Beware the Ideas of March

Thomas Sowell writes re the intelligentsia's embrace of the sophistries of multiculturalism:

George Orwell once said that some ideas are so foolish that only an intellectual could believe them. Multiculturalism is one of those ideas. The intelligentsia burst into indignation or outrage at “gaps” or “disparities” in educational, economic, or other outcomes — and denounce any cultural explanation of these group differences as “blaming the victim.” 

There is no question that some races or whole nations have been victimized by others, any more than there is any question that cancers can cause death. But that is very different from saying that deaths can automatically be blamed on cancer. You might think that intellectuals could make that distinction. But many do not. 

Yet intellectuals see themselves as friends, allies, and defenders of racial minorities, even as they paint them into a corner of cultural stagnation. This allows the intelligentsia to flatter themselves that they are on the side of the angels against the forces of evil that are conspiring to keep minorities down. 

When they cannot come up with hard evidence in any particular case to support this theory, that just proves to the intelligentsia how fiendishly clever and covert these pervasive efforts to hold down minorities are.

Hidden agenda, booga booga, and all that.