Last week, The Atlantic ran an essay by Brown graduate Xochitl Gonzalez which equated tranquility with oppression.  Gonzalez's academic instruction in Saul Alinksy, Karl Marx, and Friedrich Engels suitably equipped her for the task, as the piece was rife with communistic language — after all, the title was "Why Do Rich People Love Quiet?"

Just within the first paragraph, we see obvious references to Marx and Alinsky, respectively:

New York in the summer is a noisy place, especially if you don't have money. The rich run off to the Hamptons or Maine. The bourgeoisie [emphasis added] are safely shielded by the hum of their central air, their petite cousins by the roar of their window units. But for the broke — the have-littles and have-nots [emphasis added] — summer means an open window, through which the clatter of the city becomes the soundtrack to life[.]

Eventually, Gonzalez grows up and moves away to attend an Ivy League college.  She details her initial experiences of freedom and merriment before the White oppressors show up to subjugate:

I first arrived on campus for the minority-student orientation. The welcome event had the feel of a block party. Blahzay Blahzay blasting on a boom box. (It was the '90s.) We spent those first few nights convening in one another's rooms, gossiping and dancing until late. We were learning to find some comfort in this new place, and with one another.

Then the other students arrived — the white students.

Gonzalez continues, by citing certain uncomfortable collegiate encounters where her lack of self-awareness caused issues with her fellow students.  She recounts a particular time where she "accidentally sat down to study in the library's Absolutely Quiet Room" and, understandably, her peers expressed visible annoyance when she started playing music.  But Gonzalez is a good leftist and chalks it all up to racism.  It couldn't possibly be her utter disregard, or perhaps obliviousness, that's causing problems in cramped university quarters; it's because she's a minority!

Gonzalez says the rebukings she received for her "cacophonous" behavior left her "hot with shame and anger, yet unable to articulate why."  Only after years of introspection did she realize it was because "White culture," with its expectations of considering others, is racist!  Even through the years after graduation, Gonzalez continued to face oppression in the form of social etiquette rules like politeness and decency.

Gonzalez perfectly embodies the entitled, arrogantly uninformed leftist with whom we're all so painfully well acquainted.  They're constantly the victim, and identity politics and skin color are the lens through which they see the world.  On top of all that, they unanimously process using cognitive dissonance — because, the funny thing is, Gonzalez has alabaster skin.

Image: Kenneth C. Zirkel, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (resized for compatibility)