what are "identity politics" and why do they make you so angry?

abandonconflict

Well-Known Member
Shamelessly stolen from the comments section of an article about labor unions in nakedcapitalism.com

"JusticiaFebruary 17, 2017 at 2:40 pm

Agreed: identity politics w/out economic populism isn’t politics — it’s narcissism. Class warfare is the primary means by which all of us who didn’t get the secret handshake are ripped off.

But, there are encouraging new models of economic populism that unite us:

Anyone thinking about strategies of political resistance might take a long look at North Carolina’s Forward Together movement, which on Saturday held its eleventh annual Moral March outside the Raleigh statehouse. Organizers claimed that more than eighty thousand marchers had attended, surpassing the crowd at the 2014 march, which was then the largest civil-rights gathering in the South since the era of Selma and Birmingham.
[…]
As Barber put it on Saturday, the movement exists “so preachers can fight for fifteen and workers can say ‘black lives matter,’ and a white woman can stand with her black sister for voting rights, and a black man can stand for a woman’s right to health care, and L.G.B.T.Q. folk can stand for religious liberty, and straight people can stand up for . . . queer people, and a Muslim imam can stand with an undocumented worker.” This litany of identities might horrify those who argue that Democrats have fallen away from common appeals, but the premise of the movement is that a universalist program—for health care, voting rights, reproductive choice, and higher wages—begins in building coalitions among people whom politics have driven apart.

http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/north-carolinas-long-moral-march-and-its-lessons-for-the-trump-resistance?intcid=mod-latest "

This is the only future for the Democratic Party that leads back from the wilderness it now funds itself in. If it continues to willfully ignore those who are suffering in favor of the corporate fatcats who shower the establishment party with money, then it's finished as a party.

That's why I think we need a left wing, to remind the Democratic apparatchiks who they're supposed to be working for.
The sources you quoted are quite possibly the most horrendous examples of neoliberal tripe available. It reads almost like a warning for the sensibilities of white males who may encounter disgruntled minorities. It was clearly written by someone who interprets "black lives matter" as "fuck YT". IDPOL are not attacking white people, they are nuanced.
 

twostrokenut

Well-Known Member
My, what a tender suppressed white man you are. A quick google search on "Sowell is a racist" brings up pages summarizing or referencing his writings about racism and how it doesn't really exist or if it does, it doesn't really matter. Nothing showed up in a quick survey where liberals accuse Sowell of being racist. I seriously doubt you run in a crowd where you've heard Sowell called a racist. Except maybe here. Do you listen to right wing radio much? That's where this idea of liberals calling Sowell racist is echoed ad nauseam.
Buck is the only one I've ever heard express that sentiment.
 

Padawanbater2

Well-Known Member
The sources you quoted are quite possibly the most horrendous examples of neoliberal tripe available. It reads almost like a warning for the sensibilities of white males who may encounter disgruntled minorities. It was clearly written by someone who interprets "black lives matter" as "fuck YT". IDPOL are not attacking white people, they are nuanced.
It's supported by the NAACP for fucks sake. You know, all those white, privileged males..

http://www.naacpnc.org/
 

UncleBuck

Well-Known Member
So you often offer opinions based on things you haven't read. Shocker.
thomas sowell is a racist and anyone who idolizes milo and tucker carlson and martin shkreli is a dumb bigot.

you are a regressive neo-nazi who is against civil rights.

and you live in a trailer and make less than poverty.

the bank hates you and your federally illegal penny pinching scam so much that they have assign you a special teller just to deal with your dumb rdneck ass.
 

twostrokenut

Well-Known Member
thomas sowell is a racist and anyone who idolizes milo and tucker carlson and martin shkreli is a dumb bigot.

you are a regressive neo-nazi who is against civil rights.

and you live in a trailer and make less than poverty.

the bank hates you and your federally illegal penny pinching scam so much that they have assign you a special teller just to deal with your dumb rdneck ass.
Triggered.
 

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
Yeah, yeah. Because All Lives Matter. Vilifying "identity politics" takes away the identity of a politically active group in order to make an enemy out of them. "The Jews", The Blacks", The Identity politics.

How about "NAACP" or "NOW" or the frickin Sierra Club? Should they stop addressing their own issues? The Democratic Party is a coalition rather than a monolithic ideology. It's more complicated, for sure but closer to representing moderate and left views than any one ideology can.
I think the point was not to forget the underlying economic issues affecting all those identity groups.
 

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
The sources you quoted are quite possibly the most horrendous examples of neoliberal tripe available. It reads almost like a warning for the sensibilities of white males who may encounter disgruntled minorities. It was clearly written by someone who interprets "black lives matter" as "fuck YT". IDPOL are not attacking white people, they are nuanced.
Well I didn't see it that way, but I appreciate your perspective. I am trying to point out that the same economic problems affect us all, no matter what our identity politics might be.

Maybe I could have chosen a better quote.
 

Padawanbater2

Well-Known Member
i think it's far more important not to attack their top issues as "identity politics".
“It goes without saying that as we fight to end all forms of discrimination, as we fight to bring more and more women into the political process, Latinos, African Americans, Native Americans — all of that is enormously important, and count me in as somebody who wants to see that happen.

“Right now, we’ve made some progress in getting women into politics — I think we got 20 women in the Senate now. We need 50 women in the Senate. We need more African Americans.

But it’s not good enough to say, “Hey, I’m a Latina, vote for me.” That is not good enough. I have to know whether that Latina is going to stand up with the working class of this country, and is going to take on big money interests.
 

UncleBuck

Well-Known Member
“It goes without saying that as we fight to end all forms of discrimination, as we fight to bring more and more women into the political process, Latinos, African Americans, Native Americans — all of that is enormously important, and count me in as somebody who wants to see that happen.

“Right now, we’ve made some progress in getting women into politics — I think we got 20 women in the Senate now. We need 50 women in the Senate. We need more African Americans.

But it’s not good enough to say, “Hey, I’m a Latina, vote for me.” That is not good enough. I have to know whether that Latina is going to stand up with the working class of this country, and is going to take on big money interests.

how do you think the central park five feel about bernie sanders calling trump voters "not racist"?
 

Padawanbater2

Well-Known Member
how do you think the central park five feel about bernie sanders calling trump voters "not racist"?
How do you think Sanders quote bemoans identity politics?

What do you disagree with?

You can't even answer a straightforward question with a straightforward answer.
 

UncleBuck

Well-Known Member
How do you think Sanders quote bemoans identity politics?

What do you disagree with?

You can't even answer a straightforward question with a straightforward answer.
how do you think survivors of sexual assault feel about sanders saying trump voters are not sexist?
 
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