Remember playing with sock puppets as a kid? They could be anything your imagination conjured. You could give them motives and emotions -- instilling life attributes right into them -- and the puppets could become good or bad, right or wrong, or anything else your heart desired.

And in godlike fashion, you were their creator and subsequent puppet-master as they acted out whatever whims filled your fancy.

Modern liberalism -- the “I believe in science” folks -- act in much the same way. They take some attribute and almost magically “create” a group defined by this attribute. They then give this group -- which is an abstraction and doesn’t exist in the real world -- motives, emotions, beliefs, action, and life. Just like you did as a kid with your sock puppets.

But of course, as a child you were just playing. Modern liberalism uses this process to win elections and power, to divide and conquer, and to shape public opinion. Some call it identity politics, but at its core it is no more real than were your sock puppets of long ago. This isn’t a political or philosophical viewpoint; it is simply the facts.

Sadly, these sock puppets often serve as fodder for repugnant racist, sexist, and bigoted ideas; often sold as being just the opposite. Almost all of the DEI movement -- diversity, equity, inclusion -- falls under this sad umbrella.

Conservatives and libertarians are fools for playing along with this fraudulent deception. In godlike fashion liberals create these abstractions and breathe life into them and then stupid conservatives argue against these creations. Guess what? The godlike creator will generally win, since they are bound by no reality. Did any of your sock puppets ever lose if you didn’t want them to?

No, Blacks or Whites don’t think this way or that. Name a single characteristic all “Black” people have. Or “Whites.” The entire concept of classifying individuals as black or white people is just a continuation of old racist thoughts.

No, women don’t think this way or that. No, a person’s sexual attractions doesn’t mean they all think this way or that. Grouping millions and millions of individuals as “people of color” is repugnant on so many levels.

As an “I believe in science” reality, there are only individuals. Individuals are the most fundamental entity that exists. You can intellectually group them however you desire but that doesn’t mean the group is now a real, physical thing. It’s not.

Even assuming one can measure these individual’s beliefs in some accurate fashion -- which is dubious at best -- they are still just the creation of some other godlike individual. Even if 55% of women think X or Y, that means 45% don’t think X or Y.

Ultimately it is an individual who will be acting; an individual with thousands of unique attributes and traits. I can put my hand on the shoulder of an individual. Try reaching out and touching one of these groups. It can’t be done because they aren’t real.

Ludwig von Mises said it well: “All rational action is in the first place individual action. Only the individual thinks. Only the individual reasons. Only the individual acts.”

Conservatives and libertarians, let’s end the charade and stop treating these sock puppets as if they are real.

When we do, a great deal of liberal thinking falls apart. Ridding liberalism of their sock puppets turns many of their beliefs into dust in the wind.

Conservatives, please stop participating in this unseemly game. Let us embrace the beauty of the individual -- in all of our varied shapes, sizes, colors, behaviors, and beliefs -- and stop the madness of acting as though sock puppets are real, living things. They aren’t.

John Conlin is an expert in organizational design and change. He is also founder and President of E.I.C. Enterprises. He has been published in American Greatness, The Federalist, The Daily Caller, American Thinker, the Houston Chronicle, the Denver Post, and Public Square Magazine among others.

Image: Kimbar