Invalid Reasons For Embracing Valid Cultural Changes

Sexism--against women and men--and racism were once far more entrenched in Western culture than they already are due to more intense cultural conditioning than that which is often seen today.  There are still people who fiercely affirm fallacious gender and racial stereotypes, of course, but genuine progress has been made.  In fact, many people are now more likely claim to despise sexism and racism than before.  The problem is the invalid, assumed reason for which a high number of these people seem interested in denouncing discrimination on such grounds.

It is irrational to believe in or reinforce stereotypes about gender or race.  However, it is likely that the primary or only reason why so many people are suddenly rushing to at least selectively condemn sexism and racism (there is still a great deal of it that goes without consistent opposition) is, once again, cultural conditioning.  Even several years ago, there was not as much overt social outrage over actual or perceived sexism and racism.  On one hand, the stereotypes that fuel both forms of illicit discrimination are irrational, and it seems to be the case that Western culture is therefore moving away from certain ideas that are both logically invalid and Biblically immoral.

On the other hand, without the societal shift in expected behaviors, there would be no reason to expect many people to make the same claims they do today.  This has nothing to do with whether sexism and racism are immoral and everything to do with how prone to assumptions and social conditioning most people are.  Most people are quite content to simply assume that the values of their culture are objectively obligatory until they have a crisis of conscience, at which point they instead look to their own subjective, irrelevant feelings for moral knowledge, something conscience can never reveal.

Since reason rejects the ideological foundations of sexism and racism, namely stereotypes and other assumptions, it is irrational to believe that those foundations are philosophically valid, but it is also just as irrational to believe in anything due to the arbitrary current of one's culture and era.  Some societies will happen to have values that are more rational, consistent, or probable to be true than others, but popularity and zeal are irrelevant to such matters in all circumstances.  Thus, no matter how true or probable an ideology is, embracing it due to cultural pressures  is asinine and a sign of unintelligence and a malleable set of priorities.