Is Identity Politics Really Dead? By Paul Walker

There are articles appearing, as below, saying that woke and identity politics are dead, with the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States. Now it is important not to get too excited in the euphoria which comes in situations where one's torture is decreased. The "torturers" are still there only not working so much. There is for the US, and probably the same for other jurisdictions such as Australia, still almost 50 percent of the population, who accept at least some aspect of woke, from the race to the gender agendas. And the institutions from the universities, schools to the courts, basically fall in line with Leftist politics.

Consider for example the recent High Court of Australia decision that held that attaching surveillance devices to potentially dangerous migrants, who have been guilty of crimes, and who have been released into the community by a previous High Court decision, are being punished by being put under surveillance. And only courts can dish out punishments. The ruling is absurd, almost a troll, but shows how far we are down the track now.

https://www.aporiamagazine.com/p/trump-killed-woke-for-now

https://petermcculloughmd.substack.com/p/identity-politics-is-dead

"The shallow and sanctimonious cult conferred a fortune on its high priesthood but never did anything for the "victims" it claimed to serve.

Of all the tedious artifacts of the cultural and political left, identity politics has always struck me as the phoniest. The cult was spawned by the thinkers of the New Left in Frankfurt and Paris, and then borrowed by American academics of doubtful education and intelligence. These secular priests borrowed Marx's idea of the repressed proletariat, and grafted it onto black people, women, gays, and every other artificially constructed group identity they could come up with.

Just as Marx was wrong about "the proletariat" or working class being doomed to remain mired in the poor economic conditions of the mid 19th century, the Cultural Left (which originally consisted mostly of comfortable college professors) morbidly fantasized that blacks and women were doomed to remain mired in an entirely negative image of the 1950s. However, with "help" from their enlightened benefactors—that is, the Woke Priesthood—these legions of oppressed victims could ascend to their rightful place in the sun.

From Marx, the Cultural Left also borrowed the idea of "false consciousness"—that is, that people in a capitalist society are unaware that they are part of a system that promotes inequality. If only these "victims" would wake up and obtain what Marx called "class consciousness," they would revolt and overthrow their oppressors. Instead of using Marx's outdated sounding "class consciousness," the New Left adopted the cornpone sounding "woke."

It always seemed obvious to me that the Cult of Woke never served anyone but its High Priesthood, which has siphoned off billions for DEI programs (with fat salaries and benefits) in universities and corporate boardrooms.

As for the victims: If you tell a young person he is a victim, he is probably going to believe you, act like a victim, and see every setback as an expression of his victimhood instead of an impediment that he could overcome with diligence.

With Trump's resounding victory, the American people (including blacks, women, gays, etc.) have declared that Identity Politics is Dead—"swept into the dustbin of history" as the Marxists used to say about outmoded ideas and arrangements.

RIP identity politics. I won't miss you."

But it is a nice thought, and someday I hope it comes true.