Left is parading social science as history, by Bella d’Abrera, the director of the Foundations of Western Civilisation program at the Institute of Public Affairs.
Identity politics encapsulates two main ideas.
The first is that an individual’s political position (and many other things, such as moral worth) is defined by their identity. The second is the way in which a person is to be treated is decided according to that person’s identity.
Which is why identity politics causes people to discriminate between races and genders and treat them differently — it encourages bigotry. It is in direct opposition to the previous ideal of treating everyone the same, solely on their merits as individuals. Move over Martin Luther King. History has changed direction.
The suspicion that history as an academic discipline has been successfully hijacked by left-wing cultural theorists is no longer hearsay or speculation. The audit reveals that at least 244 of the 746 history subjects belong to the social sciences. History departments are replete with subjects that examine the study of human society and social relationships, not historical events or periods.
Take for example Gendered Worlds: An Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of NSW; Masculinity, Nostalgia and Change offered at the University of Western Australia; Monash University’s Nationality, Ethnicity and Conflict; and the University of New England’s Being Bad: Sinners, Crooks, Deviants and Psychos. None of these subjects belongs in a history department.
In comparison, of the 746 subjects on offer, just 241 explain the material and technological progress and belief systems of Western civilisation. …
There is a direct correlation between the proliferation of trigger warnings, cultural appropriation and safe spaces (which are rapidly becoming the norm on campus) with the identity politics being propounded in the classroom.
The more that students are taught to view history in terms of identity politics, which by its nature is divisive, the more it will manifest on campuses across Australia, creating inequality where there is none.
hat-tip Barry Corke
