MAGA sells a fiction of unearned ease and familiarity to its people

I genuinely don't understand why liberals/progressives/Democrats run away from defending what's called D.E.I. Diversity, equity and inclusion make this a more livable and interesting country. There are a lot of us; we're not all the same historically and culturally. We have different habits and customs. Lots of these are probably not to your taste or mine. 

But, as Rodney King asked after the L.A. riots touched off in 1992 by the police beating him to a pulp: "Can't we all get along?"

Okay, so I get it that bureaucracies can be stupid and ham-handed in the creation and implementation of policies thought to encourage D.E.I. I get that a society affirming diversity asks adjustments from all of us to accommodate our neighbors. But come on, we're grown ups -- mostly. And ALL our ethical and religious traditions say, at least more often than not, just get over yourself!

When we're taught to act stupidly and against our interests in getting along with neighbors, it's worth asking "who benefits?" Yes, I do see an entire MAGA party encouraging white people, especially men, to get all hot about other people getting the inclusion that they want too. Of course that distracts from real problems. But come on ...

The feminist journalist Jill Filipovic takes a swing at all this which I find convincing: 

... The Trump administration and his MAGA supporters want to do away with the very thing that has made our country exceptional that because they feel uncomfortable around people who aren’t like them. That’s it. They just don’t like people who are different. They don’t like the feeling of being cognitively or emotionally stretched. They don’t want the kind of friction that comes from having to share space with people who don’t think, speak, and live like them.

Conservatives have long mocked liberals for being snowflakes. But being unable to emotionally cope because your neighbors speak a different language is about as fragile as it gets.

“Life should be hard” is not a very good rallying cry. And to be clear, I don’t think that life should be hard. But I think life should be interesting. I don’t think an interesting life is built by engineering the world around you to feel easy and familiar and always in immediate service of your desires.

I think a good life requires trying at things, learning things, taking risks, facing fear, pushing through discomfort, getting hurt, feeling really fucking frustrated. It requires caring for other people even when they make themselves hard to care for, and accepting care even when it doesn’t come in its ideal form. 

As a culture, we are running away from the discomfort friction causes, which means we are running away from deep connection, from cognitive expansion, from the discipline that builds devotion, from creative spark, and from the invisible and painful work of effort and failure and abrasion and confrontation that all make room for that spark to light. 

I'm not ready to give up on trying for her idea of a "good life" because too many people are insecure. We can do better. 

• • •

And some folks are doing better. USA Today reports: 

Costco’s board of directors voted unanimously to recommend shareholders reject an anti-DEI measure, arguing that diverse employees and suppliers fuel innovation in the merchandise it stocks and the services it offers.

More than 98% of Costco shareholders voted down the investor proposal that called for management to investigate the business risks of its diversity initiatives. 

That wasn't so hard, was it?