I do love a good debate and it is intrinsic to the name - and I love it when people push back. And yes... I think your semantic argument holds up....

"The intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment or deprivation."

But that's not what I'm saying.... 'Don't be a victim' can also be a phrase said to people who have imagined threats to themselves or to others. That can be at the root of many mental illnesses and many that you will come across. Often it's at the root of psychological projection. In some instances an over-fostering of a victim mindset will do more harm than good because it leads directly to learned helplessness and codependency on workers, social or otherwise. There are people for whom 'victimhood' provides them with the attention their brain craves. It can be at the root cause of why many social work issues aren't fixed and why many social workers burn out.

I'm not going to challenge you on statistics because you're right on the different overlapping processes of identity. I will say that we should be careful that presuming just because someone is white or male that they occupy a position of privilege. They may occupy a position of patriarchal privilege and white privilege, but such things are meaningless when considered against other facets of identity. That is what makes identity poltiics so reductionist.

Take for example the Cooper vs Cooper exchange in NYC. A white woman vs a black man. Who is oppressed? The internet came down on his side but it did little more than turn into an identity based pissing contest. Who is more oppressed, Oprah Winfrey or the homeless white guy at the soup kitchen I cook for. Whilst we can pick and choose what identities we hold, I think it's far more important to think about WHY we have picked and chosen those facets of our identity. I say that as someone who has shunned identity politics - what I say and what I have to say is more important than who I am to say it. We should centre intelligent discourse, not the loudest voices.

We don't actually disagree on all that much. You see the route out of societal floundering to be an understanding of the intersectional nature of different facets of the identity. I see as identity as too complex for that to travel anywhere in a meaningful direction. Give multiple social groups the power to outflank each other and that's what they'll do. We're seeing Dave Chappelle being whacked by the LGBTQ+ at the moment - it's a civil war in the left.

My view is that therpeutic intervention needs to be done on an individual level. Sure, group identity can help inform some of that - and there are particular shortcuts we can undertake to help people by knowing how they identify - but by the far the best thing we can do is alleviate the poverty in the life of poor people. The more people we remove from poverty, the more Sure Start centres, the more free health care, the more we can get people out of a desperate situation - the better off we'll be.

And that's fundamentally why we disagee. The causes you have taken up in your essay, whilst I think they are noble and worthwhile causes, essentially split the Left. It means the left remains unelectable and the people at the bottom of society get poorer and worse off. By far the best thing the political right ever did, was convince the middle classes that poor people are the problem. It's absolutely worked.

If you want to come and debate me on home turf - you're welcome to read this. https://medium.com/lucid-nightmare/what-we-all-lose-when-society-plays-identity-politics-397dcb896d5b - that pretty much sums up my view of identity politics but it expands the views I've got here.

I do love a good debate - and I have a soft spot for social workers. I've trained many over the years. If you want to read how the moderate voice is being turned by the identity politics adherents - this is an encounter I had with an activist who believes in standing up for 'victims' - as long as he gets to define the oppressed/oppressor relationship to suit his world view. It pretty much sums up why I'm disenfranchised with the political and ideological left.

https://medium.com/lucid-nightmare/whack-a-woke-james-finn-special-86d6cb79aa11