Reply to your edit, I read hackeruser as using the term informally, to mean 'a good thing someone possesses', I was using it in the way it is normally used in d

Reply to your edit, I read hackeruser as using the term informally, to mean 'a good thing someone possesses', I was using it in the way it is normally used in discussions of equality, racism, sexism, and so on. I didn't actually note hackeruser's use of the term, so I wasn't responding to that. My point, I think, stands alone. It doesn't become a tautology, it has a specific meaning, and one important point is that when folks say 'merit' they are often bundling a bunch of stuff in there which is problematic and discriminatory. Merit sounds like a good thing. (Who wouldn't want to be Pro-Life, right?) But there are structural oppressions within it that deserve to be challenged.