Our Elite’s Entire Claim to Legitimacy

Ross Douthat gave a little meritocracy 101 in the NYT this weekend: “Our elite’s entire claim to legitimacy rests on theories of equal opportunity and upward mobility, and the promise that ‘merit’ correlates with talents and deserts.”

(In other news, THAT IS NOT A TYPO, I know it shocked me too, but I have EXCLUSIVELY LEARNED that “just desserts” is not and has never been the correct spelling of that phrase, and in fact “deserts” is a wholly different word than “desserts, n. the sweet course eaten at the end of the meal” and also “deserts, n. a dry, barren area of land, esp. one covered with sand.” The phrase “just deserts” instead uses the SECOND DEFINITION, “deserts n. a person’s worthiness or entitlement to reward or punishment.”)

This has been your vocabulary lesson for this day good day to you.

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