One idea I think should get some traction in contemporary debates, but doesn't seem to get mentioned, as such, is the so-called 'Just World Hypothesis', or 'Just World Fallacy'. 1/ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-worl…
It's the cognitive bias that insists roughly everything (around here) is almost just as it is. A lot of these anti-CRT legislation efforts are basically attempts to legislate this, making it illegal to teach history in a manner that does not express & inculcate this bias. 2/
It's quite clear what forces pull on its behalf. The legitimacy of existing political/social/cultural authority may test on it, implicitly. So basic social/political stability may seem to require it. 3/
And for the ordinary folks on the street, it seems to promise that the requirements for being a just person, leading a morally upstanding life, are fairly minimal: just don't steal stuff or break the law and you, too, will be on the side of justice. 4/
A meta-induction. Even if you think CRT's false today, you do admit that at all earlier periods its proponents would have been basically in the right. And there would have been anti-CRT folks, like you today, swearing up and down it was an outrage to suggest such a thing. 5/
'At every point in history our honored ancestors wrongly believed they had approximately arrived at J. But they were all self-deceived. Luckily, just lately we have approximately arrived at J, and that's why we are making it illegal to teach otherwise - as a precaution.' 6/
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
