Social justice is to justice as fast food is to food. It might taste or feel good but is harmful ultimately. Especially when is a governance priority. Thomas Sowell, an eminent and accomplished economist and author (Angela Y. Davis is certainly an accomplished activist, by one may question her scholarship credentials) has written about the concept. One of his observations is apropos here "What do you call it when someone steals someone else's money secretly? Theft. What do you call it when someone takes someone else's money openly by force? Robbery. What do you call it when a politician takes someone else's money in taxes and gives it to someone who is more likely to vote for him? Social Justice." Sowell, Social Justice Fallacies (2023). Mr. Sowell also cited Friedrich Hayek's observation that "... a world with everyone having equal chances of success in all endeavors— was not only unattainable, but that its fervent but futile pursuit can lead to the opposite of what its advocates are seeking. It was not that social justice advocates would create dictatorships, but that their passionate attacks on existing democracies could weaken those democracies to the point where others could seize dictatorial powers.” The number of veto points in our system of government (federalism, electoral college, the Senate (particularly the filibuster), Presidential veto, judicial review, and terms limits for the President) has been and is an effective bar to authoritarianism. The "social justice left" wants to eliminate those veto points. That is what is scary. Trump might not have been my first choice, but is is not a "threat to democracy." His main threat is to oligarchy; that is, the administrative state created by our lazy Congressmen (and women) who are more interested in being re-elected to their cushy positions., than careful legislation.
Social justice is to justice as fast food is to food. It might taste or feel good but is harmful ultimately. Especially when is a governance priority. Thomas Sowell, an eminent and accomplished economist and author (Angela Y. Davis is certainly an accomplished activist, by one may question her scholarship credentials) has written about the concept. One of his observations is apropos here "What do you call it when someone steals someone else's money secretly? Theft. What do you call it when someone takes someone else's money openly by force? Robbery. What do you call it when a politician takes someone else's money in taxes and gives it to someone who is more likely to vote for him? Social Justice." Sowell, Social Justice Fallacies (2023). Mr. Sowell also cited Friedrich Hayek's observation that "... a world with everyone having equal chances of success in all endeavors— was not only unattainable, but that its fervent but futile pursuit can lead to the opposite of what its advocates are seeking. It was not that social justice advocates would create dictatorships, but that their passionate attacks on existing democracies could weaken those democracies to the point where others could seize dictatorial powers.” The number of veto points in our system of government (federalism, electoral college, the Senate (particularly the filibuster), Presidential veto, judicial review, and terms limits for the President) has been and is an effective bar to authoritarianism. The "social justice left" wants to eliminate those veto points. That is what is scary. Trump might not have been my first choice, but is is not a "threat to democracy." His main threat is to oligarchy; that is, the administrative state created by our lazy Congressmen (and women) who are more interested in being re-elected to their cushy positions., than careful legislation.