Reality Beckons, Stop the Lying
– By Tom Garrison –
Few things are as irritating as reading or hearing the same big lie for decades. I could discuss dozens but will focus on two that are constantly trotted out by leftists and their media sycophants. The first has been around for decades; the second is of more recent vintage.
Their ability to promote lies rivals that of Joseph Goebbels, Adolph Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda from 1933 to 1945. Goebbels said, “If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it, and you will even come to believe it yourself.”
This big lie has been around for decades (I remember the argument from my college days in the 1970s), that employed women make less money than do employed men. Typically, the argument says women earn anywhere from 70 to 85 cents for every dollar earned by a man. Women as a group do get paid less than men as a group. But not for doing the same work.
The gender pay gap is simply the difference between the average earnings of all men and women working full-time. A totally false comparison. It does not account for differences in occupations, experience and skill level, education, job tenure, hours worked per week, and how many years continuously worked.
It’s all about making valid comparisons. When saying men make more money than do women, you should ask, “Men in what jobs? Women in what jobs.”
It’s stupid and illogical to compare male brain surgeons with female waitresses. The correct comparison is male vs. female brain surgeons and male vs. female restaurant servers. When making the correct comparison, there is virtually no difference in salaries/wages for males and females in similar positions.
Try a thought experiment. Why would any employer ever hire a man when, according to the purveyors of this myth, a woman would do exactly the same work, with exactly the same hours, with exactly the same skill set, for 70 to 85% of what the employer would pay a man?
What truly bothers me is that this lie is not hidden behind an esoteric truth only a few can discover or comprehend. The true colors of the lie about the wages/salary disparity can be unmasked with a modicum of easy Internet research.
As far back as 2009, the US Department of Labor released a report concluding that:
“…this study leads to the unambiguous conclusion that the differences in the compensations of men and women are the result of a multitude of factors and that the raw wage gap should not be used as the basis to justify corrective action … The differences in raw wages may be almost entirely the result of individual choices being made by male and female workers.”
A few years later (2014), Christina Hoff Sommers wrote, “Wage Gap Myth Exposed—By Feminists.” Ms. Sommers noted:
“The AAUW (American Association of University Women) has now joined ranks with serious economists who find that when you control for relevant differences between men and women (occupations, college majors, length of time in the workplace) the wage gap narrows to the point of vanishing. The 23 cent gap is simply the average difference between the earnings of men and women employed fulltime.”
Neither the Labor Department nor the AAUW are hotbeds of conservatism. On the contrary, both have a decided liberal bias, but in this instance decided to go with the truth.
Yes, overall men make more money than women. Why? Because women tend to move toward lower paying jobs and work fewer hours. How many well paid truck drivers are female? Not many.
I suspect most all people of influence—professors, politicians, journalists, and their ilk—know they are spouting a lie. But truth is not their goal. Their goal is political, to further a particular agenda/narrative, no matter how far it strays from the truth.
Let’s skip to a more recent lie—that Critical Race Theory (CRT) is not taught in schools below college level. It’s true that the minute details of critical theory are not taught to K-12 students. However, it is also true that the essence of CRT, white people (most of the venom is directed at white men) are inherently racist and Western civilization is built on systemic racism. Identity politics trumps everything. Every social interaction and person must be viewed in terms of race. The bottom line is that CRT is teaching kids to hate each other based on skin color.
Leftists, explain this: In November 2021 Tony Kinnett, who served as the science coordinator for Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS), wrote in a Tweet:
“We don’t have the quotes and theories as state standards per se. We do have Critical Race Theory in how we teach.”
Kinnett then proceeded to cite some of the sources of the instruction used at IPS:
“We tell our teachers to treat students differently based on color. We tell our students that every problem is a result of ‘white men,’ and that everything Western civilization built is racist. Capitalism is a tool of white supremacy. Those are straight out of Kimberly Crenshaw’s main points, verbatim, in Critical Race Theory, the Writings That Formed the Movement.”
“This is in math, history, science, English, the arts, and it’s not slowing down. If students of color have lower reading scores, it’s because of inequity. Therefore, we take from the ‘white students’ and give to the ‘color’ students. That’s Richard Delgado straight out of CRT an Introduction.”
“All teaching is political, with reality and facts taking a back seat. That’s Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings, who outlined how she saw Critical Race Theory flushed out in public schools in 1995.”
“Parents, when we tell you Critical Race Theory isn’t taught in our schools, we’re lying,” Kinnett warned. “Keep looking.”
Kinnett was rewarded for his honesty by being fired about six weeks later.
In a March 2023 article, Carrie Sheffield of the New York Post wrote,
… in January (2023), school officials forced students at Virginia’s West Springfield High School to watch a racist, dehumanizing video about microaggressions. It depicts white people as blood-sucking, cartoon mosquitos who must be destroyed by nonwhite people wielding flamethrowers.
In Orlando, Fla., Howard Middle School black teacher Ethan Hooper proudly displayed his Black History Month video on TikTok, showing his white students bow down to, luxuriously fan and cater to their black classmates.
And in Springfield, Ohio, police reported an incident at Kenwood Elementary School, where a group of black students on the playground rounded up white students “and forced them to state, ‘Black Lives Matter,’ against their will.”
Oh, no one believes that. Those sources are lying the leftists and their media hacks say. Really? How about this? In July 2021, Robby Soave wrote in Reason (Reason is a libertarian magazine and website):
At its yearly annual meeting, conducted virtually over the past few days, the NEA (National Education Association) adopted New Business Item 39, which essentially calls for the organization to defend the teaching of critical race theory.*
“It is reasonable and appropriate for curriculum to be informed by academic frameworks for understanding and interpreting the impact of the past on current society, including critical race theory,” says the item.
