You have identified here something which I began to notice in the past year or so: The whole point of identity politics is to give a sheen of progressiveness to organisations who ignore or even exploit the poor. It's no wonder the Democrats, the Labour Party, the SNP and the Greens are so keen on identity politics - they have abandoned ordinary people to neoliberalism while cosying up to the wealthy and their powerful corporations. However, their "brand" requires they look vaguely of the left. What to do? Let's adopt a rainbow flag and pretend we care about the oppressed, even as we have business breakfasts with those who exploit them, and abandon our raison d'etre.
The "woke" are not left wing. In fact, they destroy every left wing host that they infiltrate, as parasites often do. The original idea of identity politics was to allow the disenfranchised to speak for themselves: the working classes, refugees, the homeless. But it's been hijacked by the already powerful and the most privileged people in our society to claim that THEY are the oppressed because of their hair colour/fetish/self-diagnosed autism/something else no-one cares about.
The reason so many people on the left in the media are so entranced by identity politics is because they don't actually know any working class people as equals. The increasing social apartheid of British society means that working class people are closed out of decision-making fora. We certainly aren't working on broadsheets or at the BBC. We are discussed as objects, not engaged with as citizens. Watch your tv - the only authoritative working class voices you hear are football pundits. And don't they get rocks for not "speaking properly". Look at the difficulty people have dealing with the fact that the most racially diverse cabinet Westminster has ever had is pursuing the most racist policies in living memory. There is no room in that binary world for right wing people of colour, let along privately educated millionaire people of colour. God help me, I've got into my 60s and discovered the SWP were right all along - the only politics is class politics.
Identity politics on the "left" are the mirror image of culture wars on the right. It's a way of preventing solidarity among ordinary people, who must be constantly wound up with rage at the "other". It also explains the "No Debate" mantra - because they cannot justify what they're doing and are incapable of coherent debate.
It's been pointed out that all this woke nonsense (after so much actual progress since the 60s and early 70s, which may well have gone out the window thanks to these very bad neoliberal actors and their useful idiots) is precisely to "cancel" talk of class issues.
I do believe that, Gogs. I just can't tell if they are bad faith actors, or idiots with no political analysis. Probably a mixture of the two, and in either case, they're no use to ordinary people.
Enough, Iain. Paul Mason is not "the left". Talk about going over the top!
I am sick of labels in politics. If you want to keep children out of poverty, have fair wages and a decent world you're "left wing" and therefore dodgy. If you agreed with Corbyn on anything, you're an extremist and probably an anti-Semite too. (Corbyn was neither!)
And do you know who I blame, Iain? You guys in the media peddling all this stereotypical nonsense in order to keep the kettle boiling and the hatred flowing.
Farage was sinned against by Coutts. That was wrong. Most people now see this because the minutes of a particular meeting emerged. So now we know. (Plus, if people didn't believe Farage to start with, can you blame us? I mean he's one of the biggest liars associated with Brexit and a racist to boot!) Coutts has managed to have Farage playing the role of a victim. Can we move on?
I realise you have different paymasters yourself these days but it is intolerable to see constant negative references to "the left" which lump many good people into a category at which you appear to be directing your contempt. That is deeply offensive.
Mason's an opportunist hack who didn't really support Jeremy Corbyn at the time, no doubt thinking it would be to his advantage, and since then he's being making a complete idiot of himself, and going after anyone on the ACTUAL left, who must be a "Putin apologist" etc etc, though it does look as a new label is required for those of us who consider "class issues" more important than ID politics and de-platforming and censoring people.
You have identified here something which I began to notice in the past year or so: The whole point of identity politics is to give a sheen of progressiveness to organisations who ignore or even exploit the poor. It's no wonder the Democrats, the Labour Party, the SNP and the Greens are so keen on identity politics - they have abandoned ordinary people to neoliberalism while cosying up to the wealthy and their powerful corporations. However, their "brand" requires they look vaguely of the left. What to do? Let's adopt a rainbow flag and pretend we care about the oppressed, even as we have business breakfasts with those who exploit them, and abandon our raison d'etre.
The "woke" are not left wing. In fact, they destroy every left wing host that they infiltrate, as parasites often do. The original idea of identity politics was to allow the disenfranchised to speak for themselves: the working classes, refugees, the homeless. But it's been hijacked by the already powerful and the most privileged people in our society to claim that THEY are the oppressed because of their hair colour/fetish/self-diagnosed autism/something else no-one cares about.
The reason so many people on the left in the media are so entranced by identity politics is because they don't actually know any working class people as equals. The increasing social apartheid of British society means that working class people are closed out of decision-making fora. We certainly aren't working on broadsheets or at the BBC. We are discussed as objects, not engaged with as citizens. Watch your tv - the only authoritative working class voices you hear are football pundits. And don't they get rocks for not "speaking properly". Look at the difficulty people have dealing with the fact that the most racially diverse cabinet Westminster has ever had is pursuing the most racist policies in living memory. There is no room in that binary world for right wing people of colour, let along privately educated millionaire people of colour. God help me, I've got into my 60s and discovered the SWP were right all along - the only politics is class politics.
Identity politics on the "left" are the mirror image of culture wars on the right. It's a way of preventing solidarity among ordinary people, who must be constantly wound up with rage at the "other". It also explains the "No Debate" mantra - because they cannot justify what they're doing and are incapable of coherent debate.
It's been pointed out that all this woke nonsense (after so much actual progress since the 60s and early 70s, which may well have gone out the window thanks to these very bad neoliberal actors and their useful idiots) is precisely to "cancel" talk of class issues.
I do believe that, Gogs. I just can't tell if they are bad faith actors, or idiots with no political analysis. Probably a mixture of the two, and in either case, they're no use to ordinary people.
Enough, Iain. Paul Mason is not "the left". Talk about going over the top!
I am sick of labels in politics. If you want to keep children out of poverty, have fair wages and a decent world you're "left wing" and therefore dodgy. If you agreed with Corbyn on anything, you're an extremist and probably an anti-Semite too. (Corbyn was neither!)
And do you know who I blame, Iain? You guys in the media peddling all this stereotypical nonsense in order to keep the kettle boiling and the hatred flowing.
Farage was sinned against by Coutts. That was wrong. Most people now see this because the minutes of a particular meeting emerged. So now we know. (Plus, if people didn't believe Farage to start with, can you blame us? I mean he's one of the biggest liars associated with Brexit and a racist to boot!) Coutts has managed to have Farage playing the role of a victim. Can we move on?
I realise you have different paymasters yourself these days but it is intolerable to see constant negative references to "the left" which lump many good people into a category at which you appear to be directing your contempt. That is deeply offensive.
Mason's an opportunist hack who didn't really support Jeremy Corbyn at the time, no doubt thinking it would be to his advantage, and since then he's being making a complete idiot of himself, and going after anyone on the ACTUAL left, who must be a "Putin apologist" etc etc, though it does look as a new label is required for those of us who consider "class issues" more important than ID politics and de-platforming and censoring people.