In the wake of the news, you have been hearing the phrase “identity politics” a lot. Due to the overreach of the present political scene, many folks are being forced to get involved in politics for the first time; it may be useful to explain this phrase.

“Identity politics” means that something about who you are determines how you think. For example, in the world of identity politics, women care about “women’s issues,” blacks care about ”black issues,” and so on.

Identity politics is actually everywhere: whenever you see a news story about African-Americans, gay Americans, urban Americans, or any kind of Americans other than just plain Americans, you are having identity politics pitched at you.

Liberal groups—because they are groups—find a need to pigeon-hole their beliefs. Remember: conservatives are not the opposite of liberals—liberals are the opposite of conservatives. There is a big difference: conservatives tend to agree on a vast variety of topics; anything opposed to those viewpoints tends to be a liberal talking point. As a result, whereas conservatives tend to vote the same way, express similar interests, and recommend similar solutions to problems, liberals are all over the place.

Instead of seeing that as chaotic, disorganized weakness, liberals have leveraged those often diametrically opposed positions into small strengths: Bill X affects women voters, Bill Y affects gay Americans, and so on.

The press loves this, and likes to do stories with the women slant, or the Jewish angle, or the Hispanic impact. This, of course, is in lieu of preparing a factual recording of the events and letting intelligent readers and viewers and listeners interpret things for themselves. But then the media are almost completely in line with liberal thought, and so this works well for their psychology. Your identity determines your politics.

So why is it bad to view things this way? Why not ask analytical questions about how an event or a proposed law or an electoral candidate is viewed by a demographic group?

Nothing, if the purpose of asking the question is purely analytical.

Everything, if a third-party is telling you how how this should affect you.

Look, there is a huge difference between “Candidate Rodriguez, despite his Mexican ancestry, is not polling as high among Hispanics nationally,” and “Nationally, Hispanic Americans are not supporting Rodriguez because he is a Republican tied to anti-amnesty comments.” You may be shocked hear that Americans who are of Hispanic descent do not rate amnesty very high as an issue, compared to jobs, the economy, education, gas prices, and inflation. Imagine that.

The problem with identity politics is simply taken apart like this: Identity politics proscribes how you should act and think. But you are an individual: you think your own thoughts. You act your own way. You vote how you want to vote.

You should not alter who you are because you are Irish, into deep sea diving, or gay or like alpaca wool or hate a popular show or dig cool jazz. Outside parties should not be ordering you to act, think, or vote a certain way because you share interests with other people.

How much do liberals really like diversity when they immediately assign you a box to live in? When liberals did it to minorities, these places were called ghettos. Now they call it identity politics, but the outcome is the same: you live in sub-par conditions that can be hard to escape.

So when you read news stories about union members flocking to the suburbs, when you hear that Hispanic Americans want amnesty, when you see that Muslim Americans are opposed to a new zoning regulation, or find out that a new law hurts African Americans—you are seeing identity politics at work. And you know that the story is being manipulated to favor liberal politics.

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.