A few years ago, the self-esteem movement was popular. We told kids to esteem themselves not for what they actually accomplished, as we were told as kids, but merely for existing – for breathing. Unearned self-esteem is narcissism, so we raised a generation in which many (not all) were narcissists.

Now the cultural wind has shifted again. Now kids are taught that their nation is a racist cesspool, their religion is mythical garbage, their parents are idiots destroying the planet, their past was shameful, and their future is doubtful.

Unearned self-esteem was bad. Unearned self-loathing is worse. Add that to endless Covid lockdowns and closed schools, and we see an epidemic of depression and suicide in young people. If you were an enemy who wanted to hurt our children, what would you do differently? Nothing? You see my point.

Racism? Yes. Like all nations, we had racism in our past, and we still have some. But of all multi-ethnic nations, which have less? Can’t name one? You see my point.

Slavery? Yes. Like all nations, we had slavery in our past. But we fought a bloody Civil War, and one-third of a million White men and boys died to abolish it. Between our Civil War and the British navy breaking up the international slave trade, who else did as much to abolish slavery? No one? You see my point.

It is past time to teach young people this quote:

Americans need to face the truth about themselves, no matter how pleasant it is. – Jeane Kirkpatrick