Watch commercials for ancestry.com and you get a subtle reminder of the identity politics that Democrats have been peddling for years.
A first reaction might be to scoff at the commercial. In this day of participation trophies and the emphasis on building students' self esteem, there's a need among many to be special. And that need is expected to co-exist with the instinctual need to belong. So when a DNA test puts them in a special category with others, there's another trophy.
The second reaction might be a grudging respect for the enterprising entrepreneur who figured out a way to take advantage of that phenomenon. Business plan --
Step 1: Create a product that places a person in an identifiable group,
Step 2: Sell it to the customer,
Step 3: Make money.
The ad that ran recently featured someone who used the service and discovered a category in which she belongs but didn't she know applied to her. Voila, a new specific, identifiable identity. "It opened up a whole new world exploring my native American heritage." Next comes a joining with people of the same identity.
So far there's no harm and no foul. But when the special interest group comes in lobbying government based on identity there's where the scheme becomes insidiously political.
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