Do-Gooderism: A Religious Cult for Millennials

Do-gooders in America, typically of the Millennial variety, think of themselves as smarter, more worldly, and far better informed than you. They are woke. You are not. This has consequences, mostly for you.

For do-gooders, the ends justify the means. Do-gooders believe they are saving the world, therefore any tactic is completely defensible. Anyone who stands in the way of their planet-saving mission is, by definition, evil and must be punished. Usually touted as progressivism, this cult-like ideology is actually regressive. Yet, it has succeeded at racking up political victories across the country.

The Anti-Straw Craze

Do you like plastic straws? You're a bad person. According to do-gooders, straws end up in the ocean and eventually into the noses of sea turtles. Is that true? No. Okay, fine, there was one turtle with a straw in its nose. But when it comes to plastic pollution in the ocean, straws aren't the problem. Fishing gear is, specifically fishing nets. As a column in Bloomberg says:

"even if all those straws were suddenly washed into the sea, they'd account for about .03 percent of the 8 million metric tons of plastics estimated to enter the oceans in a given year."

Does this fact matter? No. Bad people who like straws should be punished, and Seattle will fine any business $250 for giving straws to customers. In Santa Barbara, the fine is $1,000 plus six months of jail time... per straw. Rumor has it that California might reinstate the death penalty for serial straw offenders.

WeWork's Unscientific Ban on Meat

WeWork, a company that provides shared office space for small companies and startups (i.e., Millennials), has decided to ban meat. Employees are no longer allowed to expense meals if they contain red meat, poultry, or pork. Why? It's for the planet, of course.

Never mind the fact that if we were actually serious about minimizing humanity's environmental impact, we would worry less about what we eat and more about building generation IV nuclear power plants and electric vehicles. According to the EPA, in the U.S., the energy and transportation sectors contribute roughly 57% of greenhouse gas emissions, while agriculture contributes merely 9%.

And never mind the fact that humans -- and our nearest relative, the chimpanzee -- evolved to be omnivores. We are meat-eating apes, even if do-gooders want to deny basic biology and two million years of human evolution. Meat is healthy for us.

So what explains WeWork's bizarre decision? Once again, Bloomberg nails it:

"For all the lip service to diversity, corporate tribalism enforces legally acceptable homogeneity. You can’t racially discriminate, but you can use Stuff White People Like as a guide to approving expense reports. A meat ban keeps out the kind of Neanderthals who make a big deal of loving bacon and probably have too much testosterone."

Do-Gooderism: A Religious Cult for Millennials

Judging from their behavior, diversity is far less of a concern for Millennials than is ideological conformity. And at the center of that conformity is a religious cult known as do-gooderism, which manifests itself in unscientific fads and authoritarian law-making. Woe be unto you who challenge their self-admiration.