Listening to these poorly articulated and anti-American complaints has imbued me with a patriotic zeal to understand the absence of our cultural identity.
“Racist, homophobic, and misogynistic!” — Words that may have carried legitimate weight less than a century ago. Today, they’re used as a substitute for critical thinking, treating productive dialogue and opposing ideas like “thought crimes” in Orwell’s 1984.
Initially, I thought everyone would’ve had the awareness to dismiss these words as petty insults outside a campus of indoctrinated students. But seeing their definitions mutate to fit our current socio-political landscape, I realize they all tie into America’s new identity — the perpetual need to feel oppressed.