Dr. Thomas Sowell famously and rightly remarked when people get used to preferential treatment, equal treatment seems like discrimination.
The counter-programming from secretary of War Pete Hegseth during his September 30 Quantico speech to top military brass doubtless received a frosty reception from at least some of the high-ranking commissioned officers who had grown accustomed to preferential treatment.
Consider the psychological mindset of a DIE-privileged general, perhaps someone like Hegseth’s predecessor (the race- and climate-obsessed Gen. Lloyd Austin) or Gen. C.Q. Brown, Jr., formerly of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a vocal supporter of Black Lives Matter. Or perhaps a waddling, comically obese officer such as the Sinophilic and melanin-crazed Gen. Mark (white rage) Milley.
Such officers sitting in the audience listening to Hegseth’s scary-sounding speech would feel singled out and offended by Hegseth’s demand for rigorous, uniform, meritocratic standards to be enforced. After all, that’s not how progressives understand the word equity.
The DIE generals and admirals–turned–pronoun police might think (to themselves or zirselves): Hegseth was a mere platoon leader in Iraq, whereas I’m a two-star general who memorized von Clausewitz and studied military theory in the classroom at West Point. I’m credentialed, and I’ve sat in on important meetings with allied generals throughout the world.
I’m far more accomplished than Hegseth, who attained only the rank of major in the military before becoming a right-wing pundit on Fox News. Who is Hegseth to lecture me about military readiness, or whether I need to get on Ozempic and commence daily P.T.? How dare this administration humiliate me, force me to come to Quantico, and listen to this crap?
Apply Sowell’s truism to the recently indicted James Comey, who is accustomed to the preferential treatment afforded him due to his long-established progressive bona fides and well documented hatred of traditionalists and conservatives.
Years ago, as FBI director, Comey gave cooing speeches (“love letters“) to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a fake civil rights organization that libels conservatives as terrorists and extremists (just as the Southern Poverty Law Center, the National Lawyers’ Guild, the ACLU, and other far-left hate groups smear law-abiding conservatives).
Comey’s FBI chose to rely heavily on empirically debunked statistics provided by the ADL, SPLC, ACLU, and others, all of which maintain that so-called Christian terrorists and white supremacist extremists are by far the greatest threat to America’s fraying social fabric, while politically favored left-wing groups like BLM, Antifa, and the Muslim Brotherhood/CAIR all got a free pass on their terror ties and activities.
Like Catholics praying the rosary, J6 attendees, and concerned parents at PTA meetings, Charlie Kirk and Turning Point USA (TPUSA) found themselves under intensive surveillance and in the investigative crosshairs of the FBI during the Biden administration, merely for opposing censorship and promoting the free exchange of ideas on college campuses.
It’s easy to connect the dots here, with the Mueller-Comey-Wray FBI working hand in glove with far-left umbrella groups, whether government-adjacent 501(c)(3) NGOs like the ADL or the Tides Foundation, or “philanthropic” organizations like Arabella. The George Soros-sponsored groups are strongly suspected of providing financial and operational support to domestic terror cutouts like BLM and Antifa, the latter of which the FBI long denied even exists.
The sermonizing Comey, whose sociopolitical beliefs are seemingly indistinguishable from your typical Antifa or BLM street thug (even if his tactics differ), must have been genuinely shocked to receive anything other than preferential treatment from the Pam Bondi–led DOJ.
But Comey needn’t fret too much. He was egregiously undercharged in his indictment (two felony counts, including the predictable and benign-sounding false statement charge), and he can probably expect an acquittal from an Alexandria, Virginia–based jury practically guaranteed to have several government employees as jurors. Plus, conveniently and coincidentally, there is a “randomly assigned” Biden-appointed judge presiding over the Comey case. So the preferential treatment will soon be back on tap for the former FBI choirboy.
Thomas Sowell’s insight also applies to any federal employees who might be unable to regulate their emotions if they lose their jobs due to the current Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries (D) shutdown.
How awesome do federal employees have it in their preferential treatment? These coddled crybabies are on fully paid vacation right now without losing any of their accumulated paid time off (PTO). While furloughed feds and corporate/legacy media shills like Martha Raddatz shriek that the sky is falling and fissures are rupturing the earth every time the government shuts down, it’s just another taxpayer-funded paid vacation for the feds, as they receive full back pay while their PTO balance remains unaffected.
So imagine the jarring shock and dismay if a handful of these useless federal ninnies experience the Reductions in Force (RIF) tens of millions in the private sector have known? What if the preferential treatment to which they are accustomed suddenly downshifts and becomes equal treatment, courtesy of Russell Vought and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)?
Naturally, equal treatment after preferential treatment will make them feel like victims of discrimination. But that’s another psychological tic of the progressive mindset: an utter disregard for personal accountability coupled with a burning need to perceive themselves as eternal victims.
The brothers Todd and Erik Gregory are previous contributors to AT.
Image: Trump White House Archived via Flickr, public domain.