So...after getting done discussing GMS's video about how evangelical Christianity is a deeply racist movement rooted in white supremacy and getting a metric crapton of thoughts out on that, I ended up watching this crap take from Francesca Fiorentini and Emma Vigeland. Basically, it's a half hour long take of them crapping on Ana Kasperian for having relatively moderate and reasonable views on race, while they dunk on her for failing to internalize the proper leftist doctrines. It's annoying, offputting, and alienating to the majority of the broader public.
Which...brings me to another chapter in this current saga of discussing racism and what we need to do with it. Look. White supremacy is not the primary problem. It's a side problem. The core problem of society is the capitalist/imperialist project that reduces the world to wage slaves and sometimes literal slaves. And this affects ALL people and ALL races. As I see it, the vast majority of us have common interests, even if the exact manifestations are different depending on things like location, race, etc.,
Racism was created to establish a form of social hierarchy that keeps these masses fighting amongst themselves. It was created to stop whites and blacks from coming together, and realizing the common problems and common enemies they shared. While it is a problem, rank identitarianism hyper emphasizes it to a point that it's counterproductive. It's basically just the mirror image of the right's racism. The right has racism to justify the existing social hierarchy by turning whites against blacks, giving the white working class the impression of illusory superiority. It gives them someone to look down on themselves, and someone for them to kick around themselves. However, identitarian movements are cynically used by the elites to attempt to get the racial minorities so obsessed with their stuff, that it makes an actual working class movement impossible. That's the true tragedy of 2016. I was a white guy who wanted universal healthcare, I was told to check my privilege and blah blah blah. It's a toxic system. And then they accuse of of being racist because we dont accept their little doctrines. And their little doctrines are doctrines. it's just more religion in a sense. The racism of the past is the original sin, all whites are guilty, they need to feel bad about it, they need to admit to being part of the problem, and only them when they find redemption. The thing is, this is literally brainwashing. They're doing this to you to get power over you. it's like a trojan horse computer virus. You let it in and then it takes control of your mind's firmware. It follows a similar heuristic pattern as Christianity, which is why, as an ex Christian, I'm so able to detect it. It's like "wait, this is a lot like that other thing..." It literally is.
Heck, I'd argue that identitarianism is an adaption of the system to allow the left to keep acting like they're doing something when they're no longer doing something. The "New Left" arose in the 1960s and 1970s as an attempt to move the left away from orthodox marxism. Dont get me wrong, I myself aint a fan of orthodox marxism, but they basically abandoned class analysis for identitarian analysis. And then the democratic party psyopped the left into hyper emphasizing identity at the expense of class and the rest is history. It's a LITERAL psyop. It's intended to distract us from class politics and hyper emphasize identity and race.
Dont get me wrong, there are some aspects of identitiarianism that are valid. Like the whole history of racism, and the fact that some racist structures still exist today. But again, these are relatively peripheral issues. The CORE issue is that capitalist-imperialist superstructure. And to beat that, you DO need class analysis. That doesnt mean we embrace the solutions of orthodox marxism. I wanna remind people, my own ideology and its offshoots came about in part because former marxists like phillippe van parijs themselves moved away from orthodox marxism and asked "what, if anything can justify capitalism?" And that idea is FREEDOM. Since then, a whole wing of left libertarianism has come about centered around UBI and the idea that it gives people more freedom, while still maintaining the positive elements of capitalism. It itself is a reform based movement that isnt intended to destroy systems as they exist, but reform them. And my own ideas are mostly just a melding of my emerging humanist worldview with THAT.
I aint saying we entirely ignore race, but it shouldnt be the primary point of the movement, it shouldnt define the morality of the movement, and it shouldnt gatekeep who is and isn't in the movement. TO make a class based movement work, we might have to deal with people who tend to reject these far left weirdo social identitarian dogmas, and who might have relatively regressive views themselves. And yes, you need moderates, like me or Ana Kasperian on your side.
THe problem with the "max left", as Ana or Cenk of TYT would put it, is that tends to go all in with these unpopular movements that dont unite people and keep the left ineffective and toothless. Again, if we want to win, we need a coalition of 50%+ of the country. I aint sayint we shouldnt have SOME identitiarian stuff, but that should be like, a small fraction of what we do. It cant be the main course, or it'll just fall into the same identity trap that keeps us fighting useless "culture wars" and be a tool used by the elites against the masses to keep them in line and fighting amongst themselves.
If you push this stuff, you're actively working against a movement that could actually win over a multiracial coalition to solve problems. You're reinforcing the neoliberal corporatist wing of "the left" and giving them power, even if you call yourself a "leftist." Youre also driving people to the right, as a lot of people are so turned off by that stuff, they flip back around to being conservatives. Great if you want to keep the working classes divided, terrible if you want to see some unity around some common causes.
We need to find common ground, identitarianism splits us up into little cliques and niches. It's not helpful. it's actually quite abusive. And it's unsustainable as a coalition. Abandon it. Embrace class politics instead. That's all I'm gonna say on that matter tonight.
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