Now that really was a well-crafted and balanced response, thank you. I actually felt good reading that because it addressed the text in a critical yet substantive manner.

Admittedly, I was not going for a neutral academic tone, nor did I address the genuine and legitimate concerns that lead to the institution of affirmative action/equal opportunity policies by people who meant well. True too that I was rather stringent in my condemnation of non-meritocratic practice, I was not going for a treatment of both of sides of the argument.

Meritocracy in other respects is most certainly alive and well in some corners of higher education. Grading for example (if one is fortunate enough to have an educator or supervisor who is not adamantly opposed to different opinions). Also within my network of friends at the universities, I have noticed that the liberal arts departments are much prone to a non-meritocratic mindset discussed than the natural sciences departments. As to my spirited defense of the piece, I can understand how in this context it comes across rather vehement, but logical fallacies deserve to be called out as such.

All of my writing for public consumption to date has been strictly academic with a rare excursion into fiction; this is admittedly the first social media / blog platform where I have even considered posting a written text that reflected a personal opinion and it is a learning process. I will definitely consider your constructive criticism when crafting future opinion posts.

Thanks again!