How Liberals Monetized Trauma: Catherine Liu on Marx, Trump, and identity politics

Richard Mellor

I have not heard of this woman before but I really enjoyed this video and agreed with much of her analysis and her criticism of the elite liberals and identity politics. She’s spot on regarding the Democratic Party. She also raises the need for a working class political organization as well. It will be interesting to hear what others think.

 

In relation US her description of the hatred of the liberal class by working people on the one hand definitely has some basis in the support for the right. As she says, US workers know we're exploited, but if that's the case, the open naked exporter is less repulsive than the do gooders whose motives are rooted in the view that they are deserving of their higher social status as they worked hard for it and are smart. Consequently their compassion and caring for the poor and those below them is based on the view their role is to help those of us that are lacking not due to a system that is inherently unfair but due to their failings.

 

When she talks of care workers that are among the lowest paid of the workforce she stresses the need to organise and to recognise that they have a set of skills rather than just being a carer in the abstract. I recall a few years ago when hotel/motel maids were forming unions or attempting to form a union due to the extreme exploitation of the work but also the constant threats of sexual harassment or violence as they find themselves in the living quarters and bedrooms of many males. 

 

Folks might remember the African hotel worker that was raped by a 

Dominique Strauss-Kahn who was the head of the IMF some years ago. The hell she had to go through. I have spoken with housekeeping staff many times and they shared similar stories with me. They liked that I told them I didn’t need the sheets changed and stuff like that so they could get a break and they thanked me but reminded me not to tell the front desk otherwise they would simply give them more work to do.

 

There is no doubt that Identity politics has been undermined somewhat over the past few years and it’s a step in the right direction. I do not have the writing skills to articulate my objects but they go as far back as intersectionality when I was called a class reductionist by some liberal for my objecting to its origins and application. I have to say, myself and many others are relieved that the pronoun fad has subsided.