The Right's Identity Politics Is Far More Dangerous Than The Left's
The Right's Identity Politics Is Far More Dangerous Than The Left's
If Democrats don’t confront extremists within their party, they stand to lose elections. If Republicans don’t there will be more Payton Gendrons.
by Ben Cohen
18 year old Payton Gendron shot and killed 10 people at a Buffalo supermarket this past weekend. Of the 13 people Gendron shot, 11 were black and 2 were white. The shooting is being investigated by the DOJ "as a hate crime and an act of racially-motivated violent extremism," as per US Attorney General Merrick Garland.
From the little information we have, it seems that Gendron was inspired by extreme right wing politics. According to CNN he had written an online manifesto about “the dwindling size of the White population and claims of ethnic and cultural replacement of Whites,” and describes himself as “a fascist, a White supremacist and an anti-Semite.”
We know exactly where we’ve seen these types of ideas propagated and normalized:
Tucker Carlson is an admitted adherent of the “Great Replacement Theory” and has mocked liberals for pretending immigrants aren’t replacing “real” Americans with “obedient” Democratic voters. According to a New York Times investigation, in more than 400 episodes of Carlson’s show, “the Times analysis found, he has amplified the idea that a cabal of elites want to force demographic change through immigration.”
This extremist rhetoric is then parroted by Republicans wanting to tap into Carlson’s coveted demographic of closeted racists with entirely predictable real world results. In response to the shooting in Buffalo, Liz Cheney tweeted out the following:
When someone as conservative as Liz Cheney is telling Republicans they have a white nationalism problem, you can be sure that Republicans have a white nationalism problem.
The scourge of (right wing) identity politics
Much has been made of left wing identity politics, particularly by those on the right who spend much of their waking lives railing against “cancel culture” and “Wokeism”. The left’s obsession over race, gender and identity is apparently ushering in a new wave of Neo Marxism — a deadly ideology that wants to destroy the concept of gender and oppress white people as payback for systemic racism.
There are truths contained in the right’s critique of left wing identity politics. The left does take the concept of racial and gender identity too far, they do sometimes shut down discussion when they hear ideas they don’t like, and the Democratic Party’s acquiescence to the most extreme voices is concerning.
Mostly though, the right massively exaggerates the excesses and threat that left wing identity politics poses to cover for their own extreme form of identity politics that really is extremely dangerous.
Comparing extremism
There is nothing on the left that is remotely comparable to what we are seeing in mainstream right wing circles. Radical identity politics adherents on the left aren’t posting Nazi themed manifestos online. They aren’t calling for a war on minorities, and they certainly aren’t live streaming their own gun massacres. Payton Gendron is just another episode of extremist right wing identity politics taken to its logical conclusion.
And to be clear: white supremacism and ‘great replacement’ theory is identity politics. The right just doesn’t call it that.
If this were an isolated incidence of violence, then one could argue that right wing identity politics isn’t qualitatively worse than left wing identity politics, but it isn’t. According to a Washington Post analysis of data collated by the Center for Strategic and International Studies last year, “Domestic terrorism incidents have soared to new highs in the United States, driven chiefly by white-supremacist, anti-Muslim and anti-government extremists on the far right.”
This extraordinary chart comparing violent far right and violent far left crimes from 2015 to 2021 is illustrative of the difference:
The data reveals that right wing extremism was responsible for 267 terror incidents/plots and 91 deaths. Left wing extremism was responsible for 66 incidents and 19 deaths. This means right wing extremism is over 400% more dangerous than left wing extremism in America.
Time to start calling a spade a spade
The right in America benefits hugely from a media culture that steadfastly refuses to call it out for its extremism while routinely criticizing the left for the same thing. These kind of headlines run routinely in mainstream outlets without a hint of irony:
Joe Biden is routinely criticized for his so-called “radical” agenda, despite the fact that from a historic perspective, Biden is actually extremely moderate. And if Joe Biden represents left wing radicalism, what does Payton Gendron represent? Are we seriously pretending that mainstream Democrats are in the same league as white supremacists and Nazis?
The key difference between identity politics on the left and right is intent.
Left wing identity politics adherents are concerned with racial and gender equity and reversing systemic oppression of historically marginalized people. There are evidential problems with their version of history and their philosophy often creates new hierarchies of oppression that are inherently self contradictory. Humans have multiple identities and attempting to categorize them as being an oppressor/oppressed is unworkable (labeling a white, gay, Jewish woman for example, presents an impossible quagmire for the identity politics adherent). But while the identity politics left has its issues, one cannot argue that their goals are not noble. Wanting a more equal, less racist, less misogynistic, less homophobic/transphobic society is a good thing, despite how confused the means to getting there are.
Right wing identity politics however, is concerned with the preservation of ethnically white/European, Evangelical Christian culture, and its dominance in American society. The right’s ethno-nationalism is entirely dependent on vilifying minorities and blaming them for all of society’s ills. Right wing identity politics is inherently racist, and thus far, far more likely to lead to extreme acts of violence. The evidence for this is overwhelming, and history is replete with right wing identity political movements brutalizing and murdering ethnic minorities.
It is extremely important that this distinction is made in our political discourse. Just as Donald Trump is not remotely comparable to Joe Biden as a man, their underlying political ideologies are not remotely comparable either. One represents white supremacy, racism and hatred, while the other represents the messy and often confused convergence of diversity and progress. One ideology is irredeemably immoral, while the other at least contains the seeds of something positive.
If Democrats don’t confront identity politics within their party, they stand to lose elections and alienate voters. If Republicans don’t confront identity politics within their party, there will be more Payton Gendrons. The difference could not be clearer.
Listen to the latest episode of The Banter Roundtable Podcast (now out for free!):
Why Chinless Republicans Hate Women, British Butts, And Why Laura Ingraham Is A Fraud
The difference in your fair-minded outlook from almost all of America is equally clear. There is a way to specifically deal with the problems you address. I have an idea that could set the internet on fire -- all I need is the right person to light the match.
You'll see that we share a similar outlook in the opening bit below:
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Preach responsibility and take none:
Conservatives control the narrative about responsibility and think that magically translates to taking responsibility. Republicans pounce on the Left day in and day out — as if the Right’s record vanished off the face of the earth.
It’s all about framing the narrative — and the Left institutionalizing weakness is a gimme for the Right to rail on them.
And the icing on the cake: Sincere intellectuals justifiably calling out universities, woke ways, racially rigged incidents and such:
Providing endless fodder for the Right to rip people for behavior that pales in comparison to what they did after 9/11 and to this day. The Right delights in ridiculing the Left for burning buildings to further the cause. Yet they went batshit crazy after 9/11: Setting the world ablaze — and browbeating anybody out of line in their March of Folly.
That — is faith-based belief at its best. The Left’s anti-racism religion, woke, and whatnot — they’re amateurs . . .
Unschooled in Adjustment: https://onevoicebecametwo.life/2022/05/17/unschooled-in-adjustment/
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