Quote:
Originally Posted by Blaster86
What they are saying is correct. None of these identifiers should be above "homo sapien." They should not be the basis for being hated or hating. They should not be the basis of fear or being feared. We are all people. But when it comes to identity politics, we tend to use them to draw lines and put people above or below based on their "identity". Be that colour, orientation, religion, politics or what ever it may be. It's wrong because we are all people. It's bad because it reinforces these barriers that are put up between these identities that should be meaningless at the end of the day.
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This. We made tremendous social progress over the last century by de-emphasising group identity and moving towards the ideal of treating all people as individuals with the same rights.
It obviously hasn't led to a perfect world. But it's better than the alternative of putting people in boxes and engaging in a social power struggle between those groups. That always leads to conflict. And when things get bad enough, the conflict becomes violent. There are states where democracy essentially doesn't work because people regard their ethnic or religious identity as their primary identity, and politics becomes a brutal and unrelenting power struggle between those groups.
Look at religion in Canada. There was a time when Protestants and Catholics led fundamentally lives. When religion shaped your social circles, your schooling, your politics, your job identity, your marriage - everything. There was a ceiling on how far Catholics could progress in many companies. They were denied participation in clubs and associations close the centres of power. Within living memory, parents would be deeply dismayed at the prospects of their child marrying across that religious divide, and outright forbid it if able.
Did we get past this divide by emphasising religion, by valourizing underdog Catholics and shaming Protestants? By institutionally re-balancing the status of Catholics vs Protestants? Nope. We got past it by de-emphasizing the importance of religion to public life. By making religious identity a private concern, we made it so that religion had no bearing on job opportunities, political ambitions, or marriage.