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Comment by dragonwriter | Hacker News Reader

> Identity politics will destroy our country

The idea of “our country” is, fundamentally, an expression of identity politics.

Your disagreement is with other’s choice of primary identity, not with “identity politics” generally.

Wrong my issue is with the recent liberal trend that a humans race, creed, sexual orientation, religious preference, outward appearance, etc are an individuals defining characteristic. And if you don't conform to the bucket they want to place you based on that identity they have created for you that you will be cancelled. It's extremely polarizing and destabilizing to society.

You'd have a point if the president wasn't trying to cancel kneeling NFL players.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/sport/amp/american-...

You are missing the point.

These things are literally things which define you as a person, though. Of course there's more, but what makes you think that these things don't define a person?

I also don't get the "You have to fit in a bucket" theory. What's an example you've experienced?

I guess the point is that a person should not be discriminated based on things they don't control, like race, sex, gender etc.

But the trend being described here is exactly that. Affirmative action, curtailment of free speech etc. Even many diversity initiatives.

It doesn't matter if it discriminates positively, contrary to society's past regressive discrimination. This positive discrimination goes against liberal principles.

>>>I also don't get the "You have to fit in a bucket" theory. What's an example you've experienced?

Straight from the mouth of Joe Biden: "If you don't know whether to vote for me or Trump you ain't black." Yeah, because a near-80yo white man is obviously the final arbiter of my ethnic identity if I don't conform to his politics.

I'm not very keen on calling that "liberal". For one, it goes against the very definition of liberalism, which covers equality and liberty. No individual should be judged based on factors they don't control. A liberal would not oppose free speech.

But the main reason I disagree with this "liberal trend", which I'd call "leftist trend", is that I disagree with them and identify as a liberal.

I think we’re playing with words here. That’s really not what that poster meant when they said “identity politics”.

No, really, the only difference is the identity around which it is organized: if the identity is membership in “our country”, the poster supports it, and he opposes the increasing political relevance of alternative primary identities as a threat to the power of his preferred identity.

Cue Teddy Roosevelt.

As OP said, identity politics (i.e. I'm trans instead of I'm American) is extremely polarizing and destabilizing to society.

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