Why Are Identity Politics So Intense in the U.S.?

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0:00 Intro
1:13 Identity & The Inner Self
05:07 Tribalism
06:31 America

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[realryanchapman]

I'll probably add video notes as the piece ages and feedback comes in, but as of now I don't have anything to add here besides saying that I gave a simple overview of the emergence of the inner self in the first section of the piece. More factors contributed to it that I didn't think were appropriate to get into here, namely the emergence of technology like the printing press, which allowed people to circulate their thoughts, get educated, think for themselves. That section on the whole was mostly taken from 'The Rise And Triumph And The Modern Self' by Carl Trueman and 'Identity' by Francis Fukuyama. Of the two, Trueman goes into more depth if you're interested in learning more, but his book also approaches the subject from a decidedly Christian standpoint if that's a dealbreaker for you.

- Ryan

[sailorgalaxia]

I’m from Eastern Europe, and consume American content daily, the thing which really stands out to me, and so did my friend noticed is the amount of word “community” used in American speech, and the enthusiasm to separate everyone in “communities” on different lvl. Im my daily speech in my country, we use the word community only to talk about countryside people, that a village is its own community of people separate from the main town or city. Or in other case when you talk about jobs as a synonym to “association” or “union” like “artists community/union ect”

[danielbrewer]

Everyone wants a dragon to slay. In this, someone has to be the dragon, and someone has to be the slayer. Their identity defines this. The problem is that, all too often, dragons are not real.

[annakobuk]

I think it has to a lot to do with American individualism. Nowadays everyone wants to be different more than anything while at the same time desperately wants to belong to a group of similar individuals. A paradox. Identity politics today is most of the time alienating one group from the others.

[youtubeviolatedme]

"the values that unite us, also divide us"
what a mic drop moment dude

[HyButchan]

"All men are created equal" but "a slave is 3/5 of a person." There was a massive fly in the ointment right from the start.

[JJMcCullough]

Really interesting and thoughtful vid. Nice job Ryan.

[tristanmoller]

I didn't click on this video for a long time, since I'm not too interested in identity politics. Considering I pretty much watched all of your other essays already, I gave this one a try. It started out pretty top notch as usual, where we discover what identity politics is. That was already good content and definitely made clicking on the video worth it. In the last five minutes, you demonstrate with concrete evidence like historical text passages and examples through comparisons (I love how you do both of those), what makes American culture so unique around the world. That was other worldly incredible.

I'm a German American, who lived in both countries and France and regularly visits family in both countries. Every time you contrast America to the world or to itself, you put into words concepts, ideas or opinions about the American society that definitely increase my understanding. Most importantly though, I can directly link your content to certain experiences or phenomena like culture shocks in my own life.

You say: "America is like this because of this historical development". And I remember a situation, where that exact fact about America probably influenced an experience I had and in all likelihood was responsible for at least part of the culture shock or mindset change, that I experienced. Every fucking essay. Spectacular content.

In this essay in particular, I remembered a discussion I had with my aunt and uncle from America about the validity of the accusation of someone or something being un-American:

I grew up in Germany and had just moved to America, I was 12 years old. The accusation had been used in a political discussion (probably on TV) and I had felt a certain emptiness towards that statement, as in: "So what if something is un-American? That doesn't necessarily make it bad? If it's good, why don't we make it American?".

I asked my uncle what importance un-Americanness has or simply what it means. He immediately let me know that communism is un-American (it probably wasn't a coincidence, that that was the first thing he thought of, he is the most stereotypical optimistic American capitalist, mixed with a pinch of idealism haha. Always a pleasure to understand his perspective). "So we don't want un-American things in America", he followed.

My aunt had a broader approach and explained that certain values and ideas are American, as she started listing of things like courage, bravery, honesty, hard work, freedom, all people are created equal, always doing your best, never giving up, etc. .
In the first moment, I thought she was just listing good character traits in a subliminal effort to tell me how to behave. As I soon discovered, talking to more adults in the country about being American, many had an eerily similar idea of what it means to be a good American/Person (they almost always listed all of the same values). This discussion sprung up more often because much of my family was the first generation to immigrate into the US. Therefore, we occasionally talked about what it means to be American and how life is different here compared to back in the Philippines.

After a while, I accepted that there existed, at least to some noticeable extent, the idea of an ideal American. That discovery was great, it provides a compass, a goal to attain. Sometimes, I think of Atticus Finch, who was described as the ideal American by my Literature teacher back in the day, "What would he do right now?". Or the juror in twelve angry men, who was the ideal juror by living up to those values, that my aunt declared intrinsically American just a few months before I read that book in class.

