The Poison of Identity Politics
Identity politics is the in thing. This is the idea that who you are determines where you are on the political spectrum. How you think and feel about things should be pre-determined. If you are a member of a certain group, that is how you should think. Examples are gender, sexuality, race, religion, social class, and ethnicity. There are many others. It is largely used by social justice warriors to persecute those they disagree with, or see as a barrier to spreading their ideology.
One of the main problems with this is you are automatically defining people not in the group as ‘other.’ If they are not I your group they are automatically wrong or bad. Quite often another group will be set up as ‘the enemy.’ For example, feminists depict the white male as the bad guy. Because of his male privilege, he has an unfair advantage, and has somehow used it to take over the world and bend everything to his will (seriously, we are all evil geniuses). This approach leaves no room for compromise, and treats white men as a homogeneous block who all think and act the same way.
In addition, there is a temptation to see everything through the lens of your identity ideology. There is pressure to live your life in accordance with your identity. Every action is explained by it, and it becomes all pervasive. Central to your identity is that you are being persecuted by another group. This deepens divisions, and puts up barriers. People stop talking to each other, and increasingly seen as the opposition and other. Misunderstandings which lead to problems then easily occur. An example is when noted cancer researcher Tim Hunt was accused of sexism after making a joke in a speech. He was dismissed, and only rescued when older, wiser women came forward and testified he was not sexist. They also noted his accusers were young, and without much life experience. He had, of course, done award winning research in to breast cancer.
Furthermore, “gatekeepers” of the ideology appear. These then decide what is right and wrong, and ensure that orthodoxy is enforced. For example, if you are gay you are not supposed to have a racial preference for who you go out with? No, really. Look here. This allows for no deviation of thought or opinions, and seeks to regulate the actions of the group. Which leads us on to…
You are Either with us, or Against us
As mentioned, identity and persecution are key. There can be no deviation from the ideology. This leads to an outlook of “either you are for us, or against us.” This leading to political polarisation and a “Balkanisation” effect where everyone reverts to their tribe, and fights against the other tribes. Talk and communication breaks down. At the extremes, it leads to civil war as seen in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
There is evidence this is happening. A Labour M.P. says she will not sit and talk to Tory M.P.s because they are “the enemy.” Those who voted Remain refusing to share a dinner table with those who voted Leave. The whole point of Parliament is to discuss and debate issues. People with differing views are immediately demonised. Antifa attack anyone who does not agree, or “looks like a Nazi.” Muslims denounce anyone who criticises any of their practices as “Islamophobic.” Blacks who vote for Trump are “race traitors.” Criticise Corbyn and Momentum will say you are a “tool of Zionist oppression.” Nazis see the hand of “the Jews” in everything. Strange how similar they are to Momentum. Because they are “evil”, almost any action can be justified against them. The cause, or the identity and ideology, is all. The ends justify the means.
Because of identity politics, there is a hierarchy of victim hood, a pecking order of oppression. These all compete with each other. A Black man can oppress a feminist, a straight woman can oppress a gay man, etc. The whole thing goes around in a sort of social justice virtue signalling death match. As the saying goes, this culture will eat itself.
Everyone is a Nazi
Everyone is a Nazi and everyone is racist. So the modern cry of the Left goes. This is the ultimate social weapon in an era of identity politics. And it works. If you are not with us, you are against us. If you are with us you are “X”. If you are against us you are “Not-X.” If you disagree with us, then you must be racist. This is perhaps the peak expression of identity politics. It delivers on all I have mentioned above. You define anyone who disagrees with you as some undesirable other. They are then one of the evil oppressor group. You then use this label as a weapon to enforce the orthodoxy of your ideology/religion.
Even those on the left are not safe, and must virtue signal constantly to avoid accusations. For example, Richard Dawkins was recently accused of racism after daring to criticise Islam. You can bash Jesus all you want, but don’t dare criticise the religion of peace.
At the moment there are few real Nazis, so Antifa invent them. More Britons have gone to fight for ISIS than turned up at Charlottesville. This means they have to label vast swathes of ordinary people as Nazis in order to justify their existence and message. Have no Nazis to fight? Invent them.
It works. Our cuck politicians cave in every time. Everyone feels the desire to virtue signal that they are in the good group, and not bad. The latest wheeze is to call everyone a Nazi, or a white supremacist. If you disagree with immigration policy, you must be a racist Nazi. If you voted for Brexit, you must be racist. Despite the fact that in the 17.4 million people who did, there must be a fair few Blacks, Asians, and the children and grandchildren of immigrants. People with fairly moderate views are labelled as far right. It seems if you are a tax payer, you are “Literally Hitler.” What the left and the social justice warriors fail to realise is that by doing this, they are in fact either creating more Nazis, or pushing people towards them. If you define everyone who opposes you as racist Nazis, and push them out, where do they go? Who will welcome them with open arms? Have a wild guess.
