Circa 1990, this is how those statements were in practice meant to be interpreted:
"Protect the environment" = "Give the EPA more authority, so that the Environmental Impact Study for a dam costs more and takes longer to complete than the entire building of the dam would have 100 years ago"
"Respect women" = "Use Civil Rights law to give HR departments more authority over employees to ensure women in the workforce feel 'safe' and 'welcome'. And make sure they can have abortions."
"Racism is bad" = "Any statistical difference in outcome between races is due to 'secret racism' and not due to statistical differences in ability. And there are 'secret racists' out there who prey on innocent black people."
It's classic Motte and Bailey, the same way "Make all children feel welcome" = "Teachers give children puberty blockers without their parents' knowledge or consent" today. The only difference is back then we fell for it. Mea culpa.
Circa 1990, this is how those statements were in practice meant to be interpreted:
"Protect the environment" = "Give the EPA more authority, so that the Environmental Impact Study for a dam costs more and takes longer to complete than the entire building of the dam would have 100 years ago"
"Respect women" = "Use Civil Rights law to give HR departments more authority over employees to ensure women in the workforce feel 'safe' and 'welcome'. And make sure they can have abortions."
"Racism is bad" = "Any statistical difference in outcome between races is due to 'secret racism' and not due to statistical differences in ability. And there are 'secret racists' out there who prey on innocent black people."
It's classic Motte and Bailey, the same way "Make all children feel welcome" = "Teachers give children puberty blockers without their parents' knowledge or consent" today. The only difference is back then we fell for it. Mea culpa.
"Make all children welcome" is what caused that 6 year old teacher-shooter to be in a class with normal children, where it clearly did not belong.