Nietzsche, slave morality, and identity politics.

Friedrich Nietzsche famously had the concept of "slave morality." As opposed to "master morality," slave morality is a reactive value system created by the weak, oppressed, and marginalized against the strong. Slave morality begins from resentment, and it reverses traditional noble values by categorizing traits like strength as evil, while framing weakness and humility as good. For Nietzsche master morality is nobility, and it has the traits of open-mindedness, courage, truthfulness, and a correct assessment of your own self worth. In essence, master morality defines the "good" with the powerful.

For Nietzsche though slave morality is based on resentment, slave morality devalues what the master has and what the slave does not have. Slave morality originates in the weak and slave morality vilifies its oppressors. Slave morality inverses master morality, and originates from Judaism and exploded under Christianity. The Biblical principles of humility and pity are the consequences of making universal the plight of the slave unto all mankind, where "the democratic movement is the heir to Christianity." Nietzsche saw the concepts of heaven and hell tied to slave morality, where slaves were unable to get revenge upon the masters, and engage in a revenge fantasy where the "good" people will be rewarded in heaven and the "bad" people will be punished in hell.

Identity politics is a politics that is based on a particular identity such as race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender, sexual orientation, caste, education, disability, and social class. Identity politics helps those who are facing systemic oppression so that society can better understand the interplay of different forms of oppression and ensure that the "marginalized" are not to be disproportionately affected by political actions. Identity politics gained status with emergence of social activism manifesting in American civil rights, feminist, LGBT movements, and postcolonial organizations.

Identity politics, in my opinion, has it's origins in slave morality. Identity politics values the marginalized, the people at the bottom, the disenfranchised. The people at the top, like cisgendered white males, are viewed as evil and oppressors. It is also based often on resentment. Identity politics is a reversal of values where the people at the bottom become good and the people at the top evil. It's as Nietzsche puts it "transvaluation of all values." Now I understand what I am writing here is controversial but nothing Nietzsche wrote about is without controversy. Identity politcs has become nearly a religion in academia and left wing politics in general. Even classical Marxism has been pushed out because of identity politics. Ultimately a political movement and society based on resentment can create nothing but hatred and division towards other people within that society. When the powerless cannot act out their revenge through physical strength and so reenact their anger through labeling the "powerful" as evil, society gets very psychologically sick.

Even in colloquial nomenclature concepts such as the "suffering olympics" have taken parlance, because people are always trying to one up each other to see who is more "marginalized." Very little of identity politics is actually based in compassion, empathy, and a true concern for the "underdog." It's actually based in Nietzsche's concept of the slave morality and resentment. Much less categorizing people into huge boxes of the one's who only can have bad racial, gender, sexual orientation issues squashes out each person's each unique individual life experience. I personally have had some of my own bad racial experiences despite being a cisgendered white male.

Phrases like "toxic masculinity" have become very popular in contemporary America and among some feminists. While do I think there are many men who have a hypermasculine and overly aggressive attitude and thus the phrase "toxic masculinity" makes sense for them, I also believe many men don't fit this category. When men don't fit this category and get labeled as having "toxic masculinity" this is an attempt to use slave morality on men and control them not through physical strength but by shaming them through the creation of values that make it evil to be strong. As Nietzsche thought, it's a mendacious way to control people not through physicality but by shame, which has its origins in Judaism and Christianity. Ultimately identity politics and toxic masculinity have it's origins in resentment and as Nietzsche thought, make a society psychologically sick and even mentally ill.

Racism, sexism, and homophobia have been a scourge on society for centuries now but identity politics is no solution to this problem. Identity politics is based on "slave morality" and resentment and creates more anger and division in society. Much less it does nothing to stop endless war in America, and improve the material conditions of all Americans regardless of race, gender, or sexual orientation. The media, academia, and society in general would benefit from dropping much of the rhetoric of identity politics and move into something much more "life affirming" and "yes-saying" as Nietzsche would put it. Thank you.