When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.
—Maya Angelou
One of the dominant narratives today and presumably the main push of the Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity (DIE) industry is that no matter who you are, or what you believe, you are welcome and your opinions are valid. While this sounds very nice, and seems a preeminently Canadian sentiment, it is no more true than insisting that any place to live is as good as any other place. Often this last statement is uttered from the comfort of a warm livingroom in a gated community.
For years many have been warning of the dangers of these DIE dogmas that are flooding our culture. This radical, toxic ideology has permeated our universities, our corporations, and our government. It has taken hold in popular discourse in the way we assert acceptance of everyone, regardless of who they claim to be, and regardless of who they actually are. Everyone thar is, except those who push back against this ridiculousness. It has led us to the idea that even questioning one’s claims is an insult - if a man tells you he is a woman, how dare you question her identity?
DIE has created a culture in which even pointing out an obvious truth is an act that must be second-guessed in the off chance that it may offend someone and result in serious consequences for the offender.
It is into this landscape that grifters have sprung up throughout the country looking to cash in on our fear of offending. These DIE consultants will train you (for an exorbitant fee) in the art of anti-racism, because not being racist is simply not good enough.
In Canada, where we are so overly concerned with the art of inoffensiveness, it's no wonder that our very own Prime Minister has attempted to cash in on this trend. One attempt (of many) was the hiring of one such anti-racist consultant by our government in 2021 to teach our media how to navigate these rough waters. This consultant who was hired to teach us all how not to be racist, a man by the name of Laith Marouf, in a shocking turn of events turned out to be (wait for it) - an actual racist. This may in fact be the absolute best evidence to date of real systemic racism in Canada's government. Funny how things rarely look the way they're supposed to look, eh?
Well, now this guy, Laith Marouf, is back in the news. Not because Trudeau hired him back (thankfully), but because he has once again shown himself to be precisely whom most of the country had known him to be for a full year before our government found out, and whom he was also known to be by the Prime Minister's Office almost a month before the story made national headlines. For his part, Marouf insists it was the Jews’ fault…
The current conflict between Israel and Hamas offers a perfect backdrop on which to examine these ideas.
Here's his latest diatribe:
“Zionism is Nazism, and Apartheid Canada was a model for both of them. As soon as we liberate Palestine, we will be aiding our Indigenous relatives to liberate theirs. We will bring you to trial for your crimes."
Is this a threat? The raving of a mad man? Or both? According to many, we are colonizers just like Israel, as is the rest of the western world, and according to Laith Marouf, the cure is the same.
This guy is a perfect example of how these things are continually overlooked and accepted in the name of diversity, inclusion, and equity. And our Prime Minister is the poster boy for this kind of acceptance. Because who are we to judge someone else's beliefs, right? Aren't they just as valid as our own? And these people are oppressed, and minorities, so how dare we presume to understand their lived experience? Obviously we must fully believe them without delay.
Up until now, anyone giving voice to the thought that some ideas and cultural practices are simply not acceptable here have been relegated to the bigoted fringe where the colonizers, homophobes and all manner of otherphobes congregate.
Here we can plainly see the culmination of this line of thinking. And make no mistake - this is the exact same ideology that is so prevalent in our universities. The idea that for the “colonized”, any form of retaliation is acceptable, including the rape and murder of innocent children.
Now we can clearly see the monster we have created. I'm not saying we created Hamas, but by our refusal as a society to condemn that type of rhetoric, we have in fact encouraged it.
We should no longer be surprised at what transpires when cowardly leaders refuse to condemn these ideas and these individuals that are so obviously against everything our civilization stands for. We shouldn't be surprised when university students and union leaders repeat the same drivel that Laith Marouf espouses when they're trained by their DIE departments that all views are equal and the entire world is nothing more than a struggle between oppressed and oppressor. Also, those with the most money and the most power are always in the wrong.
Despite the fact that nearly 60 percent of religious-bias hate crimes in the US in 2020 targeted Jews, apparently it is the Jews who are abusing their immense power and influence and are to blame for so much of what's wrong in the world. Because believing these things frees us from the burden of actually thinking about any given situation critically.
I used this quote in my last piece, but it certainly bears repeating.
Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.
Matthew 7:6
The more we give in to bullies with selfish aims couched in pretty language; the more we placate them with platitudes we ourselves don't even believe; and the more we refuse to speak for fear of being labeled a bigot, or one of the many phobes, the more we can expect that these pigs will eventually turn on us and tear us to pieces.
This is the reason we must refuse to accept ideologies that go against our culture of freedom and acceptance - even when they claim to be pure. Being accepting doesn't mean accepting anything. We and our laws are the ones in control here, not the ideologies of primitive and warlike cultures that seek to turn us like them.
This is the reason we can't give even an inch to those who advocate these insane ideas. This is also the reason why Hamas would never stop if Israel just laid down their weapons today. They hate us all and would just as soon drop a passenger jet on the city of Toronto as they would mow down 300 kids at a concert. The sooner we take those rosey, rainbow-coloured glasses off, the sooner we'll see what's really going on. It's time we take these people - all of them - at their word, and believe them when they tell us who they are.
More from BlogOfKen:
This is an odd one because you’re saying the problem with DIE (clever) initiatives is that they are so extremely inclusive and tolerant (“that no matter who you are, or what you believe, you are welcome and your opinions are valid.”) that they tolerate views and ideas that shouldn’t be tolerated, but at the bottom of the page are several suggested past articles by none other than yourself of which the thesis is the exact opposite - that DEI (sorry, DIE) is so EXclusive and INtolerant of certain views and ideas that it is akin to fascism.
My head is spinning.