This is the third paper in a very important series on identity politics by Peter Baldwin who is the convenor of the Blackheath Philosophy Forum in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney.
This article supports Count 3 of my indictment of identity politics set out in J’Accuse Identity Politics in which I claim that the worst victims of this ideology are the very people it claims to champion. There is a huge amount to be said about this, but in this article I focus on two cases: the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States, and the role of identity politics in reshaping policy toward indigenous people in Australia over the past several decades. In both these cases, but especially the latter, the embrace of identity politics has not just failed to improve the lot of the severely disadvantaged people concerned, but actually made things far worse.
Identity politics is about acquiring power to the Left.
An illuminating look at IP and just why it is destroying the very people who are supposed to be being helped.
Until they start to help themselves out of the situation there will continue to be suffering.
Whitey must stay clear. That , of course, will not happen.
Progressive Wbitey’s will not be able to keep away.
Identity politics has nothing to do with charity but everything to do with political propaganda and electioneering tactics.
It is about assigning blame.
It is not even about revealing victimhood – in fact they are needed to be kept victims in order to maintain the blame being assigned.
If it was a calculation, blame would be the variable and victimhood a constant, the elite try to manage the outcome by playing with the variable.
If the Museum of Victims cannot pull in the paying crowds, how do the archeologists of envy acquire the status that is due to them?
You need to freshen the displays now & then so the attention-defecit crowd don’t drift away (or other, smoother rent seekers steal your limelight).
Deficit. Grrrr.
Muddy, “attention-defecit crowd” actually works in some ways.
Identity politics, like multiculturalism, is a pure form of racism.