Rob

Posted Tuesday, July 26, 2022

1y

INTJ

Virgo

8

9

The Logic of Identity Politics

This is something I have been thinking about for quite some time and I cannot wrap my head around whether my reasoning is wrong or the logic behind identity politics is simply flawed (and I am not trying to start a debate on identity politics here, just addressing what I feel is a significant flaw in the logic behind it). Current social attitudes (in Western countries at any rate) tell people that if someone opts to identify in a certain fashion, their identity is to be respected and accepted without question, and contrarian positions can even be prosecuted in some places. The issue I have is when it comes to labeling others - for example, if someone tells a racist or homophobic or transphobic joke or makes similar disparaging comments, but responds to claims that they are racist/homophobic/transphobic by choosing not to identify as a racist/homophobe/transphobe, then by the same reasoning that dictates someone's self identity as non-binary, trans, or whatever means that this identity must be accepted and the labels withdrawn, no? At the same time, it is the people who promote identity as self-directed and selective that are bound by this principle - if they refuse to accept or simply reject someone else's self-chosen identity, then they have lost any grounds for imposing any self-chosen identity on anyone else. So I return to my original question - is there a flaw in my reasoning here or does the flaw rest in the expectation that self-identification needs to be respected?