Identity Politics

Personal identities are immensely important for the experience of individuals and groups. I also absolutely hate how the majority of identity politics plays out collectively in society today and how NEGATIVE identity politics- aka prejudice- is used by the immensely corrupt, often violent, and increasingly authoritarian party driven system to divide, conquer, oppress, and scare voters.

Personal identities are so important because they shape so much of our experiences on earth. Unfortunately, however, our identities are also used to divide voters from each other and pit us against each other, which is perpetually frustrating and violent, and incredibly destructive to our communities, nation, and democratic republic. Weaponized identity politics are intentionally used by the divide and conquer party driven system to create tension and fear in our social, political, and economic systems.

It’s also immensely important to acknowledge that NO part of any human being’s identity has anything to do with their character. Two individuals with identical identities can have completely opposite characters. In other words, identity politics shapes and dictates “who” someone is but it does not shape or dictate “what” kind of person they are or “what” their character is.

When I refer to a human being’s identity this includes but is not limited to an individual’s:

  • Race

  • Ethnicity

  • Religion

  • Spirituality

  • Gender

  • Physical Appearance

  • Sexual orientation

  • Partnership/marital status

  • First name/middle name/family name

  • Career choice

  • Place of birth, country of residence, citizenship status

  • Net worth, cash flow, income

  • Address

  • Formal and informal education

  • Height

  • Weight

  • Hobbies, music, movies, TV, entertainment, food, and drink preferences

Some or all of these things are of course immensely important to the identity of many human beings. They are important parts of our lives and shape who we are. But they do not shape or dictate the quality of one’s soul.

None of these tell us what kind of human being they are. Or what their character is or what their soul is like. None of these parts of our identity tell me if someone is kind, empathetic, or compassionate. None of these parts of our identity tell me if someone is generous, inspiring, or courageous. None of these parts of our identity tell me if someone is supportive, encouraging, and caring towards others. None of these parts of our identity tell me if someone is courageous, tempered, just, and wise. None of these parts of our identity tell me if someone is loving, protective, and hopeful. All of these desirable and positive virtues, principles, and values do not exist in any human being because of our identities- they are determined by our character. They are determined by what we choose to believe and how we think, feel, and act in relation to ourselves and others.   

Furthermore, humans can share ALL of the same identities and have immensely different characters. Humans can also share NONE of the same identities and have immensely similar characters… and everything in between.

Two humans, for example, can have the same race, gender, and career and one human treats everyone with such kindness and respect and the other is unkind and disrespectful to so many. Two humans can have the same religion, sexual orientation, and education and one human is so loving and caring and the other human is manipulative and violent.

Also, despite the fact that our identities have nothing to do with our character as humans and there are many parts of our identities we don’t choose, our identities often dictate who we interact with, who we trust, who we allow into our lives, and who we believe is worthy of love, success, belonging, and abundance.

Instead, however, we should dedicate ourselves to embracing all positive diversities of identities. We must realize that who someone is does not dictate what kind of human being they are, what their values are, what their belief systems are, and what quality of character they have. Who you are, is not what you are. We can value, embrace, and celebrate our positive identities but we must always look deeper into ourselves and others to determine whether the person, whether the soul in question is of good or bad character.

 To be clear, projecting an honest love for all positive identities is very important. Being open to how diverse human identities can be and appreciating as many as you can is a beautiful part of experiencing the diversity of humanity. But we must also stay focused on and understand that character, values, and policy is what truly matters in relation to what government does and how it should function. Character is also what you can judge a human being on. Above all else, someone’s character -their belief systems and how their belief systems shape how a human being thinks, feels, and acts in relation to themselves and others- is what determines the Evil, Goodness, or Wholiness of any human being. And all human beings are capable of improving, changing, adjusting, and evolving all of their belief systems and thus improving all of the different parts of their character and how they think, feel, and act towards themselves and others.  

So please, do your best to appreciate and love all positive human identities. Having a diversity of positive identities is a great thing for any country. Don’t allow authoritarian forces for the party driven system to divide and conquer our community and country based on our community’s diverse identities. And, please also know that a human’s character- their belief systems and how these belief systems shape how that human thinks, feels, and acts in relation to themselves and others- their values, and their policy ideas are what is most important in relation to what government should do and how government should function. 

In other words, we can and should celebrate and appreciate all positive parts of our many diverse identities. BUT when we are having “political conversations” and discussing what we collectively believe our democratic republican government should be doing to represent us- voters must also consciously transition away from spending so much time, energy, and focus on identity politics. Instead we should focus value/virtue politics and policy politics.

This is because it is NEGATIVE IDENTITY POLITICS is one way evil spreads in any society. Negative identity politics, aka prejudice, is the most used tool of the broken, flawed, immensely corrupt, often violent, and incredibly divisive party controlled political system for dividing and conquering populations of voters. Negative identity politics is how the party controlled democratic republics and any authoritarian political system justifies genocide, murder, oppression, economic exploitation, military invasion, and all types of systemic violence, oppression, and prejudice against certain populations. Negative identity politics allows authoritarian political systems to label some identities as superior and some identities as inferior and therefore it is “acceptable” to murder, exploit, and oppress people of those identities. But identity superiority and inferiority is a completely evil illusion, which, again, is used as a tool for political control. Religious, economic, ethnic, cultural, sexual, gender, racial and all types of identity supremacy is an illusion. We are all human beings. We are all souls. We all have immensely similar DNA and consciousness. All positive human identities are equal. What makes any soul/spirit/consciousness/voters good, great, or Wholly (or bad, terrible, or evil) is, again, entirely dependent on their character. And character, again, can be defined as what you choose to believe and how you then think, feel, and act in relationship to yourself and all others. No one is perfect and every soul is fully capable of spiritual evolution, learning how to cultivate better character, and choosing better belief systems and thus better thoughts, feelings, and actions in relation to yourself and all others. 

Character, values, and policy is what actually matters in relation to what government should do and how government should function.

So let’s have the discussion, exploration, and application of our values, virtues, and principles dominate our social, political, and economic discourse is our communities, in the media, and on Voter Directed Network. Let’s focus on specific policy ideas about how to improve upon our many systemic social, political, and economic problems when collaborating and discussing issues on Voter Directed Network.

Let’s limit use of identity politics as much as we can as it relates to our discussions about what our democratic republican government should do and how our government should function.

Thank you for reading,

AVK