-sister weddings, and child weddings, and polygamous weddings. What they are really claiming is that wrongful discrimination is wrong: which is, of course, true by definition. But by phrasing this as they do, they are ...

'Things are made more complex still by the inclusion, in all European provisions, of “non-discrimination” as a human right. When offering a benefit, a contract of employment, a place in a college, or a bed in a hospital, you are commanded not to discriminate on grounds of…there then follows a list derived from the victims of recent history: race, ethnic group, religion, gender, sexual orientation, and whatever is next to be discovered. But all coherent societies are based on discrimination: A society is an “in-group,” however large and however hospitable to newcomers.' -- Roger Scruton