DIVERSITY
EQUITY
INCLUSION
Say these words aloud ... slowly ... one at a time. Let each linger in your mind for a moment. Chew it intentionally; digesting it slowly before moving on to the next. Don't mush them together; abbreviating and conflating them - denuding them of their meaning.
Unless denuding them of their meaning is your intent. In that case, just say the first letter of each word, and chant the resulting contraction rapidly, without any of the underlying reality. Listen constantly to speech that is peppered with this abbreviation, spoken contemptuously, until you come to adopt that contempt as your own.
Over time, in your mind, these concepts are no longer societal North Stars, and the source of our nation's strength - but are instead, part of an insidious plot to weaken us; fairness is now perceived as cheating; up is down, black is white, good is bad.
Surrender yourself to the NewSpeak.
Voltaire, the French Enlightenment writer and philosopher, is credited with coining the expression, ‘Anyone who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities’. As we learn about loyal employees losing their careers, accused of nothing more pernicious than being a 'DEI hire', or see American citizens rounded up, roughed up, and detained for no cause other than that they met the profile of a class of human beings our government intended for that treatment, how can we not ask ourselves what have we become?