Why are Identity politics so bad?

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > Why are Identity politics so bad?

UV_Catastrophe: Dec 29, 2008; Of all the words of mice and men, the saddest are,

"It might have been."; Pillbug

This pointless, fruitless debate about "identity politics" has and is probably going to do more damage to the democratic coalition than any clever strategy conservatives have dreamed up.

The moral of the story is that you must appeal to all demographics within the democratic tent, meaning that you've got to excite people about both your social and economic stances. It is entirely possible to convincingly do both, and anyone who tells you otherwise is likely disguising their conservative views behind a bad faith argument.

# ¿ Dec 3, 2016 19:04

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 03:00

UV_Catastrophe: Dec 29, 2008; Of all the words of mice and men, the saddest are,

"It might have been."; Pillbug

stone cold posted:

I am very afraid for my nonwhite noncishet nonChristian friends, yes, since the prevailing attitude seems to be, "economic anxiety made us lose, better appeal better to whites again."
I am gonna call out when people are being poor allies, because yeah human rights are at loving stake.

Appealing to working class whites through a stronger stance on economic issues doesn't detract from fighting for the rights of minorities, though.

# ¿ Dec 3, 2016 20:47

UV_Catastrophe: Dec 29, 2008; Of all the words of mice and men, the saddest are,

"It might have been."; Pillbug

apokaladle posted:

In your wording, you explicitly say that economic focus is for "working class whites". Not underserved rural populations, but whites. There is a rich history of economic advances for white people happening at the expense of people of color in this country.

In the election postmortems, there is a lot of talk of having to pacify the angry white voters in the name of pragmatism. I will reiterate now that the rampant exploitation of the capitalist class is unconscionable. I add that we know that voter disenfranchisement has been targeted towards minorities specifically. We look at the votes that were cast to see if there are discrepancies, which is fascinating in its own right, but there are no sexy fundraisers about the votes that couldn't be cast at all. I do not see nearly as much talk about fighting for our right to vote. That one-two punch of being disenfranchised and then deemphasized because of the lesser vote impact leaves me with a feeling of dread and less faith in many of my supposed allies than I would have liked to believe.

This is a good point, and I also agree that voter disenfranchisement is dreadful.

Democrats will never move forward unless they have the buy-in for each group inside their voting coalition, though. If minority groups do not feel as if a candidate's platform addresses their concerns, that candidate will simply not succeed. Everyone has veto power here, and there's no particular need to feel threatened.

# ¿ Dec 3, 2016 21:18

UV_Catastrophe: Dec 29, 2008; Of all the words of mice and men, the saddest are,

"It might have been."; Pillbug

JeffersonClay posted:

White supremacy and patriarchy are tools which serve the interests of capital. Perhaps they need to be dismantled before real progress can be made in a socialist economic agenda.

Do you believe there will ever come a point in our lifetimes where racism and sexism are finally extinguished to the point where we can then focus on an economic agenda?

# ¿ Dec 3, 2016 21:36

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > Why are Identity politics so bad?