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In Search of Reason

Are Identity Politics just the institutionalization of the Ad Hominem?

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R_D_Russell 6 Apr 23
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Identity politics is simply an expansion of Marxist ideology. In a nutshell, Marxism is about abolishing private property and achieving the classless society encapsulated in the well-known platitude, "from each according to his ability, to each according to their need".

Marx spent a lot of effort defining and labeling the identity of the oppressed proletariat and their oppressors, the bourgeoisie. The proletariat were the victims and the bourgeoisie their exploiters. The haves and the have-nots. The rest of his works are incitement of the proletariat to achieve equality through revolutionary action and a description of an economy based on the labor theory of value and the absence of a market pricing system.

Cultural Marxism, a product of Marxist intellectuals, further identifies and labels victim classes in society. Then breaks down the society by pitting the victim class against a perceived oppressor. Because you are visibly a member of an identified victim class does not mean you are automatically a member - you must wear the label to be granted immunity. Candace Owens, as a perfect example, is both a woman and Black yet she is attacked by feminists and has been called a white supremacist. She prefers being identified as an unhyphenated American woman, I think.

What, actually, does the institutionalization of the ad hominem mean?

I think the majority of North Americans, Canadian and American, know little of Marx or Communism other than Marx conceived of the ideology and it seems few even think of it as a form of socialism. If more knew then we could understand how we are being divided by identity politics and how the labels control and incite us to collectively oppose each other. Most of the incitement comes from the leaders of the victim class although in an Orwellian sense the oppressor class is deemed the source of all hatred and violence.

@Cgraus Is that your example of the "institutionalized ad hominum" attack?

As to this site being a ghost town...have you been here long? It's definitely transformed and I am of the opinion that it was born out of some unstated spurious purpose.

@Cgraus You can still have some good discussions here but the left doesn't generally engage the right.

I'm always ready to learn something. So what right-wing think tank, person or persons originated the concept of cultural Marxism that doesn't exist?

Are you still living in Turkey and is that your homeland?

@Cgraus I don't think you get together with other leftists to talk about your plans for cultural marxism. I guess your article from the guardian establishes that it doesn't exist. I'm inclined to think that you don't have to do the planning. Only one person needs to do the planning and you don't even have to know about it. All you have to do is agree with a few platitudes. You can then act on your own. If you want to be effective though, numbers help so you could get together with your buds and organize some activities. Someone has to organize activities but as long as you have the correct thoughts you'll fit in anywhere on the left.

But there are important things to discuss. Are you a Marxist, yourself? Are you a progressive leftist or socialist? Is Marxism a type of socialism? Is Marxism communism? Is communism socialism? So many questions. I would describe myself as a classical liberal or minarchist libertarian.

@Cgraus As I said, you only need to agree to a few principles to forward the cause for revolution. It will be enough to get you further left every year as you begin to increasingly hate the right. I can understand why you have gotten banned by every right wing commentator and politician in Australia. Your animosity and disdain comes through pretty strong. Can you see where you are going?

@Cgraus I believe I have been abandoned. 😟

@Cgraus Thought you were gone. It seems you are more interested in talking about right-wing politicians than Marxism. Is that because in your view I have demonstrated I know nothing about Marxism?

You mentioned three communist countries, Russia, China and Cuba. They are called communist because the total state in each country was established through revolution not evolution. Socialism moves towards the total state through evolutionary means. That was common knowledge up until the early seventies when they used to teach civics in high school.

What kind of questions are you asking right wing politicians that they immediately block you? Give me a couple of examples.

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How can you answer two questions with one vote?

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I fear that Identity Politics is the institutionalization of Excellence by Proxy. So many folks are learning the hard lesson as a result of Everybody Gets a Trophy that they do not have talent in all things. Even worse, they are learning that education, practice, and hard work is not a guarantee that you will get better at your chosen thing. By choosing to identify with a group, individuals believe they are deserved of the hard-won achievements of that group. In the past, this was derided as Jumping on the Bandwagon or being a Groupie, but of late, those who do not afford them deference are punished.

A popular-media example is Rey, from the latest Star Wars installments. At 11, I saw Luke Skywalker discover he was part of a much larger power struggle and learn of his biological talents. Only through training with Master Yoda was he able to begin to understand how to control and wield his talents responsibly. The character Rey was able to perform in the Top 1% of Jedi skill with no training, just because she identified with a Just Cause. The blow back by GenXers like myself was fiercely punished as being misogynistic and the result of the Tyrannical Patriarchy (a la Peterson).

This example was well documented by Sargon of Akkad...

Source:

Rey was able to perform in the Top 1% of Jedi skill with no training, just because she identified with a Just Cause. The blow back by GenXers like myself was fiercely punished as being misogynistic and the result of the Tyrannical Patriarchy

Haha, funny.

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I have brought this up in argument, but many folks don't even know what an ad hom is.

Ugh, the logical fallacies. They're so abused they've become a fallacy in and of themselves. I've never seen them add to a discussion, but I seen them distract/diminish a conversation a thousand times. As an academigeek, I really encourage people to not use them in a conversation--like ever. It's just another flavor of pedantry that most people can't identify with (one thing that gave intellectuals a bad name). BUT, it's often the people who use the logical fallacies too--the pseudo-scientists/pseudo-academics/ 2nd year undergrad students who want to use their 50 hours of higher education as power to pummel their opponents online...

You'll win in the long run if you'll just say, 'let's not make the conversation about me...'

@chuckpo good for you.

@R_D_Russell, thin-skinned doesn't do anybody a ton of good. There are a lot of reasons people will turn toward the speaker instead of the words spoken. Some reasonable, some not so much. But, inevitably the logical fallacies become the point of discussion, and the thing you started talking about just kind of disappears. That's not really what I look for in a conversation, so I either ignore them or just kill the issue quickly and try to go back to the original topic.

Ad Hominem. I just looked it up. Apparently it's an early form of marketing campaign for erectile dysfunction. 'Ad' means marketing, and 'Hominem' is Latin for 'Small logical Fallacy".

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