Structural Sin

There is no such thing as “structural sin” because “structures” do not have immortal souls.  “Structural” is an old word for what up-to-date people now call “institutional,” as in “institutional racism.”  The adjective “structural” denotes a practice that is so deeply imbedded in a society’s way of life that, although pervasive, it is invisible to all but an enlightened few. Jonathan Smith, over at the Orthosphere Oct 6, 2023.

That "enlightened few" part does seem to become the main point, pretty often, doesn't it.  Only a True Princess can detect the pea under the twenty-seven mattresses. Wokeness rapidly becomes competitive, with people demonstrating how cleaver they are at detecting nuances the others have missed. "You can detect racism in the NCAA?  That's nothing. Hold my beer.  I can detect it in the NAACP!"

Institutional or structural sin, and the weakness of the general concept, has been a frequent topic here. Here is one of the earliest, pointing out that the accusation often includes rather clever false equivalences. It's brief, I promise.