THE TRAP OF IDENTITY POLITICS: YES TO UNIVERSAL RIGHTS, NO to FRAGMENTED RIGHTS

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GUEST EDITORIAL
By Billy Bob

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ABOVE: Tribalistic self-love has long been catered to by alert marketers.  (Source: Amazon)

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One of the most dangerous and destructive aspects of identity politics is that it facilitates and encourages people to have more loyalty to their preferred identity than they have for basic universal principles of morality and justice. When you are trapped in a tribal paradigm instead of the universality of class struggle, it is easy for the ruling elite to manipulate you and use you as a tool to further their own interests.

When people's entire world view is consumed by "what is in the best interest of the group I identify with" instead of what is in the best interest of humanity based on an informed consideration of morality and justice, truly problematic behavior can begin to flourish.

 

I mean there are so many ways in which the Western ruling establishment perpetuates and benefits from fractionalizing the masses and turning them against each other in the most destructive ways: today, the most obvious manifestation of this tendency can be seen in the support for the apartheid state of Israel, among too many of those who identify as Jewish (not to mention those who identify as Christian). For those whose highest moral aspiration boils down to "what is best for my group", truly reprehensible and anti-human behavior can become normalized.

 

But it would not be fair to just pick on Jewish people when there are so many other manifestations of identity politics that are first manufactured and then manipulated, in furtherance of the political and economic ends, of the ruling elite... a ruling elite that could not care less about the degree to which minorities are mistreated or given preferential treatment (due to their classification as uber-victims). The ruling elite does not really give a fuck about any "minority issues" except to the extent it can weaponize them in furtherance of their own elitist and imperialist interests.

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So, first the ruling class abuses, mistreats, and exploits minorities for all they are worth, then it leverages their legitimate identitarian grievances to make sure the working class is irreconcilably fractured, and at each other's throats. This is a problem that we must overcome if we are to have any hope of developing the unity necessary to overcoming imperialism.

 

People need to stop perceiving everything on an arbitrary tribalistic basis whether this basis is their own ethnicity, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, or race, and start basing their world view on the universalist and macro issue of class struggle and opposition to imperialism. This is the only way necessary and significant change will ever be possible.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR / SOURCE

Billy Bob is dedicated anti-imperialist activist and blogger. You can reach him at his Facebook page HERE.

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