At the same time, I realized, that an ideal of this kind, doesn't exist as thoroughly in Germany. If it does and I just happen to live in a circle of people, where I'm not confronted with it, then it is definitely not linked to national identity.
Case in point: If you ask a German, what it means to be German, they will probably tell you, that it means that your parents and grandparents were German. Or that you obtained the nationality to live and work in Europe. If they become a little more philosophical, many talk about acknowledging history, to deal and to learn from it (emphasis on WW2 of course). No one ever talks about values to live by (although it might be the case, that you have to be a supporter of democracy to attain the German citizenship. I'm not sure about that). Some people might even answer: "Nothing. What do you mean, it is supposed to mean something? It's a passport. Where you're born is pure chance, there is no meaning there".

I realize, I listed some more values like bravery, courage, never giving up or always doing your best, that are not explicitly listed in the Declaration of Independence or in the Constitution. I do that because much of my family listed them. Often, they argued, these were the values, that enabled the founding fathers to gain Independence and Freedom. So although these are more values, than talked about in the video, the people, who believe these values are intrinsically American, do so because they link these values to the creation of America. So the ideal American (at least in the case of my family) is also linked to the founding of the country.

Not only is it an interesting phenomenon to believe in a seemingly universally accepted ideal of a person but it is uniquely American to link that ideal of a person to the nationality that strongly. Your history lesson just made me understand how that came to be and explained some of my experience as a young teenager in America.

Chapman, I fucking _feel_ your content. Thanks!

[kadambia]

I disagree with the point that ancient people didn't have time or space for identity beyond the social hierarchy. Eastern philosophical traditions, especially Indian philosophical traditions have focused especially on the self, to be specific, the Self.

[sambolino]

Excellent video! I believe that what makes American identity unique is that, unlike other countries where identity is based on heritage and culture, in America each individual establishes their American identity by making a choice to uphold ideals.

[corwin]

This was a phenomenal essay. Rarely do I end a video and feel the need to sit back and ruminate. With yours, I need to pencil in time at the end. I hope this is a topic you consider diving into more. I would be interested to hear more of your analyses.

[PotatoPatatoVonSpudsworth]

_“This is the only country in the world, " said Wednesday, into the stillness, "that worries about what it is."_
_"What?"_
_"The rest of them know what they are. No one ever needs to go searching for the heart of Norway. Or looks for the soul of Mozambique. They know what they are.”_

- *From Neil Gaiman's **_American Gods._*

[hurusii]

In elementary school, after the reciting the pledge of allegiance we would also follow it with the two lines froM the Declaration of Independence you mentioned. I totally forgot that I could recite it word for word. In grade school I would recite it blindly and not truly understand the meaning. But now I can truly appreciate the power of these words relating to the identity of America and it’s values.

[barath]

I remember reading an article by a professor in the Guardian where she mentioned that such deep-rooted identity politics is one of the symptoms of a civil war. Abandoning ideology over identity is a bad sign.

[beachchickensmedia]

loved the video! im learning that we need to embrace having conversations about identity in america, but so many people label it as political so they dont want to even talk about. identity in america is our culture.

[beans]

Love your channel, Ryan! Love all of the videos you’ve made so far - they are smart, fair, and entertaining. Just wish you released more of them, more often.

[DrProgNerd]

I think that much of the division comes from people's reluctance to accept that we don't always get everything exactly the way we'd like. There is no guarantee that we will never be offended.
Living in a country with 330 million individuals - each with their own beliefs and preferences - it's a miracle that we manage to keep it together at all...but we do. We exchange value with one another. We move through our lives interacting - or choosing not to interact - but examples of peaceful coexistence far outweigh the conflict. We just focus on the conflict more.

[omalleyglassworks]

I love your channel. This is the kind of content society needs. The good you do is incalculable.

[bruceclark]

Ryan, you do a wonderful job of clarifying these issues. I've noticed that you have evolved and are so much more confident and professional in your presentation and your delivery is really excellent. TIs a really valuable and enlightening channel. . THAnks

[SeasideDetective]

It is ironic that so much of the rhetoric surrounding "identity politics, " which, as you pointed out, is supposed to be concerned with the INNER self, is focused almost exclusively on race - and on skin color in particular, which is an OUTER characteristic. We Americans do try to link physical appearance to ethnic culture, but it's not always as simple as that. People of the same nationality - even if they are "natives" of their land - can look different from each other. For example, Ireland, which is the country to which I can trace both my mother's and my father's ancestries, is home to both pale Irish people and swarthy Irish people, with different skin shadings in between.

But identity politics should not be concerned with just race. We also need to examine religious beliefs, socioeconomic status, and attitudes on cultural issues, which divide us just as much.