The End of Identity Liberalism
I consider myself fairly progressive in my politics, and am quite annoyed that Trump got elected. I&#x27;d like to think that folks like me are on the right side of history.<p>That said, one of the biggest missteps in progressive popular rhetoric that we&#x27;ve made in the last five years has got to be the increasing reliance on identity politics when engaging the opposition.<p>Concepts like intersectionality, privilege, erasure, and so forth can be quite useful in an <i>academic</i> setting. They can shed a lot of light on how to view issues of diversity and give some insights in to how we can evaluate different social and cultural structures. They can enable somebody performing analyses to help acknowledge and account for their own biases, producing higher-quality work.<p>In an <i>informal</i> or <i>public</i> setting however those same ideas tend to be distorted and misused by people, being used to do such things as assign guilt and blame and to erect unimpeachable rhetorical positions that prevent good-faith discussion.<p>In trying to acknowledge minorities and their plights the untrained or the emotional will often throw back in somebody&#x27;s face supposed privilege, and dismiss any statement as being valueless because of who it comes from. The untrained will sideline themselves with intersectionality arguments that require that <i>everyone</i> must be recognized and have a seat at the table before <i>anybody</i> individually does, and in so doing deadlock efforts to make progress lest some tiny splinter be left behind. Folks will make arguments about being erased and having violence committed against them for such minor things as their opponents being bad with pronouns or pointing out factual inaccuracies.<p>This strategy many of our side have adopted, and it&#x27;s a strategy that others people we should be trying to reach. It antagonizes those who might otherwise be our allies, because it denies their shared humanity with us because they don&#x27;t have the correct skin color or bank balance or upbringing or culture.<p>And perhaps worst of all, it inflames the passions and biases the vocabulary such that, when a <i>real</i> threat does come along, we are unable to speak out and be taken seriously.<p>We have to leave the lens of identity and related tools back in the contexts where they help, not hurt, understanding.