Identity Politics will be the end of us all

The appalling atrocity committed in New Zealand by a far-right terrorist has claimed almost 50 lives. It is a monstrous act equal in scale to the 7/7 bombings which took a city years to come to terms with. I expect this attack will scar New Zealand – a tiny country, with a population smaller than London’s – and its society for years, poisoning public discourse and civic relations for a generation. As the blame-game starts, people will be more polarised in their views.

But the blame belongs to no one group or faction. It belongs to the direction our politics is being pushed by the extremes on both flanks of the (increasingly irrelevant) Left/Right divide which has forced moderates and liberals to either pick a side, or keep quiet and get out of the way.

We have watched as politics of “Identity” has taken over our academic institutions, our media, our civic structures and non-governmental organisations, mostly co-opted, colonised or cajoled by the far-Left. This poured fuel on the last burning embers of the far-Right and it now threatens to ignite a conflagration, from corners of Eastern Europe, to the streets of Paris, all the way to the most unlikely place on earth: New Zealand.

When progressive politics stresses above all else the primacy and priority of race, religion, gender, and so on, is it any wonder the far-Right – which has a century or more of practice in this despicable arena rises to the challenge? You can’t have relentless the prodding and sniping at ‘heterosexual white males” without expecting a countervailing extreme to emerge again, especially since the cloaks and mantles of previous far-Right movements are lying on the ground for a new breed of maniac to pick up. Such is the dynamics of reciprocal radicalisation.

Now, we can get into a cyclical argument about ‘who started it’. We can entertain the die-hards on both sides explaining why their side isn’t responsible and it is disgraceful to even suggest that they are. But here’s the truth: it doesn’t matter who started us down this road; it only matters that sensible, decent people can stop it. We can steer a different course.

If we don’t start asserting the values of liberal democracy – whether its is saying “hell, no!” to Muslim parents who want to block inclusive education, or telling race-baiting hucksters like Tommy Robinson to “take a hike”, it is only going to get worse, and by ‘worse’ I mean ‘more violent’.

Most of all we need to check ourselves before we collude in the polarising politics of identity, before we post memes and smug comments on social media that demonise people we don’t agree with, before we sensationalise, before we rationalise the psychopathy of the worst offenders simply because they’re “on our side”. We shouldn’t even have a side, we should simply have the values of liberal democracy, fairness, and decency. Follow the light, not the sound of a trumpet.

The politics of ‘woke’ isn’t waking us all up to a new, more progressive, dawn. It is waking up a sleeping monster. The far-Left and the far-Right agree on the absolute importance of “Identity” and unless we reject that more vocally, more aggressively, and with moral clarity and certainty, we will be swept along by their madness.

The real problem is that in an era where religious tolerance is at its greatest, and racism, sexism, homophobia and other prejudices are at their lowest, neither the far-Left, nor the far-Right, seems able to shut up about these things, making the best of times seem like the worst of times. And like water-cooler gossips, the rest of us can’t resist joining in.

And it always ends the same way. In blood, in suffering, and in death.


http://hurryupharry.org/2019/03/15/identity-politics-will-be-the-end-of-us-all/

I know exactly who to blame for today's attacks, and it's not the far left, the far right, identity politics, Tommy Robinson, the media, universities or anything like that.

The person who made the decision to shoot a bunch of people is to blame for today's attacks.

>THE Ben Reilly< wrote:I know exactly who to blame for today's attacks, and it's not the far left, the far right, identity politics, Tommy Robinson, the media, universities or anything like that.

The person who made the decision to shoot a bunch of people is to blame for today's attacks.

Exactly

>THE Ben Reilly< wrote:I know exactly who to blame for today's attacks, and it's not the far left, the far right, identity politics, Tommy Robinson, the media, universities or anything like that.

The person who made the decision to shoot a bunch of people is to blame for today's attacks.

For a minute there I thought you were gonna say trump.

Or Russia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nsd9w3dHrI

>THE Ben Reilly< wrote:I know exactly who to blame for today's attacks, and it's not the far left, the far right, identity politics, Tommy Robinson, the media, universities or anything like that.



The person who made the decision to shoot a bunch of people is to blame for today's attacks.

True. 
But shooters are influenced and radicalised.
And even funded, possibly. 
There was a recent newspaper story of how a British extreme RW hate figure was getting online funding from far right billionaires from several parts of the world. This shooter could afford international air travel, hotels, hired cars, arsenal of guns & weapons, electronic equipment, expensive clobber,  ........ with no visible means of support (ie no job!). His money came from somewhere.


Whoever radicalised & funded him might as well have been the one who pulled the trigger.
Just my take on this.

A supremacist who travelled from Australia to drive out foreigners in NZ!!
The original native New Zealanders were not Caucasians, far from it!

Not to worry - he will have plenty of time to catch up on BASIC elementary history in his prison cell lol.

Jules wrote:

>THE Ben Reilly< wrote:I know exactly who to blame for today's attacks, and it's not the far left, the far right, identity politics, Tommy Robinson, the media, universities or anything like that.



The person who made the decision to shoot a bunch of people is to blame for today's attacks.

True. 
But shooters are influenced and radicalised.
And even funded, possibly. 
There was a recent newspaper story of how a British extreme RW hate figure was getting online funding from far right billionaires from several parts of the world. This shooter could afford international air travel, hotels, hired cars, arsenal of guns & weapons, electronic equipment, expensive clobber,  ........ with no visible means of support (ie no job!). Their money comes from somewhere.


Whowever radicalised & funded him might as well have been the one who pulled the trigger.
Just my take on this.

The point you and Ben are missing are this

Yes blame is with the people that commit this act, but what leads them down a path to believe to murder people?

That has always been identity politics in history

Its happened on both the left and the right with Nazism and Communism. Where people often forget that the Communists also ethnically cleanses ethnic groups

The article I posted shows how in the west. More and more people are shifting further left and right

Social media is fueling this and hence why Ben failed to see the aspect of the problem today

We are seeing a rise in violence world wide and not a reduction, as people are allowing themselves to be controlled with hate through sociel media

I am not really agreeing with him, so how come you say we are BOTH missing the point.
Either me or him is wrong. Probably me lol
Goodnight Didge!

Jules wrote:I am not really agreeing with him, so how come you say we are BOTH missing the point.
Either me or him is wrong. Probably me lol
Goodnight Didge!

Nobody is wrong here Jules and never claimed you both were

I said people are mising the point of the article, as you both looked to argue over who is to blame

We know its the individual, but this person did not be born this way. He had to learn to be hateful and its through identity politics

Night Jules

Night luv!

Bizarre moment Chelsea Clinton is berated by Muslim NYU students who blame HER for New Zealand mosques attack because she 'incited an Islamophobic mob' against Rep Ilhan Omar

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6815797/Chelsea-Clinton-berated-Muslim-students-blame-New-Zealand-mosques-attack.html

Another example of again the stupidity and hate of identity politics
How on earth is condemning antisemitism, the cause for the murders in Christchurch? Those Far left students should be shamed of themselves for claiming that load of crap.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkBln_gBW70&t=280s