Selwyn Duke
'Diversity is a strength' is just something stupid people say
FacebookTwitter
By Selwyn Duke
January 18, 2024

What has so often struck me, and irked me, about the embrace of “diversity” dogma is how profoundly unintellectual it is. A wiseguy might say it’s really a simple IQ test, though a wise guy understands it’s a soul and sagacity test. To wit:

To the extent that a person accepts as imperative diversity, DEI, CRT, wokeness in general — or whatever the latest shiny anti-Truth thing is — he is a vacuous know-nothing, not just unqualified, but dangerously ignorant.

Two recent examples are disgraced ex-Harvard president Claudine Gay and Johns Hopkins Hospital’s chief diversity officer Sherita Hill Golden, now infamous for disseminating a “privilege hit list.” Affirmative-action hires both, each one is the kind of woman about whom ex-radio giant and now podcaster Michael Savage would say, “In my day, the highest she would’ve gone is owning a brassiere store on Queens Blvd. — and after 19 years, she’d have had two brassiere stores.”

What’s simultaneously so laughable and so sad about all such people, supposedly the crème de la crème of the intelligentsia (I call them pseudo-elites), is that they will obediently disgorge the latest word-salad-replete, cock-and-bull academic theory like part of a hive mind. But that’s the problem with elevating empty vessels on identity bases: You get no creativity, just craven conformity.

This is what political theorist Hannah Arendt called “the banality of evil.” If, however, you merely seek conduits through which to push an agenda no virtuous, thinking person would push, such people are precisely who you recruit.

For they’ll accept Diversity™ — they’ll even worship the DEIty — no questions asked. They won’t wonder why diversity should be considered desirable, a good, without proof; they won’t demand data. They’ll just repeat, mindlessly, “Our strength lies in our diversity!” because they’ve heard it so much. Repetition imprints most effectively with soft heads.

This brings something to mind, too: an old Twilight Zone episode that wonderfully places diversity calls in perspective. Titled “Eye of the Beholder” (1959), it features a demagogic leader who repetitively issues his own slogans. A clip follows (note: It is a spoiler of sorts), and pay attention to the segment beginning at 0:27 and, in particular, the several seconds starting at 1:10.

“Conformity!” the tyrant yells. “Conformity!” Analyzing the above superficially, some will say it actually supports the diversity agenda, as the demagogue inveighs against “differences”; conformity is the opposite of diversity, after all. And Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling, a WWII vet, was greatly influenced by his experiences and often wove warnings about Hitler-like seducers into his work (his commentary was not infallible, either, mind you). But the point is this:

The pig-faced demagogue’s “Conformity!” and our lipstick-on-a-pig “Diversity!” are both slogans uttered mindlessly, without understanding or nuance.

In reality, both diversity and conformity are necessary and good — in certain situations.

We absolutely, for example, want conformity to the truth that one mustn’t commit murder, rape or theft; to the imperative of having nice manners; to the virtue of honesty; and many other goods. As for diversity, it’s an inescapable reality, with people being taller and shorter, stronger and weaker, smarter and duller. It also can be a good: That people have varied gifts is why we’ve had Einstein, Pasteur, Aristotle, da Vinci, Aquinas, Watson and Crick, and history’s other geniuses. We have diversity in products and services and invention and innovation because man has diversity in talent and inclination.

But our diversity agenda is like pig-face’s conformity demands. It’s divorced from the only thing that informs as to when diversity or conformity is desirable: Truth. When this happens, an agenda, which should be meant to serve the good, becomes the “good” — aka a false god.

The result, then, is confusion, people thinking that the diversity of children claiming they’re the opposite sex is good and the conformity of marrying only the opposite sex is bad, that the diversity of foul language in art is liberation but the conformity of a common language in life is oppression, or that the diversity of different group-performance outcomes is bad but conformity to social engineering meant to eliminate them is good.

Sloganeering can be done with anything. “War!” “Peace!” “Hope!” “Change!” “Forward!” “Progress!” “Equality!” Be careful, however, anytime something becomes a mantra. It may mean that when promoting the given idea, reason would fail so repetition is the fallback.

Also realize that everyone wants a type of conformity. Our pseudo-elites, for instance, want us to conform to their diversity machinations — or suffer persecution. And our reaction must be something that, within the context of our now left-wing status quo, would be a real example of diversity: the complete destruction of their agenda and replacement of it with sanity.

Contact Selwyn Duke, follow him on MeWe or Gettr or log on to SelwynDuke.com

© Selwyn Duke

 

The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)

Click to enlarge

Selwyn Duke

Selwyn Duke (@SelwynDuke) has written for The Hill, Observer, The American Conservative, WorldNetDaily, and American Thinker. He has also contributed to college textbooks published by Gale – Cengage Learning, has appeared on television and is a frequent guest on radio. His website is www.SelwynDuke.com.

Contact Selwyn Duke, follow him on Twitter, or log on to SelwynDuke.com

Subscribe

Receive future articles by Selwyn Duke: Click here

More by this author

February 3, 2026
Here’s the Truth—and it’s Not Pretti


January 29, 2026
The Democrats WILL support immigration control—at this precise point


December 29, 2025
'Battle of the Sexes' another blow against feminism and 'transgender' lunacy


December 23, 2025
Should we be defending left-wing Europe from right-wing Russia?


December 11, 2025
Citizenship Clause surreality: The Clause’s own author said it doesn’t include aliens


December 3, 2025
NY Times op-ed writer slams Whites: 'You lost;' 'Your culture sucks'


November 25, 2025
'Pride' Flag Flies (in Victory?) Over Now-purplish ex-Catholic Church in Small-town USA


November 6, 2025
Almost a Republican sweep last night—if only men voted


November 3, 2025
Beyond the cotton field: How “racist” was pre-civil-rights-era America, really?


October 23, 2025
Video: Leftist lunacy—my experiences at a Saturday 'No Kings' protest


More articles

 

Stephen Stone
This holiday season: A message to all who love our country and want to help save it

Stephen Stone
The most egregious lies Evan McMullin and the media have told about Sen. Mike Lee

Siena Hoefling
Protect the Children: Update with VIDEO

Stephen Stone
FLASHBACK to 2020: Dems' fake claim that Trump and Utah congressional hopeful Burgess Owens want 'renewed nuclear testing' blows up when examined

Tom DeWeese
Stop the Chemtrail Destruction: Here’s a bill every legislator needs to support

Steve A. Stone
An explanation – in case you need one

Curtis Dahlgren
Get a load of this, Meathead: Actual quotes by college professors

Jerry Newcombe
Is it cool to be unpatriotic? Perhaps—but it’s also ungrateful

Pete Riehm
Buffet or melting pot?

Linda Goudsmit
An open letter to President Trump

Joan Swirsky
A leftist anti-ICE fantasy

Cliff Kincaid
A scandal bigger than Epstein [VIDEO]

Tom DeWeese
The hidden war on property rights — How NGOs pressure your local officials [VIDEO]

Rev. Mark H. Creech
Truth for Our Times: A Weekly Commentary on Faith, Culture, and the Public Square

Paul Cameron
Women can’t be replaced – Are they revolting against pregnancy?

Curtis Dahlgren
Thoughts on one-child Presidents: coincidental results?
  More columns

Cartoons


Click for full cartoon
More cartoons

Columnists

Matt C. Abbott
Chris Adamo
Russ J. Alan
Bonnie Alba
Chuck Baldwin
Kevin J. Banet
J. Matt Barber
Fr. Tom Bartolomeo
. . .
[See more]

Sister sites