What a load of bollocks this is exactly why the right has triumphed in America and Europe, the dumbass left continue their pursuit of identity politics which will wipe them out.
I've seen this a lot recently. 'identity politics' is an odd thing to accuse the left of. While the right continually fights to disadvantage groups of people (or keep them disadvantaged), they claim the left is focusing too much on those groups when they fight back.
I'm sure that if they had not been trying to hard to paint slaves not as people, but as chattel, the slave owners in the past would have called abolition 'identity politics' too - why focus so much on one group?!
The reality is the progress from the left benefits us all. These are never policies that specifically benefit one group, they just end up benefiting groups more because they are so disadvantaged right now.
Again, it feels like another way in which the right seems to believe that freedom and rights for others come at their expense.
you really need to study up on it. It is not about trying to disadvantage groups, it is all about using the identity of a group to defend any actions or positions they take. Worse is when it is applied to candidates for office because every disagreement with that candidate is taken instead as an attack on them because of their race, religion, sex, and orientation.
It is a shameless exploitation that the left has championed for many decades. Pitting one group against another and laying the bigot/racist card on anyone who suggest special rights for a particular class/identity are not warranted.
I agree that the left has its own form of bigotry that goes underchallenged for the most part, but the argument you're referring to is one of the most insidious and disingenuous the right espouses.
For the most part, the identity politics of the right have evolved from an explicit racism and sexism to an implicit one. The argument goes "as long as we don't explicitly mention race, sex, or ethnicity, we're ok," which isn't true. Voter ID laws are perfect example of this: they deny citizens of their constitutional right to vote without due process, in the absence of evidence for any systematic problems, and disenfranchise people based on socioeconomic status, and implicitly by race, but then complain when they're called on it, whining that the left has somehow shifted the goalposts. It's a sort of Bart Simpson defense ("I'm just walking around swinging my arms and if anyone happens to be in my way, it's their fault").
The essence of the Trump phenomenon to me seems to be the right getting tired of playing this game, of hiding the racism and identity politics they play. Trump just came out with it unapologetically, "saying it like it is" according to some of his supporters. I'm not saying everyone who voted for Trump did it for those reasons, but it was certainly a big part of it, especially during the primaries. I believe much of the mainstream right was not truly appalled by what he said, just the fact that he was so open about it. They distanced themselves from him when they believed it was politically harmful, and now are cozying up to him again when they realized it wasn't.
I know nothing of Indian politics but in the US would you not classify the infamous "southern strategy " the bedrock of the right's political philosophy that has been exploited since the 60's.
You think that just because I disagree with you I haven't looked into it? While what you are describing does sometimes happen, the idea that it's the primary mode of operation, or even a significant one outside the fringe of the left, does not match what I see.
People can, and do, discuss these issues without being called bigots or racists, people can, and do, attack minority candidates for their policies.
That said, if you disagree that people, regardless of race, religion (or lack thereof), sex, orientation, etc... deserve the same basic rights, damn straight the left will call that out.
This attempt to push this idea that the left is wrong for pointing out discrimination is an attempt to push fear into the hearts of the privileged. I am one of those classic straight while males that should apparently be so fearful - but I'm not, because I don't see this attack. We want to allow people the same rights we already have! How is that an attack? How is that 'special rights'?
There are no 'special rights' being granted - just the same rights you and I have. That isn't a cost to us, it lifts us all up.
Yes, there are the minority few who will claim any attack on a black person is because they are black - and that is wrong and gets called out in the rare case it happens. It is not a common or powerful viewpoint.
Yes, the right does try to disadvantage groups. Look at the voter suppression by closing polling stations in areas with high minority populations, look at the fight against marriage equality, against the right to choose. All of these are aimed at pushing certain groups (minorities, LGTBQ, women) down. Pointing this out and trying to help those people get or maintain the rights we already have (I can get out and vote, I can marry who I want) is not 'identity politics'.
Either you are buying into this fear - which you shouldn't, because this is a positive thing, or you just don't want your ability to discriminate to get taken away.
I'm not saying there are not people wrong on the left, or people who don't understand the issues and propose poor solutions - speaking out against those people doesn't make you a bigot. Discussing these things to understand them doesn't make you a bigot. We don't want people to be bigots, we are not pushing for that, but we can't tolerate the denial of people's basic rights. That's unacceptable, and we will not be 'shamed' by this crazy fear.
A poor excuse. To label the two things the same implies they are equal, but they are not. Your statement implies the left should be holding back to stop the right from countering.
Imagine if we had not abolished slavery simply because it could (and did) cause some people to become more racist.
Arguing that the left should simply let some people have their rights denied, because the right will throw a hissy fit is unconscionable.
The right labelling the left's attempts to give everyone equal rights as 'identity politics' is the political equivalent of 'stop hitting yourself' as they grab your hand and force it into your face. They are the ones denying people their rights based on identity, fighting that is not wrong, whatever doublethink you want to apply.
Identity politics on the right (and pretty much the same brand of racial, religious, and gender-preferential identity politics as today) have been a thing since the policies of enfranchisement on the left were largely ideological movements within the white, mostly at least nominally Christian, male middle-to-upper class segment, and not even really directed politically at the groups that would be enfranchise by them.
In a very real sense, it is identity politics on the right that produced identity politics on the left, as the franchise spread such that the groups benefitting from the egalitarian impulses of the left actually became even paetially enfranchised and thus meaningful subjects of identity politics.
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