Re: [Marxism] Beyond Neoliberal Identity Politics

[Jeff via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

In my original post criticizing the author, I laid out how his attack on 
so-called "neoliberal identity politics" was tantamount to the long 
chorus of complaints against "political correctness," almost always by 
the right wing (which this author is not). I thought I had made a 
correct and significant identification between the two, and had to write 
about it.


Now a friend has pointed me to an earlier article (below) by the same 
author, Paul Street, in which he himself conflates the two terms, making 
my point for me. That was written a year ago in Counterpunch where he 
references not "neoliberal" but "bourgeois identity politics," and 
speaks of "liberal, power-serving and identity-politicized PC 
academicians over at the university," language you'd expect to hear from 
David Horowitz.


Lest anyone chalk this up to just language and name-calling, he goes on 
to cite several examples where he justifies his defiance of "political 
correctness." How one's PC-driven reluctance to speak up when seeing a 
suspicious middle-eastern man with a backpack could lead to them getting 
blown up. About anti-immigration sentiment reflecting valid working 
class economic interests such as falling wages. How he personally has 
"become at least mildly irritated" at Chinese students at his 
university, mind you only because they are rich ("But it has nothing to 
with them being Chinese.").


His conclusion is that by embracing "political correctness" the left is 
alienating the holy white working class so that their (alleged) bigotry 
leads them to support Donald Trump (at that time a candidate) and other 
right wing causes. He thinks the left needs to become, or at least 
pretend to be, equally bigoted, in order achieve victory and right the 
wrongs that lead oppressed groups toward identity politics. I guess 
we've heard all this before. But now I am becoming hyper-sensitive to 
any attack on "Identity politics" from within the left, reflecting this 
regressive point of view.


- Jeff


July 22, 2016
Political Correctness: Handle with Care
by Paul Street
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/07/22/political-correctness-handle-with-care/



On 2017-05-24 19:59, Jeff via Marxism wrote:




On 2017-05-24 18:02, Glenn Kissack via Marxism wrote:

http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/05/24/beyond-neoliberal-identity-politics/



This is a disgusting attack on what is absolutely a straw man.








_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] Beyond Neoliberal Identity Politics

[Gary MacLennan via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Thank you Jeff,

I secretly think it is the best but I actually wrote the best I had read.
The link is

MacLennan, G. (1997). Political Correctness (and Courtesy) in Australia. *The
Monthly Review, 48*(11), 33-43.

comradely

Gary


Virus-free.
www.avg.com

<#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2>

On Thu, May 25, 2017 at 10:38 AM, Jeff via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

>   POSTING RULES & NOTES  
> #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
> #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
> #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
> *
>
> On 2017-05-25 01:25, Gary MacLennan via Marxism wrote:
>
>
>> I wrote an article for Monthly Review long years ago on Political
>> Correctness.  In all (im)modesty it remains the best thing I have read on
>> the subject.
>>
>
> Let's see. If it's the best text on a subject, then isn't it your duty to
> pass on a link? :-)
>
>
> _
> Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
> Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/opt
> ions/marxism/gary.maclennan1%40gmail.com
>
_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] Beyond Neoliberal Identity Politics

[Jeff via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

On 2017-05-25 01:25, Gary MacLennan via Marxism wrote:



I wrote an article for Monthly Review long years ago on Political
Correctness.  In all (im)modesty it remains the best thing I have read 
on

the subject.


Let's see. If it's the best text on a subject, then isn't it your duty 
to pass on a link? :-)


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] Beyond Neoliberal Identity Politics

[Gary MacLennan via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Jeff

I wrote an article for Monthly Review long years ago on Political
Correctness.  In all (im)modesty it remains the best thing I have read on
the subject.

The point I made was that in all societies there is always restraints on
language use i.e. political correctness. Of course the restrictions desired
by the marginal are marked or labelled, while the restrictions desired by
the powerful are unmarked and labeled normal. they do not even have a name.

Exactly the same with identity politics.  We are all thrown into an
identity when we are born. The question is do we reproduce it or transform
it.  transformation requires a movement and that disturbs dominant
identities - think 2, 4,. 6. 8; Gay is just as good as Straight.

