4 ms·
Your first paragraph is betrayed by the reality in your second of what most kids don’t have. We’ve never had a meritocracy in the US. It is a lie that is told
by avs733 5y ago
Your first paragraph is betrayed by the reality in your second of what most kids don’t have.
We’ve never had a meritocracy in the US. It is a lie that is told to enable disequitable. treatment.
- mensetmanusman 5y agoThis absolutism assumes free will doesn’t exist. I grew up in poverty, spent time as a child looking for dropped coins in McDonald’s drive-troughs, eventually graduated from MIT. You could redefine meritocracy to not include my case, but that is left as an exercise for the reader.
- esyir 5y agoThe anti meritocracy argument goes, as it always does: meritocracy is not perfect => meritocracy is worthless and must be discarded. It's an absolutely pointless argument that can be applied to any system that exists in the real world, instead of that of spherical cows.
- jeherr 5y agoIt’s the same argument Republicans use against the welfare state. Some people will abuse it so we just as well scrap the whole thing.
- throwoutway 5y agoThe argument I’ve heard against it, is not that “some” will abuse it, but eventually the majority will abuse it.
- avs733 5y agoI didn't say meritocracy is not perfect, I said that claims of meritocracy have no basis in reality. Those are different. It isn't that meritocracy does or does not function - it is that it doesn't exist