Social Justice Fallacies

I love how Thomas Sowell presents his information with the facts to back them up.

Thomas Sowell has produced a well-researched, insightful book that should be required reading for people of all political stripes. Whether or not one is inclined to agree with Sowell, his insights and arguments cannot be ignored or dismissed.All who desire to reduce prejudice and inequality would benefit from reading and understanding Sowell’s arguments. He supports his case with historical evidence, apt comparisons, and heavy doses of logic in plain and concise language.This book is the perfect resource for you who have been unsettled by DEI training sessions, lectures on systemic racism, or public policy that appears to be degrading the rule of law in the name of Justice. Sowell exposes the false premises upon which the current social justice movement is based. He does so without resorting to any of the shaky logic and dismissive attitude of many popular conservative commentators.Sowell has provided us with a gift. Give a copy of this to someone whom you would like to persuade. One would be hard-pressed to provide a better resource than Social Justice Fallacies.

At the Herbert Hoover Institute, Thomas Sowell has become the sage of social commentary of our country. His insights are keen, scholarly and superbly researched. At age 90, he continues to be not only highly productive, but his social critiques are accurate depictions of past and current US society . Dr. Sowell is a true national treasure and his latest work on social justice is nothing short of superb.

Thomas Sowell lays out the facts well. Each argument is well researched and referenced. All points are clearly stated. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and learned an extensive amount. Highly recommend.

Not much new.

Once again, Dr. Sowell has shone the brilliant light of reason into the abyss of smug delusion. Not that the self-righteous will pay the slightest attention.

Learned a lot from this book

Thomas Sowell and his work A+he’s a legend! inspiring!God bless him

The author knows his subject and writes so the layman can understand it.

For the hardcore Sowell fanatics like me, there is nothing really new in the content itself. However, the organization of the material is interesting. Sowell exposes the fallacies that underly most of the modern crusades for “social justice,” dividing them into four main categories:”Equal Chances” Fallacies. Social justice advocates look at unequal results between groups as something suspicious that requires an explanation. Their assumption, hardly ever spelled out explicitly, is that in the absence of discrimination, external obstacles, or other malignant forces (of which “society” is assumed to be responsible), you would expect equal performance of groups in all the different human endeavors. No proof is asked nor given for this axiom. The facts, however, go in the totally opposite direction. Sowell shows how a multitude of factors, from geography and history to cultural environment, make this assumption nothing short of ridiculous. One can dig deeper into this topic in his book “Wealth, Poverty, and Politics: An International Perspective.”Racial Fallacies. The basic fallacy consists of seeing racial disparities due to either genetic differences or racial discrimination. This false dichotomy is often used by modern liberals to “prove” that we live in a white supremacist country. Any statistical difference is immediately taken as de facto evidence of racial discrimination once genetic difference is rejected as an explanation. As in the previous set of fallacies, Sowell asks why one would even expect different racial groups to have equal outcomes (in economic terms and other fields) given the many differences extending well beyond skin color (history, education, median age, values, culture, etc). For more on this topic, one can read “Black Rednecks and White Liberals.”Chess Pieces Fallacies. This is the fallacy of assuming that people can be “arranged” like pieces on a chessboard to obtain a given result, disregarding people’s reactions to the systems put in place to obtain these results. A simple example is when tax rates are raised, but tax revenue decreases since people either physically move elsewhere or put their money in tax-exempt bonds, for instance. Many well-intentioned but ultimately detrimental policies, from rent control to minimum wage, are born from this fallacy. For more on this topic, one can read “Discrimination and Disparities” or “Economic Facts and Fallacies”.Knowledge Fallacies. For social justice advocates, knowledge is “articulated knowledge” of the type taught in universities. It is concentrated in a minority of enlightened intellectuals whose self-assigned task is to protect the masses from their own ignorance. Many policies based on this assumption end up damaging the supposed beneficiaries, reducing their options and their freedom. For instance, mandating higher minimum wages is to this day seen as a way to “end the exploitation” of laborers. However, when employers cannot hire a worker at the price they are willing to offer, the unemployed simply see a reduction in their options. An arrangement that was seen as distasteful to the elite is made illegal with complete disregard for the people’s preferences and specific knowledge of their particular situation. To delve deeper into these reasonings, one must read “Intellectuals and Society”, “The Vision of the Anointed”, “A Conflict of Visions”, and “Knowledge and Decisions”.I find this book FUNDAMENTAL. It is short and non-intimidating, perfect to stimulate college students to question some of the assumptions behind the indoctrination they have been fed.This is perfect Sowell. Clear, concise, and factual. Every sentence is essential. Don’t even attempt to use a highlighter because you will end up highlighting the entire book.I want to close this review by quoting three comments I read under Sowell interviews on YouTube.”Sowell gave me a blueprint for HOW to think. Now, when I hear of a new policy or idea, I know I have to ask myself these three simple but fundamental questions:1) Compared to what?2) At what cost?3) What is the evidence?””Find a partner that loves you the same way the comment section loves Thomas Sowell.””When I first read Thomas Sowell the truth hit me in the face so hard I cried.”Long live Thomas Sowell, a national treasure.

