Modern media and the triumph of Critical Theory have convinced many people that a virtual world of their own choosing is preferable to reality itself.
Dying as a result is a small price to pay.
“So what if the ceiling of that overcrowded basement nightclub catches fire? Never mind fleeing, you have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to film it for Instagram.”
“Believing what you see with your own eyes, trusting common sense, and acting on it is exactly how you become a party to systemic oppression,” explained former dean of the School of Education at the University of San Francisco Kevin Kumashiro.
“We couldn’t agree more!” averred CNN investigative reporter Whitney Wild, who thoroughly debunked the Minneapolis Somali daycare fraud scandal by calling one daycare operator and accepting their assurance that everything was legitimate.
Consider more cases.
The DC couple Jay Austin & Lauren Geoghegan believed that counting on the kindness of strangers in foreign lands—and trusting in the Islamic tradition of ḍiyāfa—was the surest way to demonstrate that Islamophobia has no place in the world.
Then there’s Martha McKay, who stands as a symbol of trust and forgiveness in the face of a culture corrupted by racism.
MIT professor Sally Haslanger captures the logic perfectly: “To unmask the illusions of those who endorse a hegemonic understanding of reality one cannot simply point to the facts, because hegemony functions to constitute the facts that render it legitimate.”
This gospel has taken hold among a generation of Critical Theory adherents, who have been taught to avoid any epistemology that privileges reason and evidence over ideology and feeling.
Even if it kills you.