Approaching the people around us as individuals with unique needs, abilities, and ideas has not been fashionable for quite some time. 

We are instead supposed to cling steadfastly to a group identity—often more that one, in fact—that defines us based characteristics that are both immutable and conveniently elastic when the situation calls for it. For example, we are told that our race cannot never be changed; however, we are somehow able to adopt a new gender identity with the ease of someone changing their socks—go figure!—which actually makes some sense in a nonsensical way. Being that we are an infinitely adaptive species, it is no surprise that many on the political and cultural Left in America always seem to find new and interesting ways to transform their shifting narratives for their convenience, which obviously suits the purposes of those who hate being questioned about the logic of their beliefs while making reasonable conversations near impossible regarding their many identities and the peculiar consequences for both individuals and our society.

However, regardless of the inconsistencies—and insulting reductionism—inherent in so many of these exercises, we are told that everyone must be labeled so that we can properly parse degrees of victimization and facilitate doling out both direct government benefits and mandated preferences. Therefore, should you be a homeless person in San Francisco, the city wants to spend more money helping you—if you identify as transgender. Should you be a public school student, districts across the nation have additional funds set aside to assist with your education—if you identify as Black or Hispanic. Should you be a woman (or believe yourself to be one) in a technology-related field, businesses will open doors for you. 

The money, privilege, and power attached to one’s “group” identity in 21st century America ensures that few fail to “check the box” in order to jump to the head of the line, unless they are genetically white and, by definition, oppressors unworthy of any extra consideration whatsoever.

Sorting us into carefully labeled boxes serves a variety of useful purposes. 

First, this neatly excises personal accountability and responsibility from all discussions of individual life outcomes because what we make of ourselves is, according to those obsessed with doing the sorting, wholly determined by our particular group identity. Therefore, the successes of the “historically victimized” are always heroic and their failures are always the fault of the bigotry of America and Americans. Our individual choices, our work ethic, and our determination to succeed are inconsequential when compared to the rocky walls of hatred so many must apparently climb because Americans are determined to crush the souls of every non-white or cisgendered individual in our nation, a constellation of beliefs that is both utterly crazy and weirdly satisfying to those who are both deeply insecure and wildly conspiratorial.

In addition, group identities are a boon to those who find profit and power in encouraging the hatred of America. A terrifying example that we do not discuss enough is that China has for many years used TikTok, which is owned by ByteDance, a private company headquartered in Beijing, to encourage the airing of all manner of group-based grievances in the short videos posted on the platform. Perhaps this is only an innocent coincidence, but it is much more likely TikTok is the most successful “PsyOp” ever directed at another country by an enemy and economic competitor, spyware which also allows this ostensibly independent business to vacuum up a mind-boggling amount of personal data on young Americans that could pose an equally mind-boggling problem in the years ahead as these individuals ascend in the corporate world or halls of government.

Finally, encouraging group identification and anger makes it much easier for politicians to do what they have always done so well: pander to voters. Using fear and shaming to form Americans into monolithic blocks of obedient voters has proven to be a stupendously successful strategy for politicians who have no demonstrable leadership skills (or even much evident interest in the burdensome duties of elective office) but know how to convince voters that they will take care of their particular group—whether it is true or not. Watching the poorest and most crime-ridden Congressional districts in our nation continue to re-elect the same uncaring and incompetent people year after year after year because of some illusory affinity based on race, ethnicity, or gender, one cannot help but marvel at how effectively Americans can be convinced to vote against their own best interests by a slick advertising campaign.

Tribalism is inconsistent with nationhood, and the deep-seated damage that has been done to our nation by this foolishness is more apparent with each passing day. Cheering for your favorite football team or singing your sorority song is harmless fun. However, the machinations and evasions of the censorious and angry among us, who long ago decided that diversity of thought is unworkable because having to  respect differing ideas, opinions, and values is distinctly uncomfortable for those dismayed by the give and take inherent in a democracy, has been a disaster for our nation, and self-imposed apartheid is the worst of all possible solutions. We are—and we must be—Americans first and foremost, not gaggles of geese locked into cages and squawking at one another, and we have to recognize that the siren song of those who seek to divide us for fun and profit must be resisted with every fiber of our being because the alternative is endless hatred, anger, and conflict. The direction of our country today, if allowed to continue, will inevitably lead to us no longer having a country. 

A selfish, self-centered, and self-involved citizenry, many of whom are adamant that America is not a nation they would even bother to take up arms to defend against a foreign enemy, cannot sustain our precious  democracy, and continuing to educate our young to revile our history, institutions—and one another—is a prescription for a national dissolution in both practice and spirit that will please a few who are philosophically incapable of recognizing the gift of being an America but damn the rest of us who can readily see the train racing down the tracks to obliterate all that we hold dear.