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What is meritocracy? Is success really about hard work, or are we just pretending it is? And how was "merit" weaponized by Donald Trump in his crusade against DEI? Let's talk about it.
Chapters:
00:00 - What is Meritocracy?
22:41 - Meritocracy is Fake
40:56 - How Meritocracy Hurts Us (All)
57:43 - Everything is Meritocracy
1:42:15 - What Do We Do About It?
1:59:14 - Alternatives are Possible
2:23:34 - Outro and Bloopers
Sources:
--- "Belief in meritocracy" from YouGov
--- "Generational Split on Success" from the American National Family Life Survey, December 2021
--- ”Perceptions of meritocracy in the land of opportunity” by Reynolds and Xian in Research in Social Stratification and Mobility
--- "Most Americans Point to Circumstances, Not Work Ethic, for Why People Are Rich or Poor" from the Pew Research Center
--- Thomas Mulligan for the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
--- Principles of Social Justice by David Miller
--- Against Meritocracy by Jo Littler (https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/103260)
--- ”Why the belief in meritocracy is so pervasive” by Hadden et al in Science and Society
--- The Tyranny of Merit by Michael Sandel
--- ”New SAT Data Highlights the Deep Inequality at the Heart of American Education” by Claire Cain Miller in The New York Times
--- “A Very Uneven Playing Field: Economic Mobility in the United States” by Mitnik, Bryant, and Grusky for Stone Center for Inequality Dynamics
--- The Meritocracy Myth by Stephen J. McNamee
--- ”The Role of Luck in Life Success Is Far Greater Than We Realized” by Scott Barry Kaufman in Beautiful Minds Newsletter
--- "Towering Intellects? Sizing up the relationship between height and academic success” by Coffey and Schwartz in Economics and Human Biology
--- "Weight Obsession Is Ruining Everyone's Health – SOME MORE NEWS" (https://youtu.be/lToSQeerP38?si=zb8WmiwwUj2oPN0c)
--- ”The Dark Side of Meritocratic Beliefs: Is Believing in Meritocracy Detrimental to Individuals from Low Socioeconomic Backgrounds?” by Alicia García-Sierra in Social Justice Research
--- ”Disdain for the Less Educated Is the Last Acceptable Prejudice” by Michael Sandel in The New York Times
--- “Educationism and the irony of meritocracy: Negative attitudes of higher educated people towards the less educated” by Kuppens et al in Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
--- "Education-based stigma and discrimination among young adults not in 4-year college” by Meisel et al in BMC Psychology
--- The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History by Stephen Jay Gould
--- "J. K. Rowling: The Real Story" (https://youtu.be/NeFUqCrmPC0?si=f9AbDkuHvOe-1S51)
--- "Why We Love Chaos" (https://youtu.be/7GU64PieDZM?si=TXye-h-LHM3q7R0h)
--- ”Economic inequality and belief in meritocracy in the United States” by Solt et al in Research & Politics
--- ”The paradox of local inequality: Meritocratic beliefs in unequal localities” by Morris et al in The British Journal of Sociology
--- "RESTORING EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY AND MERITOCRACY" (Executive Order)
--- "Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Signs Landmark Order to Restore Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy"
--- “Robin Hood in a Time of Austerity” by James Meek in the London Review of Books
--- The Social Psychology of the World Religions by Max Weber
--- ”The paradox of inequality: income inequality and belief in meritocracy go hand in hand” by Jonathan J B Mijs in Socio-Economic Review
--- ”Belief in School Meritocracy and the Legitimization of Social and Income Inequality” by Batruch et al in Social Psychology and Personality Science
--- ”Bernie Sanders: We Need More Working-Class Candidates to Challenge Both Parties” by John Nichols for The Nation
--- Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
--- Stay Alive: Surviving Capitalism’s Coming Hunger Games by Michael Harris
--- Equality by R. H. Tawney
--- The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr.
--- ”A quarter century of system justification theory: Questions, answers, criticisms, and societal applications” by John T. Jost in the British Journal of Social Psychology
--- OverZealots video on Neoliberalism: https://youtu.be/i8F5FgernVY?si=sRDjEdRZ_Eib-mjV
--- Stimpunks website: https://stimpunks.org/glossary/meritocracy/
(sources with links available here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vRnNGMM9AjXiP5uSmtfx9Yhn4mlueIHu8XxXjIvOFqWp8Zx9xd2iZjf5d8D1T4e51ggiiuOkwV2PivH/pub)
Line Readers:
--- @JoseBird
--- @LegalKimchi
--- @Ember_Green
--- @TheLeftistCooks (Neilly)
--- @elliotsangestevez
--- @Salari
--- @LolaSebastian
--- @caelanconrad
--- @BABILA.
Editing by Nick Fiore @NeedlessNick
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