Leslyn Lewis goes off on identity politics
Episode Stats
Words per minute
181.04764
Harmful content
Toxicity
2
sentences flagged
Hate speech
2
sentences flagged
Summary
In this episode, I sit down with conservative commentator and presidential hopeful Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to discuss identity politics, racism, and the media's obsession with identity politics. We talk about how identity politics distracts us from the real issues at hand, and how to deal with them.
Transcript
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I want to go back to the identity politics comment you made at the beginning of that response
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because you were, it sounded like, talking about the way the left assumes that all minorities think
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and act the same. You've also taken aim very recently at that attitude within conservative
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circles. I mean, Patrick Brown's campaign, for example, talked about really courting the so-called
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ethnic vote as though anyone who is under that banner of ethnic thinks the same way about politics
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and leadership candidates. Do you feel that conservatives get too hung up in identity
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politics? Because I've heard supporters of yours, for example, that say, well, you know,
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it would be great if conservatives fielded a minority because then it would deflect against
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the racism allegation or a woman because it would deflect against the misogyny. Do you feel
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conservatives get too consumed by this as well? No, it's a real issue. Race is a real issue.
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The problem that we have is when we attribute everything to it. Now, if we know that the
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liberals are playing identity politics, yes, of course, my candidacy is going to deflect against
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that because the ridiculous things that they accuse conservatives of are false. Many of them are
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false. And so that's a part of the problem that the media has with me is that they can no longer
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perpetuate that false narrative. So race is real. Racism is real. But the problem is, is that we cannot
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reduce individuals just to a race. And for a leadership candidate to say, I somehow have proprietary rights
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over this group of people. And I'm going to pass them on to this group of people as if these
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individuals are not human beings with identities, with values. I believe that I can reach different
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segments of people based on on different values. You reach farmers based on one set of values. You
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reach you may reach another group based on a different set of values. But you can't assume that
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every farmer thinks alike or every white person thinks alike or every person of color thinks alike.
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