Monday 18 September 2017

BENJAMIN LAW'S TWEET & IDENTITY POLITICS

Identity politics are broadly defined, but they typically involve an individual who bases his identity on social categories and divisions. Some examples are a feminist who always votes for female candidates regardless of policies, or a black person who primarily supports causes designed to empower the black community.
 https://www.reference.com/government-politics/examples-identity-politics-93ea56a0dfa41095



Interesting points from Greg Sheridan writing in this weekend Australian on the subject of Identity Politics and Benjamin Law's tweet and writer of the recent Quarterly Essay...

"...because the champions of identity politics, almost always comfortable middle-class activists, see themselves as fighting against horrendous historic evils, they recognise no bounds at all of moderation in their language or respect for people who conscientiously disagree with their proposals.

Thus Benjamin Law, in most respects a good and talented fellow, could tweet that he would 'hate-f..k' coalition MPs to cure them of their homophobia.  Imagine the society-wide and justified core meltdown there would be if some advocate of the No case said he would be happy to have rough sex with supporters of the Yes case to show them how good straight sex is...

The point here is not to make a martyr of Law.  He is a mainstream figure but not central.  The point is to illustrate where identity politics always goes, and always goes wrong.

That Law cannot see how profoundly offensive his comments were, that they implied a complete lack of respect for human beings who disagree with him, illustrates the toxic power of identity politics."

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