I’ve started to understand that someone who doesn’t “obsess over identity politics” is probably just transphobic. The complaints about identity politics, cancel culture, all of that. It’s been smuggled transphobia this entire time.
Once upon a time it was somewhat a benign phrase but the right co-opted it to the point where if somebody uses the words “identity politics” I assume chud or TERF until proven otherwise. For the left we can just use the word “intersectionality” to mean the same thing.
It might be a naive hope but I think the right will have more difficulty co-opting that word. Capitalist brainstorms have attached the concept of the individual to identity so “identity politics” was always vulnerable to being twisted by bad actors whereas ‘intersectionality’ implies a collective or at minimum multi-person framing of the concept. Again, I could be naive. But I hope.
hate to break it to you but liberals in the academy coopted intersectionality to mean ‘all forms of oppression besides class’ pretty immediately. it’s been used by the Robin DiAngelo HR DEI class in the same way for going on a decade.
if I take “identity politics” seriously I’m either going to have to stick my neck out for other people, or feel guilty that I’m not sticking my neck out for other people, and there are a lot of really good video games in my backlog, soooo…
“Nonpolitical” consistently means “is fine with the status quo and wants everyone who isn’t to shut up, no matter how they’re negatively affected by it.”
I’ve started to understand that someone who doesn’t “obsess over identity politics” is probably just transphobic. The complaints about identity politics, cancel culture, all of that. It’s been smuggled transphobia this entire time.
it’s racism too, but that’s been a dead issue ever since the brandon regime smiled in the face of the movement for black lives and said “die.”
Once upon a time it was somewhat a benign phrase but the right co-opted it to the point where if somebody uses the words “identity politics” I assume chud or TERF until proven otherwise. For the left we can just use the word “intersectionality” to mean the same thing.
It might be a naive hope but I think the right will have more difficulty co-opting that word. Capitalist brainstorms have attached the concept of the individual to identity so “identity politics” was always vulnerable to being twisted by bad actors whereas ‘intersectionality’ implies a collective or at minimum multi-person framing of the concept. Again, I could be naive. But I hope.
hate to break it to you but liberals in the academy coopted intersectionality to mean ‘all forms of oppression besides class’ pretty immediately. it’s been used by the Robin DiAngelo HR DEI class in the same way for going on a decade.
God. Damnit.
if I take “identity politics” seriously I’m either going to have to stick my neck out for other people, or feel guilty that I’m not sticking my neck out for other people, and there are a lot of really good video games in my backlog, soooo…
“Nonpolitical” consistently means “is fine with the status quo and wants everyone who isn’t to shut up, no matter how they’re negatively affected by it.”