The Death of Free Speech
As we have seen, there can be no challenge to the orthodoxy of the ideology. Any dissent is therefore deemed “hate speech.” You are either with us or against us. This leading to the Balkanisation of the internet. Facebook, Twitter, Google and YouTube amongst others are removing content they have arbitrarily deemed as “unacceptable.” Free speech is under serious attack. The CPS has published new guidelines to prosecute hate speech. This seems to be a thinly veiled threat to censor content that does not meet the approval of the social justice agenda. In 1984 the dictionary of Newspeak was designed to stop protest by eliminating the words to articulate it, by cutting down the language available. Previously I always scoffed at this, I don’t anymore.
Antifa= Nazis=ISIS: The Same yet Different
Each of these groups uses the same methods to achieve their aims. They each claim to be different, yet are more akin to each other than not. This is why it hurts them when you say Nazis are socialist, or Antifa are modern Nazis. It is because there is a truth too it. Each uses violence, and the ends justify the means. Each claim to be fighting evil e.g. Nazis, Jews, Crusaders, Zionists, Capitalism, the West. They are almost interchangeable. Each uses identity politics to fuel hatred.
Antifa are the biggest misnomer going. They dress in black, wear masks, carry weapons, set fire to things and attack people based on identity. And they are against free speech. Yet they claim to be antifascist, and fight the Nazis. And people believe them. This is the greatest con trick since the Devil convinced people he did not exist. At the G20 Antifa destroyed and burned Hamburg, in scenes reminiscent of Kristallnacht. Yet this is fine, because they are antifascist.
The Nazis are no better. Richard Spencer called the “Unite the Right” protest in Charlottesville. Idiots running around in Hitler T-Shirts, doing Nazi salutes, etc was not the way to gain support. The when criticised they yelled “stop punching Right!” Well, as we all know, Fascism and Nazism have their roots on the left. Mussolini was a journalist for a left wing newspaper, and a member of the Italian socialist party. Hitler was quoted as saying Nazis were socialists. Both believed in a big state, government intervention in the economy, collectivised property and didn’t respect individual rights. Mussolini even had fascist trade unions. So when I criticise Nazis I am punching left, because Nazism is Socialism. Both my Grandfathers fought the Nazis, taking wound sin the process. My paternal Grandfather carried shrapnel from a German bomb in his arm until the day he died. Penicillin was not in mass production, so doctors left it in. I will not be lured to the Nazis simply because I reject Antifa. Nazis are fake right. Oh, and Richard Spencer is anti- Brexit.
Both Antifa and the Nazis offer only binary choices, you are with us or against us. The two groups are bad, but at this point I would say Antifa are worse. They are labelling everyone as Fascists or Nazis, using violence and attacking people. This fuels the growth of Neo-Nazis, as people get scared and look for protection or ways to fight back. They don’t want to join Antifa, but Antifa gives them no other options, only a binary choice. The result is Charlottesville. If you keep calling people Nazi, eventually many will say “they keep saying I am, so I may as well be.”
Naïve politicians and the Media
I would like to think our politicians are merely naïve. That they are not deliberately overlooking the frightening rise of the militant left and militant Islam. That they are not complicit. Some days I have my doubt. The tweet above from Sajid Javid, a serving government minister, on an open public platform, highlights the situation. Just because someone fights Nazis, does not necessarily mean they are good. Sajid claims he was taught this as a child. But this is a child’s way of looking at it. Antifa is on its way to becoming a proscribed terror group in the U.S.A. It should be here to. The media regularly engage in race baiting and divisive reporting, encouraging identity politics. The nightly news is a festival of lies, while attacks by Muslim extremists, or stories that put their pet minority groups in a bad light, are covered up. Politicians pander to this, in order to virtue signal. It is a dangerous game to play, as they enabling dark forces. One only has to look at Corbyn’s Momentum attack dogs to see the dangers. Regular anti-Semitic comments, bricks through windows. The sacking of Sarah Champion from Labour for pointing the finger where it was deserved is a very worrying development. The warnings from history are clear for all to see.
Final Thoughts
I reject the Balkanisation of politics. I can be of the right without belonging to any party or group. I reject the binary approach of the likes of Antifa and the Nazis. Both flawed socialist ideologies have caused massive damage to the human race. I reject the identity politics of the left. Just because I am a white male does not mean I am the enemy or intrinsically evil. I am against censorship, especially online, as I think society needs to reflect a wide range of views. Never should we be arrogant enough to believe we know all the answers, that ours is the one true way, and others are all enemies with nothing to offer. I have friends who voted Remain, and family members who vote Labour. They are not all evil. Misguided, yes, but not evil. They are misled by the media, and politicians for their own ends. Those who shout loudest about Nazis and racists are themselves in the most danger of becoming what they say they oppose, and creating those very forces in opposition. I mention Balkanisation deliberately to evoke memories of that conflict. Also as a reminder of WW1 which was sparked in that region, also by identity politics. This is where the road ultimately leads, and the warning we should take from history. If you try and force people down this road, don’t pretend you don’t know where it goes. Remember the Srebrenica massacre, the rape camps and the mass graves.
More from Jonathon here.
