Perhaps it's a generational thing?

We were taught that you cannot elevate yourself by tearing others down...

This was always a considered a fairly obvious truism.  It was obvious to the point that if you ran across someone who was attempting to make themselves or associates appear better by tearing others down, you simply assume that there was something wrong with them. They were insecure, they had low self esteem, they were mean-spirited, and possibly a slew of other negative things. 

One of them got hit by a bus!

Not only was is considered to be just wrong to use this tactic to elevate yourself, it became fairly obvious that this sort of gambit rarely, if ever, worked. Perhaps the spiteful high school girl clan who called all of their rivals sluts may have brought some element of fear to the table. Incentive not to get on their bad side, but it never really made the spiteful girls any more popular (at least not in any real sense). 

It was considered wrong because it was both ethically wrong and it was not a successful means to accomplish your goal of elevation.

I am curious as to when this went away? What generation of Americans decided that you can in fact elevate some by tearing others down? When did this becomes so widely seen as both an ethical and successful manner to accomplish goals that it actually made it to the ranks of political leaders, many of whom are old enough to have been previously taught (and likely accepted) this important life lesson?

Because let's be honest here folks. The social justice campaign that we see spreading across America along with the ever-growing cancel culture is completely rooted in the concept of tearing people down. Tearing others down who disagree or are seen as a political enemy is the backbone to not only the social justice concept, but much  of your Democratic political social ideals. 

Now I am not just talking about the concept of doxing, cancelling, shaming, and other forms of bullying either. Those are bad enough. I am also talking about recent legislation, recent executive decisions, and recent policy revisions that are doing away with things like "accelerated learning" and other advanced schooling because these classes have too many yellow and white students and not enough black and brown. When the left is not cancelling, shaming, or tearing down those who disagree, they are using similar methods against their targets with the excuse that they are "leveling the playing field". 

Meanwhile white farmers have been forced to sued the Biden administration over new policies that restrict white farmers from garnering the same aid as minority farmers. The American rescue plan apparently has a ton of rescue items that will specifically exclude white people from taking advantage. Could be the exact same situation. Same conditions, same income, same needs, but they will specifically be "excluded" if they are white. You know, in the name of "fairness".  

In the case of the farm loan forgiveness, the law specifically calls out the particular races you must be to garner the benefit (which happens to be every race but white). Apparently there are multiple examples of this in the recent legislation. This is clearly a violation of most of our constitutional principle as well as past legal precedents. I would be shocked if it actually withstood court challenges.

But that is the world we live in. Somehow there is a belief that being white is akin to being in need of getting knocked down a few pegs, as if knocking down one person is now thought to elevate another. Of course this is a 180 degree turn from what my generation was taught growing up. Moreover, I tend to believe that we were taught correctly and that the mean girl cancel culture generation will eventually figure out that bullying doesn't actually work in the end. In fact I get the feeling that this whole thing is headed towards a collision with an oncoming bus.