so @MattBruenig's concept of "identitarian deference" is in the news again, an idea that locates a certain style of identity politics in the arguments of tumblr teens and twitter mobs, as opposed to the formal organization of NGOs, professional media institutions, etc.

it's true that the mob dynamics of people are into the first kind of thing has a kind of influence, but ultimately the credibility and power of identity politics in media, activism, etc. comes from corporate and billionaire funded nonprofits, media and associated professionals.

that is why politicians and corporations connected w/ (i.e. who pay) these professionals are able to dodge these call-outs from below while normal people are often destroyed by them. that's the "class project" people talk about.

contemporary identity politics are not so much about a set of abstract ideas or beliefs as one's alignment with the social forces, i.e. corporate- and billionaire-funded nonprofits and their broader political/media networks, that produce the ideology, build its credibility.

when people talk about a left "class politics," at minimum this would mean an oppositional stance toward these structures of social and political domination (among others obviously). the "both/and" theory of a middle ground or split-the-difference approach is nonsense.

"both/and" theory is an attempt to graft a politics w/ few successes, whose paths to power are so narrow and difficult that arguing any progress is being made is virtually impossible, onto the cash-flush, apparently ascendant politics of the cash-flush left flank of the democrats

the latter politics are, of course, implacably opposed to the "socialism" of the both/and-ers - this is extremely obvious and evident everywhere the two meet outside of niche left media and rose emoji twitter. this makes sense given its source of funding.

this goes back to the function of identitarian deference thinking today. if we just ignore the roots of this identity stuff in democrat-aligned, corporate-backed nonprofits and regard it is as free floating ideas being mulled over by folks on social media, the problem goes away