What an odd time we are living through. Those on the left, whose affinity for make-believe knows no bounds, have finally become so comfortable with selling fraud that they’ve left the reservation. Look at a white woman and see a black one. Look at a man and see a woman. They’ve progressed from the gray areas of belief right into lying about what we can see in front of us. 

People are free to think whatever they wish, at least liberals are. Conservatives aren’t really given that freedom anymore, but a liberal can think, say and do whatever he or she wishes, as long as it damages traditional social and cultural norms. If a man wants to think he’s a woman, he has always been free to do so. Reality can’t be altered, of course, but he is entitled to possession of whatever is between his ears, as long as he does not infringe on the rights of others. That it is false only concerns the mentally stable members of society, who worry for the well-being of that person. Psychologically impaired fellow travelers, however, think it’s brave and courageous to engage in make-believe. Today he’s a woman. Perhaps tomorrow he will be a pony. How wonderful! It is the stuff of pre-pubescent dress up parties, except that it is being endorsed and advocated by those who appear on the outside to be adults. 

What’s worse, it is being enforced as if it is real. Perhaps the key distinction between liberals and conservatives is that conservatives are too busy dealing with reality to embrace fantasy. Liberals marinate in fantasy. If truth is inconvenient, make something up and declare it to be the new truth, and that all truths before are now “hate”. They complete the picture by acting to punish those who do not go along, especially those too grounded to live in an artificial world created to make some people feel good about how screwed up they are. 

Because lifestyles are the subjective choices of individuals, there is no right on the part of those altering reality to force others to validate their choices. That may offend some, but no well-developed and mentally sound person’s world is shaken because he can’t get others to applaud and deal with the effects of how he subjectively sees himself. Those are psychological issues. We don’t owe them acclaim for the imagined bravery of their subjective self-image. We should not act against them unless they act against us, but we have no legal or ethical obligation to commend them or accept the consequences of whatever’s in their mind. They’ve built their self-image for themselves. If it is false, then I should remain free to reject it. This is not hate. This is truth.   

Rachel Dolezal was this week forced to resign from her position as a black woman at the head of the Spokane NAACP office because she was pretending to be black. That was her actual sin. It’s not that she lied -- leftists all lie. It’s that she was white. Some sins are unpardonable. She constructed an alternate reality, and purposefully chose to live in it as a black woman. Not exactly the stuff of a stable personality, especially while her white parents were still alive. Somehow, they were not tricked by a total fabrication that required them either to deny reality or stay quiet for the sake of a daughter who betrayed them and the reality of her upbringing. This is increasingly the only choice that the left gives the rest of us: believe the lie, or suffer in silence while the destruction goes forward. Resisters will be punished.

In her resignation, however, Ms. Dolezal said something interesting. She said that “challenging the construct of race is at the core of evolving human consciousness”. That is, issues of race are a “construct”, which is “[a]n idea or theory containing various conceptual elements, typically one considered to be subjective and not based on empirical evidence.” So says the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. Isn’t that interesting? Race is, according to an elite leftist like Ms. Dolezal, not the truth of who you are born to, or your genetics, or your actual skin color. It’s whatever people like her say it is. As in all things liberal, it’s all made up.

If you think about it, doesn’t the “construct” definition also fit everything else about liberalism? Isn’t “racism” these days merely a subjective revision of the original concept, condemning an entire race on the basis of its skin color, only now the race is white? It’s just taboo and superstition anymore. From what did that construct flow? From the ‘blacks are innocent victims of everything around them’ construct, which itself is an idea which is not only subjective but utterly false, contradicting all empirical evidence. Isn’t it curious how one construct necessarily breeds others, because the deviation from truth eventually becomes too great, or too embarrassing, to reverse?

There are liberal economic constructs, such as the redistribution of the property construct, which relies on the theory that stealing from some creates equality for the envious. The gender construct is built entirely on the lie that one’s thoughts define his gender, rather than one’s actual gender being the answer. Man-made climate change is also just an elaborate construct. It fits every single element of the definition, from theory to the lack of empirical evidence. Isn’t positive illegal immigration a liberal construct? It pretends that fracturing the host country makes it healthier, with no empirical evidence to support it and much to refute it. How about the construct of “gun violence”, which is entirely divorced from empirical evidence and reality, and places the blame for rampant urban black shootings on the NRA? The construct of feminism, in which every woman is duty bound to adopt the ideas and concepts of the group, exists regardless of empirical evidence concerning success, happiness, or fulfillment for many who opt out.

Having all of these as its foundation, can’t it be said that modern liberalism itself is merely an idea or theory, containing various conceptual elements, considered subjective and not based on empirical evidence? Of course, if the component parts of liberalism are fraud and deception, the construct of liberalism itself is no better than a lie. There has never been a liberal policy that has been anything other than a subjective idea or theory which is fully divorced from empirical evidence, designed solely to change the relationship between government and the governed.  When has a liberal theory ever been about anything other than power?

Every second spent discussing these constructs as if they are real is ground lost in a social and cultural war against frauds and liars. We have taken a long vacation from truth so as not to offend people who think nothing of lying to us. Reality is a harsh taskmaster, and eventually there is a cost for every lie we accept, and every change we allow to be imposed upon us by people who are simply making this stuff up as they go along. We need grownups, not more demented children.