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Identity politics

Publication

  • May 2020

‘Identity politics’ is a divisive ideology that has come to dominate public debate.

It fractures society into groups formed around characteristics such as gender, sexuality or ethnicity, pitting people against one another in an arms race of victimhood. It also shuts down debate: expressing anything but the most socially liberal views on issues such as transgenderism, homosexuality or abortion makes you unfit for any public office or platform. This briefing explains more about what identity politics is and why it is such a threat to freedom, which includes religious liberty.

References

References

  1. 1 Murray, D, The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity, Bloomsbury Continuum, 2019, page 255
  2. 2 Martin Luther King Jr, ‘March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom’, The Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C., 28 August 1963
  3. 3 The Times, 25 January 2020, see https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/security-for-transphobic-professor-after-threats-ht2rjqmc3 as at 17 April 2020
  4. 4 Selina Todd tweet, 25 January 2020, see https://twitter.com/selina_todd/status/1220961184020672512 as at 17 April 2020; BBC News online, 25 January 2020, see https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-51248684 as at 17 April 2020
  5. 5 Lukianoff, G and Haidt, J, The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure, Penguin, 2018, page 56
  6. 6 Loc cit
  7. 7 BooshiBanter, ‘Yale Students Berating Professor Highlights’, YouTube, 21 September 2016, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMc8pczn-hs as at 17 April 2020
  8. 8 Lukianoff and Haidt, Op cit, page 114
  9. 9 Ibid, pages 117-118
  10. 10 ‘I’m Not Black, I’m Kanye’, Ta-Nehisi Coates,The Atlantic, 7 May 2018, see https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/05/im-not-black-im-kanye/559763/ as at 17 April 2020
  11. 11 ‘Peter Thiel Shows Us There's a Difference Between Gay Sex and Gay’, Jim Downs, The Advocate, 14 October 2016, see https://www.advocate.com/commentary/2016/10/14/peter-thiel-shows-us-theres-difference-between-gay-sex-and-gay as at 17 April 2020
  12. 12 Foucault, M, The History of Sexuality: Vol. 1, Pantheon Books, 1978, page 94; ‘Michel Foucault’, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, see https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/foucault/ as at 21 April 2020
  13. 13 ‘The Subtle Imperialism of Western Gender Identity’, Elizbeth Debold, see https://elizabethdebold.com/the-subtle-imperialism-of-western-gender-identity/ as at 20 April 2020
  14. 14 ‘Video of the day: Douglas Murray on the danger of identity politics’, AEI Carpe Diem blog, 5 October 2019, see https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/video-of-the-day-douglas-murray-on-the-danger-of-identity-politics/ as at 17 April 2020
  15. 15 ‘How identity politics drove the world mad’, Roger Scruton, Unherd, 17 September 2019, see https://unherd.com/2019/09/how-identity-politics-drove-the-world-mad/ as at 17 April 2020
  16. 16 Jordan Peterson speaking on The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show: Sunday Special, 6 May 2018, see https://www.jordanbpeterson.com/transcripts/ben-shapiro-1/ as at 17 April 2020
  17. 17 RealClear Politics, 20 August 2017, see https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2017/08/20/jordan_peterson_if_the_right_degenerates_into_identity_politics_the_left_wins.html as at 17 April 2020
  18. 18 Lilla, M, The Once and Future Liberal: After Identity Politics, HarperCollins, 2016, page 77
  19. 19 Akkad Daily, ‘David Starkey on the Deliberate Destruction of English Identity’, YouTube, 1 March 2020, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2xQA-EdHxQ as at 17 April 2020
  20. 20 The Spectator, ‘Identity Politics: Lionel Shriver & Douglas Murray | The Spectator’,YouTube, 30 October 2019, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddBKQIomyYI as at 17 April 2020

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