Ian Vásquez reviews Yascha Mounk's book, The Identity Trap, where the author warns against the ideology of the new progressivism, which he says is creating a society of warring tribes.
A man argues with an anti-gay religious protestor at the 2023 LA Pride Parade on June 11, 2023, in Hollywood, Calif. Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images, FILE
We live in times of intolerance. It is a reality even in advanced liberal democracies, unaccustomed to dealing with extreme ideologies or policies.
It is not only the rise of a populist right-wing current. This phenomenon has been well studied and commented on. Less understood, but no less pernicious and certainly more insidious, is the leftist identity ideology whose influence has grown in recent years and which, in fact, has its roots in rich countries.
According to Yascha Mounk's new book, The Identity Trap, there has been a transformation in the thinking of the progressive left that, in turn, is changing the norms and behavior of society's mainstream institutions. Mounk, a professor at Johns Hopkins University who calls himself a leftist, is most concerned that the core precepts of identity progressivism represent "a radical attack on the longstanding principles that animate democracies around the world."
The traditional left has always been concerned about marginalized groups. "To be a leftist was to insist that human beings are not defined by their religion or their skin color, by their education or their sexual orientation," Mounk says. "The things we share across identity lines are more important than the things that divide us."
Mounk describes how this universalist aspiration on the left began to change in the 1960s and 1970s among some thinkers in Europe and the United States. Michel Foucault's postmodernism, for example, questioned claims about objective truths and universal values. For him and other intellectuals, what matters are power relations in society. Any society will always be constituted by those who forcibly exercise power over others.
Thus, it is said that concepts such as race or gender are "socially constructed" to oppress certain groups. Even so, and aware of its incoherence, this new left has encouraged people to identify themselves as members of some identity or identity groups.
This political strategy was accompanied by critical race theory, which challenged the civil rights movement led by Martin Luther King Jr. as naïve, seeing racism as a permanent reality in American society. King's optimistic, "colorblind" vision would be replaced by one that sought to recognize that different races and identities would never fully understand one another.
These leftist currents created a "progressive separatism" based on group essentialism that emphasizes irreconcilable differences between identity groups. In practice, this idea means a rejection of neutral rules and universal values. Free speech, for example, becomes a way for the powerful to oppress the marginalized and must therefore be regulated.
You cannot treat all citizens equally if you accept that neutral rules oppress. To produce equity, state policies have to discriminate between identity groups. Mounk presents numerous examples. One was the U.S. federal policy of serving non-white groups first during the pandemic, which undoubtedly cost thousands of lives.
This progressivism has transformed organizations as diverse as the mainstream media, corporations, foundations and so on. Coca-Cola, for example, trained its employees to "try to be less white." Some schools actively separate racial groups.
Mounk is absolutely right when he says that this ideology is counterproductive. The new progressivism is creating a society of "warring tribes instead of cooperating compatriots." Instead of undermining liberal democracy, we should support it so that it continues to promote progress among individuals and groups.
This article was publish originally in Spanish in El Comercio (Perú).
