We believe that for many, these simple statements form a sort of creed that binds them with other co-religionists under a shared worldview. But just scratching the surface of these inane tautologies, we can see just how shallow this worldview really is.
Black Lives Matter: Of course they do. Like all other races, black people are made in God’s image and are due the rights and dignity that go along with that. We are obligated to fight for black Americans to receive the same rights and respect as anyone else in this country. But I’m not aware of any conservative politician or mainstream Christian leader that holds another opinion in modern America. So, what exactly does this phrase seek to communicate?
The content hidden below the surface is that America is irredeemable in its current form because systemic racism is so baked into the pie that black people cannot be safe and successful. So, they conclude that we need to scrap the whole thing and start over with a system based on equity, a push for equal outcomes rather than equal opportunities. If you doubt me – google Black Lives Matter and read for an hour.
No Human Is Illegal: This is a great example of the shallowness of the progressive creed. Unless I’m missing the point, this is a reference to the fight over whether “illegal immigrant” is somehow racists and offensive. Responding to the phrase “illegal immigrant” by saying “no human is illegal” is like responding to the phrase “race-car driver” by saying “no human is a race car.” Sure, but he is a driver of a race car, and the illegal immigrant is an immigrant who did so illegally. No one is claiming that their humanity is illegal, only their breaking of our immigration laws.
Love Is Love: How could anyone disagree with this? But again, scratching an inch beneath the superficial statement, you see the convoluted value proposition they are making – that no matter what kind of sexual or romantic arrangement you choose, as long as “love” however vaguely defined is involved, it is equal to any other kind of sexual or romantic arrangement. That’s nonsense. Every culture learned in its infancy that to leave sex unregulated by social customs led to chaos. The variables in these relationships – like age, gender, intentions, number of people, whether parties are members of the same family, etc. – greatly complicate the equation beyond a flippant phrase like “love is love.”
Women’s Rights Are Human Rights: This is another completely inarguable statement that sneaks in all sorts of moral content. While it’s perfectly reasonable on the surface, what do they mean by women’s rights? Because if what they are defining as rights are not rights that any human should have, their use of this statement is unconvincing. And as it turns out when a progressive speaks of women’s rights, they are talking mainly about the right to murder their unborn child and the right to equal pay. With that in mind, because there is no right for a human being, male or female, to murder their child, and because there is no right for one set of humans to make the same amount of money in aggregate as another set, considering there are well-established, nonsexist reasons for this difference in pay, then this whole phrase is, like the others, a sloppy sleight-of-hand.
Science Is Real: What you are basically saying is if you don’t agree with my scientific conclusions, you must be a science-denying moron. While the other phrases are similarly condescending and insulting, the arrogance of this one is special. No need to rehash all the scientific debates going on where they think there is no debate left to be had. We’re all well aware of those at this point but, it is pretty important to science, as far as I’m aware, that all of its theories be falsifiable ad open to challenge.
Water Is Life: This seems to be the Ringo Starr of the We Believe band. I’m not sure how it snuck in, but I guess there’s some value added by its presence. It’s not even as condescending or tautological as the rest. We need water to live, but water itself isn’t life, unless they’re talking about Jesus being the living water. But they’re not! They’re talking about how important it is that water exists. Agreed; let’s make sure not to let all the rivers and reservoirs dry up or get polluted. Got it! If we see any anti-water protesters out there, let’s be sure to send them to the nearest We Believe house to get straightened out.
Kindness is Everything: After a whole sign’s worth of condescending, passive-aggressive accusations calling their non-woke neighbors racist, sexist, bigoted, science-denying water haters, they go and end it by saying Kindness is Everything. Sometimes you just have to laugh at the lack of self-awareness. But when your creed identifies the source of all evil in your neighbor, rather than in yourself like the Christian creed does, you’re bound to be lacking in the kind of introspection needed to see the irony.
You can read David Larson’s article, The Creed of the Shallow Man, in full at the link provided.