*Update: Shortly after this story was published, the NEA deleted the New Business page from its website. I have added a link to an archived version of Item 39.
[Author’s note: The NEA adopts a pro CRT position for its members. But soon after that, they try to hide the fact they are radically pro-CRT.]
So who cares about the NEA. Well, everyone should. It is the nation’s largest teacher’s union with more than 2.3 million dues paying members in 14,000 school districts across all 50 states.
Virtually all the mainstream media and leftists repeat the lie about CRT not being taught in K-12 classrooms, only at college level. The basic principles: white people bad, systemic racism, identity politics, etc. are certainly taught in grade schools and high schools. The Left and their allies use these lies, and many more, to further their agenda with no regard for facts and reality.
While not all schools teach the distorted vision of CRT, too many do. In many states and localities parents and concerned citizens are pushing back against this hateful curriculum.
These are not little lies that no one much cares about. These are major league lies affecting public policy and the thinking of millions of Americans.
Our country is quickly approaching the stage where a quote describing life under Soviet communism by Alexander Solzhenitsyn could also illustrate the American Left, it’s political lackeys, much of academia, and almost all of the mainstream media.
Solzhenitsyn was a prominent dissident in the Soviet Union, outspoken critic of communism, and author of The Gulag Archipelago.
We know they are lying.
They know they are lying.
They know that we know they are lying.
We know that they know we know they are lying.
And still they continue to lie.
References
AZ Quotes. “Joseph Goebbels Quotes.” No date. https://www.azquotes.com/author/5626-Joseph_Goebbels
Berry, Susan. “Indianapolis Administrator Fired After Leaking District’s CRT Agenda.” December 21, 2021. Breitbart. https://www.breitbart.com/education/2021/12/21/indianapolis-administrator-fired-after-leaking-districts-crt-agenda/?fbclid=IwAR3ppR8dZHw1PQmEhVpb9HSHGT0MNvoA4gmtvIu3IlLhxB13WhscDIi7Q14
Hall, Abigail R. “The Gender Wage Gap–A Myth that (Still) Just Won’t Die.” October 8, 2023. Independent Institute. https://blog.independent.org/2015/10/08/the-gender-wage-gap-a-myth-that-still-just-wont-die/?fbclid=IwAR3vHlvxyvpv4K9KliVNxfbgZhs2O7KZaX6I8jUcqI1G4rPROr4NMVM3jCk
Johnston, Jeff. “Is ‘Critical Race Theory’ Being Taught in Public Schools? CRT Deniers Claim it Isn’t.” June 25, 2021. Daily Citizen. https://dailycitizen.focusonthefamily.com/is-critical-race-theory-being-taught-in-public-schools-crt-deniers-claim-it-isnt/
Kremer, John. “Alexander Solzhenitsyn: Still They Continue to Lie.” 2023. My Incredible Website. https://www.myincrediblewebsite.com/alexander-solzhenitsyn-still-they-continue-to-lie/
Lancaster, Jordan. “Teacher’s Union with 2.3 Million Members Vows to Support Critical Race Theory Education Across the Country.” July 5, 2021. Daily Caller. https://dailycaller.com/2021/07/05/nea-teachers-union-crt-christopher-rufo/
Phelan, John. “Harvard Study: ‘Gender Wage Gap’ Explained Entirely by Work Choices of Men and Women.” December 10, 2018. FEE Stories. https://fee.org/articles/harvard-study-gender-pay-gap-explained-entirely-by-work-choices-of-men-and-women/
Price, Greg. “AFT President Claims CRT Isn’t Being Taught in Schools—Her Own Union Says Otherwise.” July 7, 2021. Daily Caller. https://dailycaller.com/2021/07/07/aft-president-randi-weingarten-claims-crt-isnt-being-taught-schools-union-says-otherwise/
Rosen, Christine. “Teachers’ Unions Deceive on Critical Race Theory.” July 8, 2021. Commentary. https://www.commentary.org/christine-rosen/teachers-unions-deceive-on-critical-race-theory/
Rufo, Christopher, “Critical Race Theory: What it is and How to Fight it.” Imprimis. March 2021. https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/critical-race-theory-fight/?fbclid=IwAR28qhpQPqq9-nGcnZlZpvGZLPTXONDYR1YIrwXoWoCrkAjgwNdQ3aCa4Uk
Sheffield, Carrie. “Critical race theory is teaching kids to hate each other.” New York Post. March 8, 2023. https://nypost.com/2023/03/08/critical-race-theory-is-teaching-kids-to-hate-each-other/?fbclid=IwAR1xohLkMgEoZyNmNM6mssICA-HpaeKGoNxZ0DtR5O78W2GLv1uB_rcrLCg
Soave, Robby. “Is Critical Race Theory Taught in K-12 Schools? The NEA Says Yes, and That it Should Be.” July 6, 2021. Reason. https://reason.com/2021/07/06/critical-race-theory-nea-taught-in-schools/
Sommers, Christina Hoff. “Wage Gap Myth Exposed—By Feminists.” HuffPost. January 23, 2014. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/wage-gap_b_2073804
U.S. Department of Labor. “An Analysis of Reasons for the Disparity in Wages Between Men and Women.” January 12, 2009. Page 2. https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/public-policy/hr-public-policy-issues/documents/gender%20wage%20gap%20final%20report.pdf
Viewpoints and perspectives expressed throughout The Independent are those of the individual contributors. They do not necessarily reflect those held by the staff of The Independent or our advertising sponsors. Your comments, rebuttals, and contributions are welcome in accordance with our Terms of Service. Please be respectful and abide by our Community Rules. If you have privacy concerns you can view our Privacy Policy here. Thank you!
Click here to submit an article, guest opinion piece, or a Letter to the Editor
, that employed women make less money than men.){kind=link}