This all is in good faith, just sharing my ever-evolving thoughts on the topic to answer the question: For better or worse meritocracies are exclusive in natur

This all is in good faith, just sharing my ever-evolving thoughts on the topic to answer the question: For better or worse meritocracies are exclusive in nature when you take systemic societal issues into consideration like wealth gaps. In America, we've historically done so much to hurt minorities I believe we've arguably held religions/ethnicities/classes/genders back from the same opportunities that I have as a straight middleclass white guy. Is it the fault of the meritocracy that it is exclusive in this arguably unfair way? Nope - and I don't think that we should get away with meritocracies at all. But I do think we have to take into account external societal conditions when implementing one and I see affirmative action as this measure. Schools are unique in society that they're a ladder up - my time in college was huge. Arguably, education is one of the most fair ways to lift people out of the non-ideal societal crap I was discussing in the first paragraph... so things like affirmative action are implemented to enhance marginalized people's access to opportunities I often take for granted. This issue for me is a hard one as I can't exclude the reality of history and systemic societal problems along side a school's unique position to be the ladder up for people who have been crapped on like I haven't. --- > decisions shouldn't primarily be based on merit anymore? I think we still need to make decisions based on merit absolutely - and I think we need to strive for the ideals of meritocracy as a society. I just think that active measures are taken to try to balance things out - affirmative action being one of those... for better or worse. Affirmative action is just a really complex issue. Anecdotally, I admit I am glad that I am in California now where it's illegal in regards to employment - and honestly... selfishly so. In Iowa affirmative action was a thing. Man I really hope the Diablo 2 auth servers are back online....