Carlson’s diatribe was a cry of injustice against the order of things that has prevailed in the U.S. since the election of Ronald Reagan. No wonder that the strongest pushback has come from Reagan-worshipping conservative intellectuals like David French and Ben Shapiro, who doubled down on the center-right variant of the meritocratic ideals affirmed by most of the ruling class: Stop whining. Take responsibility for yourself. If you have talent and a good work ethic, you will succeed. If you fail, that’s no one’s fault but your own. It’s certainly not the fault of bankers, hedge-fund managers, and CEOs, whose wealth is the fruit of their own hard work and which benefits everyone as it trickles down through the economy. Encouraging those who are struggling to blame others for their failures risks building support for big government, which will only strangle the economy, leaving everyone worse off.

Note that this response is silent about injustice — the injustice of shattered lives, families, and communities, but also the injustice of trillion-dollar bank bailouts during the financial crisis while millions of ordinary Americans lost their homes and savings. If anything, it conveys the message that Americans should cease caring about justice, keep their mouths shut, and just continue toiling away, trying to better their lives and their communities. If they live in places without jobs, if their neighbors are dying from addiction to painkillers, they should get the hell out and save themselves. Winners make their own luck. It’s the losers and slackers who bellyache about the unfairness of life and look for someone or something to solve their problems for them.