Dave Rubin recently put a vintage clip of Thomas Sowell back in the spotlight, and conservatives should be grateful he did. In the Direct Message segment, Sowell methodically dismantles the modern, feel-good version of “systemic racism” by pointing to the concrete mechanics of how laws and power can be applied differently to different people. The clip is short, sharp, and exactly the kind of tough-minded analysis our public conversation desperately needs.
Sowell’s central point is simple and devastating to the fashionable narrative: disparities are not the same as proof of one monolithic, intentional system of racial oppression—what matters is whether laws and institutions are applied differently to different groups. He even referenced historical moments where the claim of “systemic” wrongdoing must be tested against actual practices and incentives rather than slogans. Listening to a real scholar like Sowell is a reminder that empirical truth matters more than viral moralizing.
What this clip exposes—and what too many on the left refuse to acknowledge—is the role of intellectual and bureaucratic elites in manufacturing narratives that serve their power, not the people they claim to help. Institutions that reward symbolic gestures over measurable results end up doing real harm: they keep minorities trapped in dependency while claiming moral superiority. Conservatives should take Sowell’s critique seriously because it shows how well-meaning rhetoric becomes policy that entrenches dysfunction.
Sowell’s long career has documented how policies like race-based preferences often backfire, creating perverse incentives and diminishing opportunities for genuine advancement. The evidence he gathered across different countries and contexts shows that affirmative action and similar programs can produce short-term optics at the expense of long-term progress. If we care about upward mobility rather than platitudes, then we must be honest about the data and stop letting political posturing define policy.
That is why the conservative argument should be unapologetic and forward-looking: focus on school choice, parent-driven education, economic freedom, and restoration of civic institutions that reward competence and character. Sowell spent decades showing that culture, families, and education matter far more than bureaucratic fixes dreamed up in elite think tanks. Sharing clips like this is not nostalgia; it’s a necessary course correction for a nation that wants real equality of opportunity rather than empty signaling.
If today’s conservatives truly intend to win both the argument and the future, we must make Sowell’s empiricism our guide and stop bowing to the theatrics of grievance politics. Demand policies that strengthen families, raise educational standards, and preserve the rule of law applied equally to everyone—those are the real engines of progress. The left can keep its slogans; we’ll keep insisting on results.