Now the question of a neoliberal identity is an interesting one.
Foucault's lectures at La College de France (much quoted by Richard
Seymour) contain the outline of a neoliberal identity.  That is the classic
identity of the possessive individual that MacPherson wrote about.  So that
is the neoliberal identity proper.  neoliberalism seeks to create the
neoliberal subject or identity.

I would distinguish that process from those compensatory identities that
neoliberals offer.  Marriage equality, abstract rights etc  Under the reign
of scarcity, which is the principal motif of neoliberalism, compensatory
identities cause misrecognition and envy.  They divide us and of course
that is all to the benefit of the powerful.

For me the ideal program would not be to deny the reality of identity
politics, but firstly to attack the neoliberal identity and transform the
compensatory identities by eliminating scarcity.

comradely

Gary



On Thu, May 25, 2017 at 3:59 AM, Jeff via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

>   POSTING RULES & NOTES  
> #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
> #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
> #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
> *
>
> On 2017-05-24 18:02, Glenn Kissack via Marxism wrote:
>
>> http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/05/24/beyond-neoliberal-ide
>> ntity-politics/
>>
>
>
> This is a disgusting attack on what is absolutely a straw man.
>
> Ever since I have heard the term thrown around, I've been looking for what
> "identity politics" means in practice. Surely an ideology that is so talked
> about must have some actual proponents that will lay it out for us!
>
> But no. I am finally realizing that "identity politics" is a label similar
> to "political correctness." The latter expression has long been used to
> decry progressive norms in relation to use of bigoted terms and their
> underlying ideas. It was always denounced by the bigoted right wing as a
> form of thought control supposedly being imposed by the left, yet never
> would they bother (nor could they!) point to an actual ideology called
> "political correctness." The charge was vacuous and only revealed the guilt
> of those making the charge.
>
> Now I see that "identity politics" has become a new label of exactly the
> same sort. This is clear from the above article attacking it. It makes a
> few dozen claims in which the position attributed to "identity politics" is
> indirectly quoted. You'd think that if there were any substance to these
> supposed quotations then the author might try quoting some actual people
> with those views. But no, those views are presented as those of "NIP", the
> term coined by the author to mean "neoliberal identity politics" as if it
> were real. So it's an attack on no one and on nothing in the real world.
> But by attacking it, one achieves the same filthy result as the incessant
> attacks on "political correctness" of yesteryear.
>
> - Jeff
>
>
>
>
> _
> Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
> Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/opt
> ions/marxism/gary.maclennan1%40gmail.com
>
_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] Beyond Neoliberal Identity Politics

[Jeff via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

On 2017-05-24 18:02, Glenn Kissack via Marxism wrote:

http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/05/24/beyond-neoliberal-identity-politics/



This is a disgusting attack on what is absolutely a straw man.

Ever since I have heard the term thrown around, I've been looking for 
what "identity politics" means in practice. Surely an ideology that is 
so talked about must have some actual proponents that will lay it out 
for us!


But no. I am finally realizing that "identity politics" is a label 
similar to "political correctness." The latter expression has long been 
used to decry progressive norms in relation to use of bigoted terms and 
their underlying ideas. It was always denounced by the bigoted right 
wing as a form of thought control supposedly being imposed by the left, 
yet never would they bother (nor could they!) point to an actual 
ideology called "political correctness." The charge was vacuous and only 
revealed the guilt of those making the charge.


Now I see that "identity politics" has become a new label of exactly the 
same sort. This is clear from the above article attacking it. It makes a 
few dozen claims in which the position attributed to "identity politics" 
is indirectly quoted. You'd think that if there were any substance to 
these supposed quotations then the author might try quoting some actual 
people with those views. But no, those views are presented as those of 
"NIP", the term coined by the author to mean "neoliberal identity 
politics" as if it were real. So it's an attack on no one and on nothing 
in the real world. But by attacking it, one achieves the same filthy 
result as the incessant attacks on "political correctness" of 
yesteryear.


- Jeff



_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com