Sigh. Identity politics is a symptom of ruling elites leaving shit on the table too long and not doing anything about it as the Internet has made the world smaller. It's reasonable people are invested in it. But many have taken it too far, just like anything. Whether it will be good or bad for elites has yet to be seen, although they can monetize it by allowing more perspectives out there, but that's kind of one of the main goals to identity politics so it's not an inherent loss. If you didn't notice, identity politics started ramping up after Ferguson. Ferguson is a really big catalyst point for many identity politics movements and if you think that's an inherently bad thing, you should probably get fucked.
Apparently you and I remember this shit very differently. I don't remember this organic happenstance you're talking about, I specifically remember right after OWS corporate internet media suddenly spamming identity politics with internet media targeted at women making up the first distinguished mentally-challenged "controversies". This was just like other organized efforts that happened during the years, like the harassment narrative they used to implemented stricter censorship rules on social media conglomerates a few years ago or the fake news narrative that is being used right now to outright censor the internet (including socialist sites I visit). Lately they're not even being discreet about it, the fake news narrative was copy pasted overnight by dozens of high profile systemic media outlets and the idiots ate it up immediately and then regurgitated it on social media, you know, like they did with identity politics.
I have no idea what you're talking about but I'll lay it out nice and clear.
Ferguson was a tipping point. The most prominent type of identity politics these days is racial. There's a reason for that. Ferguson you saw a lot of people's true colors. People who thought American police terrorizing its own populace with might and power and tanks was justified. I find it funny that as a "socialist" you don't find this alarming but I have gathered from your rants you're more of a "brocialist" so it's not surprising. Ferguson was very important for many reasons as it showed how far America was willing to justify murder of black people and how they were willing to make light of people's pain. People were pissed and rightly so. After that BLM started to gain traction and people were promptly forces to make a choice. Lines were being drawn. You had an entire generation of black people introduced to shit like Angela Davis and James Baldwin thought, people were marching and protesting. People started mobilizing. Eventually this mobilization led to radicalization and the radicalization led to certain bitching about everything. Now people were complaining about appropriation. I mean, racial minorities have had problems with this for generations but it was revived in a brand new way of over sensitized outrage culture.
All of the grievances were justified but were more and more increasingly more volatile in response. White people would dismiss stuff like BLM and start shit like Blue Lives Matter and this incensed people even more and lines were further drawn. As lines became thicker, people started to care about more and more trivial things. Eventually it turned into an outrage Olympics. Basically, "identity politics'" origins start from the proletariat feeling their own country was against them. This bred animosity and that lead to what we have today. Things like cops murdering children and getting away with it, and all the cam footage of cops doing injustice with the federal government doing jack and shit helped further this divide.
TLDR: identity politics comes from a very justified agrrievement from lack of justice taken too far. When you deem your own country as the enemy, everyone who doesn't look like you becomes the enemy. This is a symptom of the ruling class not taking care of their citizens and the proletariat using a justified albeit, sometimes misguided, means of very real pain.
I have no idea why you are bringing up OWS. OWS has nothing to do with identity politics. It was all about income inequality through and through although the means for protest were more than questionable. Your conclusion is lacking clarity and frankly, is really vague.
I've talked to a lot of socialists, being one myself, and don't be offended by this but I have to say your brand of socialism is one of the most vapid I have ever seen, even amongst the many brocialist I've interacted with. I'm not sure where in the tent you sit, but claiming to be socialist and not understanding the dynamics from where modern identity politics sprouted from is simply suspect. You should probably be paying attention to the Kaepernik situation and trial right now. An American sports corporation entity not allowing a very much qualified athlete work for them for expressing his own right to protest and basic workers rights should be on every socialists' radar. Another post-Ferguson incident directly impacted by it. But it's also a situation that drives into the heart of American racial inequality, crony capitalistic influence, and worker rights oversight. The NFL has made modern gladiators out of their players, abusing their rights not only as employees but general personhood for decades. Their knowledge of CTE and its effects on their workers without stating it as their players sacrifice not only body, but also mind (without informed consent) is just the tip of the iceberg. But nah, I bet this Kaepernik/NFL situation too will be classified as mere "identity politics" by you.
