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The ‘Religious Privilege’ of Leftism
I often say that Islam is a political system disguised as a religion, and leftism is a religion disguised as a political system. Leftism makes no sense to me, unless viewed as a type of religious faith. And the further left they go, the more the leftist faithful move from simple beliefs in nice platitudes, to ignoring alternative views, to expulsion of those who question its ideology, to the use of violence against heretics. This pattern should look familiar to those who have studied the history of various religions. It should also look familiar to those who have studied the history of leftism.
The indispensable John Hinderaker at Powerline has an article up today about Cigna Insurance Company moving along the spectrum I described above. They are currently moving past “ignoring alternative views” and diving headlong into “expulsion of those who question their ideology.” Cigna is actually a step behind parts of the United States, which have already progressed to “the use of violence against heretics.” A paragraph from a Washington Examiner article John quotes describes the work environment at this company. Remember: this is a company that sells health insurance, it is not a political organization. They sell health insurance. From the Examiner article (emphasis mine):
Those who work at Cigna told the Washington Examiner that they are expected to undergo sensitivity training they consider racist and discriminatory. Lessons include reviews of concepts such as “white privilege,” “gender privilege,” and something called “religious privilege,” which is described as “a set of advantages that benefits believers of a certain religion but not people who practice other religions or no religions at all.”
I presume that the leftists who designed this ‘sensitivity training’ exercise mean Christianity when they describe a religion “that benefits believers of a certain religion but not people who practice other religions or no religions at all.” I doubt that they mean Islam or Buddhism.
But if they had the self-awareness to recognize that their leftism has taken on the characteristics of a religion, they would recognize that that statement makes the most sense when applied to their own religion – the religion of leftism. Cigna is openly hiring leftists and minorities over conservatives and whites. They make no effort to hide this, as the Examiner article documents. In fact, that is the whole point of their “sensitivity training.”
The “religious privilege” they describe is very real. But only for their own religion. You must genuflect at the altar of leftism before being offered a job at Cigna, and you must continue to do so at endless “sensitivity trainings” to remain employed there.
There is “religious privilege” at Cigna. They should know because they’re doing it themselves. To benefit the believers of their religion of leftism, but not people who practice other religions or no religion at all.
And they wouldn’t have it any other way.
Does this help them sell health insurance? Of course not. Their job applicant pool is reduced by at least half before they begin. So they can’t hire all the most talented applicants. They know this, and they are ok with it.
Because matters of faith must take precedence over more mundane concerns, of course.
Peace be upon them.
Published in General
Excellent observation. I worked for several companies and it never failed that all the dullards were in HR. And, it always seemed to me that HR considered themselves to be the center of the company.
I fear that socialism and fascism, which are very much alive today, will always be alive somewhere in the world.
A lot of the problems are due to our miserable education system. In my experience (in Atlanta), it was almost impossible to fill positions utilizing local talent; thus, a third of my staff were foreign contractors. Thankfully, at that time (over 10 years ago), I was able to fill positions based on qualifications and not diversity.
No matter the position, I had some standardized tests that I used to separate the real techies from the B.S. artists.
“Small” is a relative term. I do think it’s a relatively small group with a wildly outsized voice. All it takes to launch a social media campaign is a couple of dozen committed woke nuts and a sympathetic press.
Out here in the real world, I think most people don’t even know it’s going on — and it’s more often the stuff of humor when they do find out.
I think Wokeism is more of a mania than a religion. It has some traits of religion (moral leaders, heresy, banishment,…) but cults have those things too. Religions have an official code (eg, bible or catechism) and a deity a human origin story and usually a supernatural after-life. Wokeism is more like the KKK without hoods.
It’s remarkable that Cigna is stepping into the realm of religion. This can’t end well for them. I know that our environment is shifting rapidly but religion is going to be a minefield that they won’t easily get through.
Probably more languages with the folks I work with, but Hindi and Bengali tend to be the big ones. Occasionally I can tell they are using one of the lessor languages then the rest of the group pushes them back to Hindi or Bengali. They will have a discussion between them in Hindi then one of the better English speakers may translate the consensus.
Henry, you’re correct regarding we folks out here in the real world. Unfortunately, you’re also correct about that “relatively small group with a wildly outsized voice”. I’m in the middle of “The Manipulators” and it’s instructive that the employees of Facebook, Google and Twitter really are a hardcore cadre of leftists who believe that they are superior to the rest of us.
So, as we go further into the world of AI, be prepared for even more of those algorithms that define “hateful” and “white supremacists” and give us only the “facts” that they want us to know.
