Why is identity politics so popular?

social work

Old problems that were never really addressed in society and were just swept under the rug as "Hey we had racism and sexism once, but now it's over!" started growing in communities that didn't feel like equals. These groups became more disillusioned/disgruntled with politicians that seemed resistant to their ideals until it finally reached a boiling point.

You can argue whether their complaints are legitimate or not, but, from an administrative standpoint, all that matters is that these people are so upset that they start marching as it interferes with public order. In order to get rid of idpol, it would probably be best to satisfy their demands to calm them down, or at least make them feel like they are satisfied.

This developed out of a long trend of social reform. There is a history behind it, much of it positive - I don't think improving conditions for people in-and-of itself is a bad thing.

But there's always been this "sense of belonging" side of the coin, and here we see it at its most extreme where these political causes rooted in social issues end up being reinforcements of identities and create manufactured clashes around them. I think something did happen in the '90s, as the "New Democrats" moved pretty drastically away from pro-worker causes and economic reform and into a territory where the last shred of "American left" in their politics was social liberalism - well, besides their initial failed attempt to pass healthcare reform, which was actually left of the Affordable Care Act. Here we reached a point where it was acceptable to throw social and ethnic minorities a bone while catering to corporations at the same time, and thus a new breed was born.

Idpol is a reaction to atomization. It's modern-era tribalism but instead of throwing rocks at each other and using sticks it's Twitter and shouting matches over lines of police at "protests."

This.

The answer is human nature. There are ways to avoid it, but you have to work hard to overcome the predisposition towards tribalism that almost all humans are born with.

what about blaming "institutional" racism, sexism, etc. Isn't the point of these idpol things to argue that individual acts of sexism etc. are just small examples of a bigger system that is sexist, racist? IE it isn't individuals that perpetuate racism its the system. so by this definition, they really are just saying society needs to be restructured but i guess they're trying to change it by changing individuals minds rather than the system itself?

Or maybe im wrong i dont really understand what these people are going for they mostly just seem angry at shit in general and want to pin it on something. all of the idpollers i know irl are just insecure lame assholes that take out their insecurities on racism and gender pronouns and shit without understanding anything so its hard to analyze what they believe when i dont even know if THEY know half the time.

Because marxism is an unnatural ideology that has very few true adherents and you call everyone that doesn't follow your version of it idpol.

...

...

I guess alienation must be a huge part of it. the fashy goy skinhead legion at Holla Forums and the intersectional lgbtumblr crowd are groups that cater to the most alienated/isolated people in our society. People who basically live on the internet, inside a whacked out cyberworld with only a tenuous connection to reality. Idpol is an ideology with no room for redemption. In both its right and left incarnations, Idpol is rooted in a fundamentally negative conception of humans. For the Right, we are no better than animals, forever condemned to meaningless darwinian struggle. Left idpol was the product of a left that had lost faith in the future and universal values. History is over, nothing more on tonight's agenda except one last round of formal and most sincere apologies

People are naturally tribalistic and want to "fit in" with groups. I know there are fucking idiots on this board who don't think that humans aren't animals or didn't evolve complex survival behaviors that manifest themselves in different social situations but have the same psychological roots, but it's fucking true. Our entire lives are spent seperating the "us" from the "them", it doesn't matter if its important or arbitrary: race, sex, politics, language, culture, video games, favorite cheeses; it doesn't matter, we want to feel superior and justified about ourselves at the expense of others and when we're the ones being oppresses we switch into victim mode. Yeah you might be an egalitarian when it comes to economy or rights, but every one of you anons reading this have at some point made fun of or didn't interact with a certain group of people based on totally bullshit criteria (ew bronies, ew naruto fans, ew nu-metal, etc.).

It will never go away, as long as there are two humans left on this planet one of them will find something wrong with the other to bitch about.

...

Because cultural reductionism is pushed hard in our society and idpol is the natural conclusion of cultural reductionism.

read the 'theory of bloom', or the relevant sections of 'revolution of everyday life' (on roles)

tldr Life is an existential desert that we are exiled in, human relations have historically been replaced by commodity relations, people are isolated atoms desperate to cling to anything, including 'identities'.

To speak of general human history and not just the present times, self-understanding has always been a pertinent issue. Identities are provided to fill this trans-historic need, but are fundamentally commodities themselves (artifices devoid of humanity).

...

You can be anything you want. Free will trumps DNA.

People prefer easy answers to difficult ones. Blaming particular groups of people is about as easy as it gets, whereas analyzing the system is about as difficult as it gets.

Cool I guess I'll just decide to be fluent in all languages, grow some wings, and do calculations in my head faster than my computer's CPU can.

Some people are good at math. Some people are fluent in lots of languages. Wing suits are also a thing.

Marxism: 1
Human Nature: 0

funny how when people talk about muh objective human nature it always seems to line up with their subjective common sense prejudices and preconceptions. Read up on the history of evolutionary biology, it has always been rather linked to economics and politics, not separate from them. The scientistic mentality basically dismisses human agency as unscientific, while enshrining science, originally a tool of said human agency, as an antropomorphic god that's somehow deserving of Worship and respect.

Are you shitposting too? I'm just here to shitpost and say stupid things, but you've clearly outdone me. I mean, "scientistic"? I applaud your superior shitposting abilities.

...

There's a reason capitalists are running the casinos and gambling machines while the working class are their biggest customers.

Its literally a Jewish conspiracy, sry that's the only answer. Jewish elites try to break everybody off into groups in order to keep the masses divided. That's the real reason.

Because we live in the post-ideological world. The big political visions are dead. Everything comes down to identity now.

Read Huntington :^)

It's less about conformity than a longing for intimacy and belonging, considering that most of us are social creatures.

I feel this often says a lot more about the people saying this than anyone else.

There's a difference between some harmless fun or trying to enact the 10 stages of genocide. Besides: humor helps put things in perspective.

identity requires no reasoning and is promoted widely as it is useful to devide the population into consumer groups, so it grows naturally

Capitalism sucks up and destroys identities and sources of identities as part of it's general march forward.
People are thus desperate to identify with something and to fight for that identity.

Politics has been framed as left and right
Emancipatory politics has been in vogue since the French revolution
The end of the Cold War crushed any mainstream appeal for communism
The major political establishments adopted liberal issues as a way of creating the illusion of choice.
Basically, liberals need a fucking bullet for warping peoples minds.