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Identity Politics Is a Poor Substitute for Socialism
(jacobin.com)
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this post was submitted on 21 Dec 2023
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the_dunk_tank
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"identity politics" is a buzzword. It has no real meaning.
It absolutely has meaning. It's like rainbow capitalism. It is ridiculed here on this site all the time and is a prime example of how liberalism prioritizes the PR campaigniness of proving they are doing good vs actually doing anything good at all. We are in the deep end of it and it's fucking wild.
Idk I've only ever seen reactionaries whinge about it, to me it's practically meaningless because it's not really an effective critique of capitalism, or liberalism in general. It's the same class of words like "woke," "SJW," "PC" etc.
You already mentioned "rainbow capitalism" and that's already a better word for it because it at least describes it a bit better. That's just me though
They keep inventing new words, meanwhile we stay with 1800s ahh words like "Bourgeoisie" "ruling class", this is why we're based
Yeah we should use "globalist" and "cultural Marxist" too right?
It turns out the word dates back to leftists in the 70s, regardless, I've never seen it used in serious discussion in leftist spaces because it's usually the fascists that are complaining about it
Identity politics is a vague term for any political discourse/movements centering race, gender, sexuality, etc. BLM is idpol. Palestinian nationalism is idpol. Feminism is idpol. Trans rights movements are idpol. Engaging in idpol doesn't mean you can't recognize class and intersectionality.
"identity politics" is just a white weasel word like "regime" or "expat"
when a mayo does the same thing a person from a 3rd world country does it's called "expat"
when a "bad country" has a government it's called a regime
when POC do even a fraction of what whites have been doing for the last 200+ years it's called "identity politics".
because you know rioting against desegregation and bussing and etc totally isn't identity politics
white people are obsessed with finding new words and phrases for the same old thing, because that obfuscates the centrality and longevity of the political struggle, and lets you frame it as "hey look at these wacky new identity politics that only started in 2010"
I put in another comment that I found that the phrase itself dates back to the 70s from antiracist feminist groups using it to describe their politics and the struggles they face in the USA.
Like the word "woke", the fascists have co-opted it's use to be derogatory and to mean anything that that they disagree with (usually that is either anti-racist or feminist in nature).