>>4911idpol is short for identity politics
what does this mean? We must examine the two words seperately. First, politics.
In this context, the context of idpol, politics means political stances, positions, and general dispositions towards the functioning of society.
Identity means exactly what it says, but what is identity? Identity is a self-reflection. Things are things, and identities exist when those things categorize themselves as that thing. It is important to note that identity is seperate from the thing. We are not idealists. Idealists hold that the idea of the thing is the thing, whereas materialists hold that things exist in themselves irrespective of notice, and that our awareness of things are seperate from the things themselves.
So taken as a whole, idpol is when your political position or general world view is based on the identity layer instead of the material layer.
This, in practice, manifests as sort of factional antagonisms. If you are on a 'team', that team becomes an identity, and thinking in terms of 'my team' about anything is a form of idpol. This means that even things that are not inherently idpol - things that can be shown to be based on real material reality - can be practiced as idpol if the person is conceptualizing their position from the standpoint of identitarian struggle.
>>6088this is often how it works out in practice. but the problem of idpol is deeper than just its effects, as idpol can also align perfectly with traditional marxist lines in the form of worker identitarianism. In practice, prior to socialism being accomplished, you would not be able to distinguish proper thought from worker idpol simply by looking at motivations and actions, you would have to examine the rationale of the individual to understand whether they are falsely being idealist and just happening to overlap.