How to Cure Your Liberalism (Part 3)

Exercise Common Sense

If it looks like a dog, smells like a dog, barks like a dog, and sniffs other dog’s butts, what is it?

The leftist mindset that once inhabited my cranium is uncomfortable calling a dog a dog. The liberal concept of objectivity is the consideration of every possible perspective or representation of reality. And that’s just silly. We’re smart animals, and we’re fully capable of determining what is and what isn’t. We can figure things out (how would we have microwavable popcorn or boxer-briefs if we couldn’t?).

This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t question the status quo or listen to a diverse array of opinions, but the virtue of having an “open mind” is not that simple. You should very quickly be able to figure out that Islamic terrorism is inexcusable, and that Che Guevara was a murderer, not a hero. Despite whatever apologists say to “provide perspective”, some things are so intrinsically wrong that no explanation can validate them.

Far too often, people take their common sense for granted, and mistakenly replace it with empathy. And while empathy is a wonderful emotion when it comes to helping friends and understanding people, it can become a hindrance that leads to the rationalization of atrocity and idiocy when left unchecked.

Feminism, one the left’s most hideous byproducts, is the obliteration of common sense. One of many false premises accepted and propagated by feminists (and the president) is the wage gap between men and women. Feminists speak and act as if it is an empirical fact that women make something around three-fourths of what men make for the same amount of work while having equal amounts of both education and work experience.

Common sense should compel you, as a rational thinker, to question this notion immediately. In a greedy, selfish, capitalistic world, wouldn’t it then be advantageous for an employer to hire women exclusively? If you could pay an employee $45,000 per year instead of $60,000 and get the same results, you’d have to be insane to pony up the extra dough for the sake of genitalia preference.

Here’s a real life analogy:

In my line of work, as an English teacher in Thailand, the teachers in the job market whom native speakers like myself are in the greatest competition with are Filipino, African, and other non-native-English-speaking teachers. Why? Because they work for less money. Native speakers are from more affluent countries, and therefore will not work for less than what they need to maintain a comfortable lifestyle and to be able to afford to fly home every now and then. Since the cost of living in the Philippines and, say, Cameroon is not nearly as high as it is in the US or the UK, the given amount teachers from those countries will work for is lower. This causes a dilemma for the schools: to hire non-native speakers who lack relevant colloquial language skills and proper accents? Or to hire native speakers at a premium? If a Kenyan or Indian were able to offer the same authenticity of language as an Australian or a Canadian at a lower cost to the employer, surely native speakers would be forced to lower their financial demands, or find work elsewhere.

This is not to say that women in the workforce are somehow less capable than their male counterparts, and are represented by the non-native speakers in this example. Rather, it is meant to show that wages and services coincide naturally. There is no societal conspiracy (such as a patriarchy) interfering with the free market to give men a financial advantage over women.

Genuine factors exist which cause male salaries to be higher than female salaries on average. For example, women generally take more sick days than men. Women work part-time more regularly than men. Women choose careers that are safer and of less necessity to society than men (i.e. men are more likely to work in the police force, construction industry, serve in the military, etc.). And possibly the number one most overlooked factor that results in a wage gap is the choice many women make to have and raise children.

Since the dawn of man (humans, that is), women have been the primary care-takers of their children and households, while men have made a living for the family be it by hunting and gathering, or working for the man (executive, that is). In the years women leave their jobs to care for their babies, their former co-workers (both male and female) advance in their professions, stay up-to-date in their fields, and earn more money accordingly. When mothers go back to work, they are typically not worthy of the same salaries as those who never discontinued their careers.

That’s just common sense.

Come to Terms with Your Secular Religiosity

Here’s a little anecdote that may have led me down the path to atheism:

When I was very young, maybe seven or eight, I remember my mom yelling at me for making a mess of the downstairs. She had me sitting down and was reinforcing that what I had done was wrong when I stopped her. “Mom,” I said, “I didn’t do it; God did.” She couldn’t even rebut my desperate defense. She tried her hardest not to grin, shook her head, and sighed in loving, parental frustration.

Clever, huh? Well, it was still quite some time before I was comfortable announcing my independence from God. And when I did, I smugly thought that I had been intellectually baptized.

What I’ve come to realize recently, though, is that atheism and religion are not mutually exclusive. An easy way to prove this is to look at Buddhism. Buddhism is one of the most practiced religions in the world, and there is nothing in Buddhism’s dogma about one or many gods. In other words, Buddhism is, by definition, an atheistic organized religion, Quod erat demonstradum.

But religious behavior exists outside of conventional faiths too. Some people honestly worship money. They see money as the answer to all of their prayers, and sacrifice themselves for their false idol. Helicopter parents worship their children. Diehard sports fans worship their teams. Environmentalists worship the planet. And leftists worship their gods: Diversity, Equality, and The State.

Historically, communism, leftism at its most extreme, has been religiously secular. North Koreans are discouraged from practicing a religion, but at the same time face dire consequences for not kowtowing  to whichever Kim-Jung they’re up to at the moment. Religion was outlawed in Mao’s China as well as in the Soviet Union, but sacrificing oneself to the holy foundation of the state was mandatory. In the same way many liberals fear the possibility of the religious right forcing Christian values upon our nation, we should be equally if not more terrified of our government’s potential to proclaim itself our deity.

Since I have been enlightened to this concept, it has become even more important to me to remain irreligious than it is to remain atheist. What difference does it make whether or not God exists anyway? The morals God expresses in the 10 Commandments are identical to the morals of an objective and free man:

  1. I am God; I freed you from slavery (you are free)
  2. No other gods before Me (don’t be religious)
  3. Do not carry My name in vain (don’t do shitty things and blame them on Me [unless you’re mom is yelling at you for making a mess of the downstairs]; take responsibility for your actions; don’t kill My rep, dude!)
  4. Keep the Sabbath holy (don’t work too hard, and don’t make anyone else work too hard [including your donkey]; you’re free!)
  5. Honor your father and mother (I’m pretty sure this doesn’t count for abusive or neglectful parents)
  6. Don’t murder (perfect)
  7. Don’t commit adultery (perfect)
  8. Don’t steal (perfect)
  9. Don’t lie (perfect [and encompasses stealing freedom {slavery} and stealing sex {rape}])
  10. Don’t covet (In Hebrew, coveting is desiring another’s property to the point of actually taking it, not simply desiring as George Carlin erroneously but hilariously puts it)

There’s nothing about bowing down, fasting, sacrificing buffalo, or forking over your hard-earned money to society to be seen. These commandments don’t seem very religious to me.

P.S. – this take on the 10 Commandments was inspired by Prager University.

How to Cure Your Liberalism (Part 3)

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