Left Wing Opposition Rebuttal

Here's a facebook response to my previous post about left-wing ideology, and the post included a link to this article about Peterson.

First claim: the left are promoting racism and sexism by looking down on people who can't reach their potential on their own:  It's only "looking down" on people if you believe that anyone who can't fulfill their potential without any help is beneath us. In fact most people need help, and many at the top got help without ever asking because it was waiting for them: the connections, the money, the positions that waited to be filled until they were ready to fill them. But many people are so knocked down by history and by the current climate that they need help from their group affiliation in order to reach their individual potential. The people at the top already get help from their group affiliation. There's little difference in how much help people need; there's only difference in what kind of help we see as acceptable. Daddy gives you a hotel to run; you probably deserve that. People are marching in the streets to fight oppression; they're radicals. 

On the Employment Equity Act, aka Affirmative Action: It's not a matter of using power to privilege one small group over other groups, but to restrain the implicit biases people have when they hire. There are many studies that prove that most of us hold implicit biases towards our own group, towards people who look like we do. The Employment Equity Act is there to ensure that non-dominant groups get a fair chance at employment. The first round of resumes typically cut most names that don't fit the white male bias, but then, once people get to the interview stage, and IF two people have identical qualifications for the job, then we're required to choose the minority in that field. The minority could be a while male if, for instance, it's a primary school full of female teachers. People don't expect a 50/50 split, but if it could take us from a 99/1 split to maybe a 70/30, then it could affect people's recognition of varying abilities of different races and genders as role models as well as enabling society to benefit from the abilities of a wider variety of people. FYI, in Canada, the Employment Equity Act was introduced under Brian Mulroney and the Conservative Party.

It's not the case that people who haven't managed to achieve equity of outcomes need help because they are in any way inferior, but that some people have faced unbelievable odds stopping them at every turn throughout history, and the left wants to right past wrongs, acknowledge the past injustices, and provide a means for people to reach their potential despite rampant prejudices against them.

I'm unaware of anyone being remotely able to shut down anything Peterson says. His employer required him to use terms of respect with his non-binary students, but nobody has in any way prevented him from speaking out about that or anything else that comes to his mind. Many people over the years have challenged the view that people we've harmed in the past should get a leg up now, and they haven't been shut down either. People are disagreeing with him, for sure. But that's what happens to anyone who puts their voice out there.