History's Big Losers

"Legitimate Grievances"? Ha. Get In Line.

Any time I see some idiot wrapping themselves in a flag or burning one on the streets, I'm overcome with the sort of grief at the number of stupid people on the planet for whom a bit of graphic design means so much in their identity politics. Really, a bit of flag both with some patterns and colours is not some kind of magic talisman that empowers you with greater moral authority or privileged position in the world. Nor is burning the other guy's flag going to do anything but symbolic damage - yet the important thing about symbolic damage is that it makes you feel good and the our guy feel offended, and that's the idiotic be-all and end-all.

Let me be blunt. If you identify with any group, you have to accept that identity is a construct and has no real bearing in reality; and that your commitment to such abstractions is fundamentally stupid as abstractions go. If you're a sporting fan and you're a die hard fan of a team, that's one thing. Everybody accepts sports is not an issue to kill and die over. Nationalism and religion on the other hand have no greater actuality than identifying with a sports team but asks you to commit murder on its behalf. It feels stupid having to point out the distinction but yes, it's true. Your patriotism or religious fervour is no better than my fandom of the New York Yankees as abstractions go. It may be much worse if it asks you to go do violent shit on their imaginary behest. I might hate the Red Sox, but I don't hate them enough to to kill or hurt them or their fans. However, if you wave enough flags or bibles or Korans, you're liable to eventually kill somebody at their behest - and that's a problem.

This is one of the reasons why identity politics is at its heart, Stupid with a capital 'S'.

Which brings me to this article about how Muslims in Australia feel.

In a scathing assessment of Australia's efforts to create a harmonious society, he said constant persecution, hypocritical Australian laws, vitriolic media and repeated invasions in the Middle East were pushing young Muslims "to the margins of society" and driving them to radicalisation.

"Denying the root causes is like applying a Band-Aid to an open wound before cleaning and disinfecting it," he told an anti-radicalisation forum at the University of Western Sydney on Wednesday night. 

Mr Trad, a controversial figure who described himself as a "roving imam", said he could understand why young Australians were driven to join Islamic State but he tried to convince them it was not the solution. 

His comments were reflected in a recent study that found one in five Australian Muslims think terrorists have legitimate grievances. 

The nation-wide survey of 800 Muslims, conducted last year by the University of Queensland, found that counter-terrorism policy in Australia was breeding anger, backlash, distrust and a siege mentality. 

Mr Trad listed the Iraq invasions, the war in Afghanistan and the torture of Muslim prisoners at Guantanamo Bay as grievances for young Muslims. 

He cited the case of Northern Territory unionist Matthew Gardiner, who recently returned to the Northern Territory after reportedly fighting with the Kurdish forces against IS , as an example of hypocrisy in Australia.

Yes, good grief and grievances. How do you account for this stupidity? Identity politics. It's one of those illusory abstractions that allow Australian muslim youths to identify with Iraq or Afghanistan or those tortured in Guantanamo Bay. In this case the illusory abstraction emanates from one of the great religions on the planet and so they feel solidarity with the Iraqis and Afghans and those tortured in Guantanamo Bay (not that you see this crowd rally around the detestable David Hicks, but hey, what's a little chauvinism on their part?).

They live in Australia and benefit from living in Australia materially, but no, identity politics puts them in the corner where the Iraqis and Afghanis and G'itmo Detainees are their spiritual brethren. I'm sorry, but it should make you bloody wonder in cognitive dissonance rather than feel like you have "legitimate grievances".

*Ugh*.

That's the essential problem with identity politics: it always seems to gravitate around the dirty sinkhole of bad ideas that is argued from grievances. That somehow you are being hard done by because somebody with the same faith is being actually physically hard done by in Iraq, Afghanistan or Guantanamo Bay, and you - in the comforts of living in Australia - make the conscious choice that you will align yourself with that idea against the people and things around you. I understand alienation - I've felt it all my bloody life. Living in Australia and not being 'anglo' is truly a Gorillas In The Mist experience. But if you live amongst the metaphorical gorillas, you should show understanding and empathy for the gorillas. Not, go around siding with spiritual brethren over an idea as feeble and idiotic as religion. Because that way lies the truly stupid phenomenon to grace this planet ISIL and you dying in a suicide bombing attack for them.

I write this with a fairly clear head about identity politics and the pitfalls of stupidity in which it can fall. It won't make me popular with the religious or flag-wearing or flag-burning, but it's still manifestly true all the same. From where I see it, those people are far better off taking a real appraisal of their lives and stopped identifying with stupid abstractions. It would do them a lot of good.
I'm sorry to shit upon your identity politics, but if your identity politics is about identifying with Iraqis and Afghanis and Git'mo Detainees, it's a shitty, shitty thing that is stunting your intellectual growth. There's just no two ways about it. You can grow up just a little bit by disowning that stuff.