Thomas Sowell is a national treasure. His research makes clear what the true problems are and what caused them. Not what agenda driven media wants you to believe.

It’s not hard to understand, yet he never dumbs it down for the rest of us.Just facts, plain and simple. And as always, his work is as compelling as ever. Most compelling and economist alive.Hope he writes another 100 books.

If you wonder what went wrong with people not being able to have a grasp of the obvious, a quick read of Dr. Sowell will straighten things right out.

Thomas Sowell provides us with a much needed defense of hard facts in a time when ideologically motivated zealots consider it perfectly acceptable to talk about “philosophical truth” when they mean “not-fact based but made up because it sounds right and serves our purpose”.

I’d recommend every person read most of Sowell’s books, but this one is especially important given the timing and sociopolitical landscape. If somebody is unable to see the flaws with the social justice movement on their own, this book does a great job of logically breaking them down and providing supporting history for every point.

I applauded the reporting of reality-facts, in place of the current general media polemics and click bait.This is the best investigation of our modern fallacies, that I’ve seen in 60 years.!

I have read a number of Thomas Sowell’s books as well as many articles he wrote for Forbes magazine.If you want a well referenced and full picture of social justice, this is a excellent book.

This author presents REALITY when so much that we hear/read is pure propaganda intended for those who can not or do not think on their own, but love to be controlled and told what to think. A BIG MISTAKE! All of us need to be reminded that true facts overcome frustration; Honesty, freedom, cooperative (based on facts) existence is preferable to ignorant servitude.

Facts don’t appear to matter to progressives who faithfully believe in their social Justice narratives that their relatively small body of academic “knowledge” can produce policies which actually help those that they claim to want to help. Dr. Sowell again uses data, correlation, and history to show that more harm has been done than benefit.

This book provides a critical analysis of social justice. It is well reasoned and well researched and is a must read.

The deservedly distinguished author spotlights the failures of countless “politically correct” governmental initiatives and supports his argument with ample (but not an overwhelming amount of) data in a volume that packs an astonishing degree of information and analysis in to a compact, crisp, politically INcorrect 3-hour read.

AWESOME

Just received moments ago. So far 130 pages of actual content, followed by 58 pages of footnotes and a 13 page Index, ending with 7 totally blank pages. Doesn’t add up to the 224 pages listed in the product description, but 130 pages of Thomas Sowell is worth far more than many weightier tomes so this is a rip on the labeling not the content. Will rate after reading, but out of over a dozen of Professor Sowell’s books purchased, none have been less than 5 Star quality.

The arguments by Thomas Sowell are ver hard to beat. We now must hear a rebuttal from the other side, if there is one!

