Identitarianism to Universalism: the Five Degrees of Social Identity

Graeme Main, OGL v1.0OGL v1.0

When people tell you what they think human nature is, they reveal more about themselves than humanity. The human race has many natures. We’re greedy and generous, suspicious and trusting, terrified of change and in love with novelty. We’re also identitarians and universalists—we divide ourselves into social identities like race, gender, and tribe, and we unite in our common humanity.

When talking about anything that suggests a binary division, the old joke applies: there are two kinds of people, those who divide people into two kinds and those who don’t. Identitarianism and universalism are points on a spectrum that can be roughly divided like this:

1. Genocidists want to exterminate the groups they hate.
2. Segregationists want to isolate the groups they hate.
3. Conservative identitarians want other groups to succeed or fail without anyone’s interference.
4. Liberal identitarians want to help some groups in the hope of turning our current economic hierarchy into one that is perfectly proportionate in terms of race and gender.
5. Universalists want to end all forms of poverty and privilege to make a world that provides equal opportunity to everyone.