[CliffFletcher]

The foundation of our liberal democracy is universal principles applied to individuals without bias. When X is done by Y to Z, it's bad regardless of who Y and Z are. It has been imperfectly applied in the past, but that's the ideal. That's the shared touchstone at the heart of our legal, democratic, and civil institutions. And it's an ideal that has fostered the most liberal and tolerant society the world has seen.

It's astonishing that so many people - and so many people who claim to value liberalism and tolerance - are so enthusiastically undermining that ideal. Trying to build a world where it's bad for X to by done by Y to Z, but perfectly okay, or even admirable, for X to be done by Z to Y. If we discard universalism, all that's left is unrelenting tribal warfare.

Thinking in terms of principles rather than identities is difficult. It doesn't come naturally. But isn't that one of the core purposes of our liberal education system - to teach people to overcome our primitive natural impulses and to think in terms of principles? It's mystifying that people can get through 17 years of modern education and not understand this stuff.