archive

Identity politics isn’t just a tool of the Left

The muddle and menace of American politics: An unsettled electorate could mean unsettling social changes. A well-meaning, best-selling memoir, Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance, promotes dangerous myths about racial determinism and racial innocence that form the bedrock of Trumpism. Racially polarized voting is getting extreme in the South. The 3 different things we talk about when we talk about “Trump voters”. The myth of the Rust Belt revolt: Donald Trump didn’t flip working-class white voters — Hillary Clinton lost them (and more). In nearly every swing state, voters preferred Hillary Clinton on the economy.

Failing the empathy exams: Empathy is a weapon of the downtrodden, and we need it in our arsenal. The myth of the smug liberal: In the dawn of the Trump era, there is no stereotype more lazily deployed than the condescending coastal liberal who lives in his own bubble. Christine Emba writes in defense of identity politics. Denise Oliver Velez: My “identity” can get me killed. The battle over identity politics, explained: Identity politics isn’t just a tool of the Left — the Right has used it again and again.

The Right has its own version of political correctness, and it’s just as stifling: Conservatives use “patriotic correctness” to regulate speech, behavior and acceptable opinions. Political correctness: Moira Weigel on how the Right invented a phantom enemy.