#409 | Yascha Mounk: Why Identity Politics Failed to Transform America - The Realignment Podcast

Yascha Mounk, author of The Identity Trap: A Story of Ideas and Power in Our Time, returns to The Realignment. Yascha and Marshall discuss how during the 2010s, postmodernism, postcolonialism, and critical race theory forged what he calls the "identity synthesis," why new conceptions of identity and social justice ultimately became counterproductive, and his belief that universal, humanist values are the best path towards true equality.

0:00 - Introduction
0:54 - What is wokeness?
9:32 - How would a “woke” person describe themselves?
16:45 - Yascha’s thoughts
23:02 - How much do these issues matter?
35:27 - Why were early 2010’s the revolutionary moment?
40:51 - Cultural vs. economic revolution
46:32 - What happens if Trump wins in 2024?

[vicpso]

It's all about the fight for status as a corruption of access to value. The corruption is that status brings people success rather than CREATING VALUE as prosperity and success. Their faulty system needs theft and legitimizing the theft.

[KW-hkjd]

I have found most "progressives" to be emotionally immature. The more I see them and hear them speak the more centrist I become.

[JohnSmith-rvnf]

Whiteness and white identity as a concept was and still is America’s main political identity and hence the most important factor in creating identity politics.

[madderanger]

That's nice professor, but a better measure would be to follow the money.

[annebronte]

the dude has talked 40 minutes and said nothing like most Pomo ideologues.

[nigelralphmurphy]

America is deeply deeply conservative and the people who follow this belief make up some 95% of the population. In small pockets on the east and west coasts there are some decent people, but they are very small in numbers and constantly under threat. America is therefore a theological autocracy.