What’s small? I think it’s at least a third of the country. I don’t consider that small.
I read the link over at Power Line on the new Woke Cigna, and I sent it to my insurance agent, a couple of other people and my long suffering sister-in-law who is a home health care nurse and has to deal with the malarkey from all insurance companies in the new Obamacare world. We had Cigna once, and it was actually the best coverage we ever had, but it was a big company that used them. So nuts to the peanut gallery – welcome to the world of insanity and lousy coverage, and the new world rules that are being forced on us and not by accident.
Well, of course you could be right. But I think the fraction of the country that could plausibly be called “woke” is actually very much smaller than that, just a few percent really. But I suppose you and I are both guessing, so we can simply disagree.
What I am confident about is that normal people blessed with simple common sense vastly outnumber the flakey woke folks. But, for a variety of reasons, we’re too often silent.
Doesn’t sound very diverse.
That’s bloody rude, not to mention inefficient. You’re being paid, but just to sit there without understanding and contributing?
I work in an office which is quite diverse, but which also has a critical mass of Indians. Despite that the office language is emphatically English, so nobody is excluded and everybody can contribute.
It will end just fine. If it does not make them profitable then the Left will just make everybody follow the new woke rules
Diverse just means no straight white men.
they are from India, their customs are not ours and to complains makes you a bigot
some of our guys grasp of English is a bit confusing. Office procedure usually has emails sent to help in many cases since we have trouble with communications. Also as CYA
Perhaps ask questions? They may not be doing it consciously to exclude. What is your role in these meetings? To provide technical input, or to set out business needs?
I’ve found one needs to be generous about different levels of English to keep it all in English.
Health insurers are essentially NGOs. Remember it was the insurance companies that were some of the loudest supporters for the ACA. Now there’s something to not understand. Affordable Care? First you drive up the cost of insurance, and then you require everyone to have some. What was not to be liked by the insurance companies? Oh right, the end game is nationalized healthcare, where nobody needs insurance. Do not the top executives see this? Or do they think they’ll just walk into their government sinecures?
They’ll be retired, having cashed in their stock options by then. Long term is not their concern.
At the rate we’re going, long term may be two or three years. What do the second tier execs think?
Sorry, I am of a non protected group. Questioning the actions of a protected group is reason for sanction.
Being a member of a non protect group has hazards. Questioning anything about a protected group is one of them. Also noticing that when a team or department gets an Indian manager that the whole department turns Indian is one of them. Such is corporate America has been and getting worse for the last 20 years.
I suspect they think they can transform their companies to be a middle man of some sort and continue to make a living. Not sure they understand government and government unions desire to take over another industry.
When Chuck Schumer and others referred to the Capitol incursion as different and powers of order higher than the “free speech” riots that engulfed parts of large US cities, I thought he was just misusing the word out of ignorance. But with another thread and the distinctions that some raise, and the nearly irrational fear of anything approaching it ever happening again, it now appears to me that Schumer and others really do mean that the Capitol is sacred.
When protesters beat on the doors of the Supreme court the word sacred wasn’t invoked. When protesters threw fire bombs out front of the White House, no one argued that the White House was sacred (or that the office of the presidency deserves special respect, as was said during the 0bama years). When the Federal Court House in Seattle(?) was set on fire, no one objected that it was sacred. Shop owners’ livelihoods are not sacred. But the Capitol is sacred.
Either there is tremendous hypocrisy at play here or else some people – Trump-haters, Leftists, socialists, progressives, and perhaps, I don’t know, even some libertarians and Rightists – really do consider the Capitol to be a sacred temple of some sort. Perhaps to some, government really is a religion. What do they sacrifice, and to what or whom?
When they get around to sacrificing Pelosi and AOC, please let me know. I’ll be glad to act as High Priest.
They sacrifice their fellow citizens, without any qualms, to their own beliefs that they hold sacred.
You can preside at the swearing-out ceremony.
I’ll take it…
Yes, I think, they seem to sacrifice others to themselves.
Yes we’re guessing and it also depends on how you define woke. But how do you attribute more than half the Democratic Party to be woke? How do you attribute the media accommodating the woke crowd? That suggests a demographic bigger than we imagine.
Where are the Board of Directors and stockholders in all of this?
I seem to recall that a company can be taken to court by the stockholders if it strays too far from its duty to make money for them.
Matters of faith must take precedence over more mundane concerns, of course.
What are you, racist?!?
Klavan is not saying that it will pass without damage, but that there will come a time when the woke are regarded as the villains. There will be great evil done still. Small comfort for us living through these times but still a hope for the future.