[faichai]

I mean, he didn’t say it, but this identity politics driven perspective is entirely the current thing wrong with the left. I say this as a moderate.

Rather than fall back on broad principles like free speech, you concoct evermore Byzantine rules about who can say what, given their race, gender, position of power or wealth. It’s unsustainable. It’s the Terror, but using cancellation rather than guillotine.

This approach doesn’t scale. In order to do as you say, everyone apparently needs to have a constantly updated internal graph, categorising people across an ever increasing number of categories and defining an ever number of allowable or disallowable viewpoints. It’s way too complex. It starts to sound like some kind of a psychosis.

A healthy principle, like Free Speech, espoused in a few words wins by being universally understandable. It just comes with a flip side that you will hear things that offend you. I think this is an OK price to pay.

[ss108]

We just had 4 years of an identity politics Republican president (which party has totally succumbed to its idiotic, tribalist, identity-driven, populist base, discarding a lot of good conservative ideas and values in the process), so your spin on this as being "entirely the current thing wrong with the left" is disingenuous.

Dems are holding the line far better, though they too will fail, and the progressive wing will take over the party, and I'm personally not keen on that, even though I agree with them on some things.

[faichai]

The left has already gone too far, in my view.

From a free speech perspective the right seems to be more pro-principle and less identity-based cancellation hysteria, but they do so on the back of white, Christian nationalism and rampant hypocrisy which is a slightly different problem than heresy as per the original article.

Calling me disingenuous a bit of a reach.

[pessimizer]

> white, Christian nationalism

How could this possibly not be seen as identity politics?

[ss108]

...so you agree that the Republican Party has morphed into an outright White, Christian nationalist, identity-based party, but think that identity politics on the left is somehow worse?

I would say "disingenuous" is on point here.

[faichai]

I called the right a bunch of nationalist hypocrites!! I wasn’t trying to be kind to them, I agree they are doing identity politics too.

I am claiming that is the left that more prone to be cancelling people for heresy as per the original article. The right is more pernicious but there issues are different from a free speech/heresy perspective.

It’s OK for me to just use one side to make a point you know. I’m not the BBC.