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By what mechanism does this work? We can trace the history of identity politics, from 60's and 70's counterculture, Marxist academics, feminism, until it becam

By what mechanism does this work? We can trace the history of identity politics, from 60's and 70's counterculture, Marxist academics, feminism, until it became academic mainstream. If this was on purpose, how did it happen? If not, how is it relevant anyway? Presumably if you can make a compelling case that what you consider to be the real issues are more important, people will make a rational choice to focus more on them.

venomsnake 11y ago
Lets start with global warming, 8 year global economic depression, the destruction of the ecosystem and the fact that we are in the middle of an extinction even. Also the global geopolitics going to hell is vaguely important too. I would also add the incoming caste-ization of the society as a problem too. It is not on purpose, but it is convenient noise making. We all will be equal in the grave. Lets work on postponing that moment.
- JesperRavn 11y ago
  You are totally avoiding the argument by throwing in "convenient". Either people are simply choosing to focus on what are to you the wrong problems, or people's focus is being intentionally shifted away from the wrong problems. If you want to argue for the latter, you need to explain how it is happening.
  - venomsnake 11y ago
    The mechanism is easy - identity turns us into pavlov's dog - the brain shuts down. Media know that this generate traffic and outrage so it is easy money for them. And a person has so much attention per day. So we are being fed bite sized little controversies every day.
- pron 11y ago
  If you were only a bit more sophisticated in your thought (or knowledgeable in the issues you've raised) you'll see that what you dismiss as "identity politics" is very much related to those issues. But first, you need to know what politics is. Politics is the fight over the distribution of power in society[1]. Power[2] is the most important concept in the social sciences, and is roughly described as influence. When you study power in society (and this is what researchers in the social sciences have done for about a century now, with major advances in the past 50 years or so) you see similar structures emerge. When you recognize those structures, you'll see that what makes fighting global warming, "casteization" etc. so hard, are the very same structures that are at the heart of racism and sexism (not to be confused with xenophobia and misogyny). Those structures aren't conscious conspiracies but mere emergent properties of how power flows -- and, more importantly, aggregates -- in the complex system of human society. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_(social_and_political) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_(social_and_political)

venomsnake 11y ago

Lets start with global warming, 8 year global economic depression, the destruction of the ecosystem and the fact that we are in the middle of an extinction even. Also the global geopolitics going to hell is vaguely important too. I would also add the incoming caste-ization of the society as a problem too. It is not on purpose, but it is convenient noise making. We all will be equal in the grave. Lets work on postponing that moment.

JesperRavn 11y ago
You are totally avoiding the argument by throwing in "convenient". Either people are simply choosing to focus on what are to you the wrong problems, or people's focus is being intentionally shifted away from the wrong problems. If you want to argue for the latter, you need to explain how it is happening.
- venomsnake 11y ago
  The mechanism is easy - identity turns us into pavlov's dog - the brain shuts down. Media know that this generate traffic and outrage so it is easy money for them. And a person has so much attention per day. So we are being fed bite sized little controversies every day.
pron 11y ago
If you were only a bit more sophisticated in your thought (or knowledgeable in the issues you've raised) you'll see that what you dismiss as "identity politics" is very much related to those issues. But first, you need to know what politics is. Politics is the fight over the distribution of power in society[1]. Power[2] is the most important concept in the social sciences, and is roughly described as influence. When you study power in society (and this is what researchers in the social sciences have done for about a century now, with major advances in the past 50 years or so) you see similar structures emerge. When you recognize those structures, you'll see that what makes fighting global warming, "casteization" etc. so hard, are the very same structures that are at the heart of racism and sexism (not to be confused with xenophobia and misogyny). Those structures aren't conscious conspiracies but mere emergent properties of how power flows -- and, more importantly, aggregates -- in the complex system of human society. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_(social_and_political) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_(social_and_political)