Saturday, January 19, 2008

Christopher Hitchens Gets It Right on Identity Politics

Christopher Hitchens wrote an op-ed column for The Wall Street Journal that appeared yesterday. Commenting on the dangers of engaging in identy politics he had the following to say:
"People who think with their epidermis or their genitalia or their clan are the problem to begin with. One does not banish this specter by invoking it. If I would not vote against someone on the grounds of "race" or "gender" alone, then by the exact same token I would not cast a vote in his or her favor for the identical reason. Yet see how this obvious question makes fairly intelligent people say the most alarmingly stupid things."

I think this gets it exactly right. Read the whole thing.
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