ADVERTISEMENT

Identity Politics are doing fascism’s work better than fascism

May 17, 2021
1,214
2,641
113
“The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity”
- WB Yeats

while people who truly are anti-fascist and who truly believe in democracy should be working together, progressives are providing perfect fodder for the racists and the fascists and the troglodytes and the cultists and the fundamentalists by choking on their own identity politics.

while their accomplishments were truly great, how can you give a women’s soccer player who has won one gold medal and one bronze medal, or a gymnast who has won seven medals, though 22 other gymnasts in Olympic history have one more than she has, the presidential medal of freedom, but then deny an athlete who has become arguably the most prominent advocate for mental health in athletics, and who has won more Olympic medals than any other athlete in history, 27 total, and who is older then either of the two women, and who has deserved that recognition over the span of three presidential terms and three separate administrations?

not just faulting Biden here. After all, does Rush Limbaugh really deserve A presidential medal of freedom at all, considering all the evil he has done, but not Michael Phelps, who has done only good and great?

why? Why do these distortions happen? Because identity politics trump reason all too often.

It’s called identity politics on the left, and it’s called white supremacy on the right. People are just becoming more and more tribal and it is truly terrifying.

this piece by the phenomenal and trenchant investigative journalist Ryan Grimm lays it out there. I’ve seen this happen so many times in my life that a minority of people can dictate politics and policy and culture almost always through actual violence and or the threat of violence, while the majority or super majority, people who actually see complexity in the world and by definition move slower, lose and lose and lose because they are unable to maintain any solidarity whatsoever.

Everyone who isn’t a fascist needs to see that every fundamental social and political problem is caused by the narcissism and parasitism and inherent violence of neo liberal capitalism.

In so far as centrists and progressives still think that we can maintain this so-called quality of life and maintain our nearly dead democracy and our critical condition environment, All while maintaining capitalism as it stands, are as sold out and complicit and doomed as any frothing at the mouth white supremacist or fascist.

we are all in this together, like it or not. There will be nowhere to hide, no backyard prep or shelter or no gated community will provide any cover, as we’ve just learned from the most recent pandemic. And as parade goers in Highland Park or elementary school kids in Texas or Connecticut or Florida or anywhere else also tragically learned.

I am so done with identity politics. If people truly are anti-fascist, they need to learn to set aside their narcissism, shut up and listen, and roll up their sleeves and get to work on bringing people together around solving real problems.

Fascism is so much more successful in the short term though because it’s so much easier to destroy or to scream or to accuse than to actually serve and solve and sacrifice.


 
  • Like
Reactions: thewop
ADVERTISEMENT