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Quote of the Day: Helping People
“When you want to help people, you tell them the truth. When you want to help yourself, you tell them what they want to hear. People with careers as ethnic leaders usually tell their followers what they want to hear.” – Thomas Sowell
I thought of this quote watching Democrats pandering to minority groups as they run for President. It seems the campaign is based on who can promise the most to certain ethnic groups — reparations, unlimited entrance to this country, immunity from prosecution based on race and sexual orientation. Promise sufficient goodies to enough different minorities and you have just over the 50 percent you need to get elected.
Neglected in this is the consequences of those decisions or that you are “relieving” injustice by creating other injustice. Law-abiding members of minority communities are hurt by privileges granted to law-breakers in their community. Those who are punished for “crimes” committed by ancestors long-dead (or ancestors of other people as theirs were somewhere else) are empowered to strike out at those “helped” by policies alleged to “redress” indignities from centuries earlier. Respect for the law is diminished — which rips the fabric of society.
Perhaps it is unsurprising that a few minorities are beginning to ignore the blandishments offered by grievance-mongers. Asians are beginning to sue colleges discriminating against them in favor of other preferred minorities. Donald Trump’s approval is now 51 percent among Hispanics, the group ostensibly “benefiting” from open borders. Even some blacks are beginning to realize the color of a President’s skin may not be the deciding factor as to whether more — and better paying — jobs are available to them.
Or, indeed that it was a black man who wrote these words above.
Published in Politics
I often find myself agreeing with Thomas Sowell, but never more so than with this statement:
I know what he’s talking about in the context of the rest of the quote, but I think, as does he, it has almost universal applicability to everything else in life.
I so agree!
Sowell is so quotable, we could have Sowell QOTD and it could run without any repeats for years. A genuinely wise man.
When I saw Sowell describe the two types, I thought of Booker T. Washington vs. W.E.B. Du Bois:
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Homosexuals and blacks in particularly have been rethinking the whole Trump thing. A few Asians and the rising Hispanic middle class are also noticing that capitalism seems to work pretty well for them and that the varieties of corrupt feudal-socialism that kept their ancestors poor back in the home country. Reality is the best teacher.
Wow. That is quite a quote. That dude is amazing.
The problem with trying to juggle pandering to different groups is that eventually you start to forget which lies you told, and to whom. At some point you either decide to treat everyone equally – as human beings – or you have to start picking and choosing which groups are entitled to what. The Dems have yet to learn that, but the problem with liars is that lies are like houses of cards – they always crash, it’s just a matter of timing, or a sudden gust of wind, or an errant pet cat.
Would 2016 be the time? Would Trump be the wind? Who, I wonder, is the cat?
Wonderful quote. Thomas Sowell is the Michael Ramirez of the written word
I had to quit reading him in public. It’s not that people objected, I agreed with so much that I looked like a headbanger.