Another banger by Thomas Sowell. He is brilliant. His writing is so clear and easy to follow. I love the way that reading Sowell makes me re-examine the way I interpret the world, and it helps me make sense of our ideological climate through very rational argument. I have never read anyone who writes like he does. It’s so compelling and he makes everything obvious. He’s simply a genius.

Thomas Sowell does an excellent job of explaining the impossibility of equitable outcomes and the need for deeper analysis of disparities between groups. He explains how geography, birth order, and so much more impact outcomes between individuals. Thomas Sowell doesn’t ignore the terrible mistakes of human history. Instead, he does a great job of exposing the terrible consequences of various elites throughout history making decisions for others that inflict so much harm.

SOCIAL JUSTICE FALLACIESTOMAS SOWELLReview by Author Roy MurryI am neither an intellectual elite nor a full-blown conservative. Mr. Sowell is an intellectual conservative (ex-socialist) who writes convincing arguments against fleeting progressives on their fallacies of Equal chances, Racial differences, and the other pigeonhole placements of humanity.FALLACIES is a thesis on how the wealthy and intellectual elite (UN, WHO, and WEF, three) vanguard manipulates humanity to believe and follow their dictates. Fifty percent of it has footnotes, clarifying Sowell’s thoughtful positions.Whether you agree with his stand on racial fallacy progression, as an example, the reader will have a hard time disagreeing with his opinion. This well-written and thought-provoking book is for the Inquisitive Mind, which many of my readers have.If you want to clear the cobwebs out of your mind and think about how the world around you happened, SOCIAL JUSTICE FALLACIES is a good read for you.

Easy reading – well written

Sowell scores again. He clearly debunks so many social justice shibboleths that I gave this to my liberal daughter and she, begrudgingly, agreed with him. Although you know the politics of his targets, the book is not really political. Instead, is resorts to cold hard logic and statistics. This book is nowhere near as dense to read as some of Dr. Sowell’s other works, so it should enjoy a wider audience.

For those who like opinions to be well documented with concurring facts, this is the book to read about social justice. Although those who have been long term readers of Dr Sowell’s books will find much duplication of previous points, there is some new data from as recently as 2020. Most of all, the book refutes many opinions based upon “feelings” and utopian ideas and provides data from history and more recent times to back up his conclusions.

By “Trigger Warning”, I simply mean: the concepts and statements in this book may directly contradict what you’ve been led to believe, either by upbringing, cultural norm, or social justice narratives that have been fed to you via mainstream and social media.It’s easy to understand what he’s saying. But I’m simply realistic. For some, it will be a hard pill to swallow, because it’s nothing like what you’ve heard elsewhere. I encourage you to go in with an open mind and really think about it – and to help you get a hint of what you’re up against, I’ll leave you with this example nugget to digest (my words, not his).There was a time when cars were all different. Different body styles, different interiors, everything had a unique presentation. That time is gone. Interiors are all generic, they’re pushing (largely) SUVs (even though kids graduating high school have no business driving an SUV as their first car), they all have large screens (distractions/increased accident potential), and most importantly: it’s clear that there’s no desire to provide cars anymore where someone can stand out and be different unless you’re ultra wealthy, and then there’s flack against the wealthy.The social justice narrative is a push to have everyone be the same; nobody should have something nicer than someone else, nobody should get paid more even if they’re more skilled, etc. But that’s exactly the opposite of what makes society successful – and why modern society has been declining.

No surprise an excellent thinker and author produced a book that covers a topic from a detached and objective perspective. Thomas separates fiction and fact and presents thought provoking analysis and conclusions. This is a great read. I’m buying additional copies for friends and family members. If truth matters to you get a copy. It’s hard to put this book down. An eye opener.

It’s a book, it works. Style and choice of author is subjective to the reviewer.

Amazing book exposing these SJW’s as well as the globalist elites!

Another blockbuster. Dr Sowell is the greatest writer of the past 40 years. No one is so interesting and truth bound. This book is flawless. Fun to read, thought provoking and inspiring.