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**How Identity Politics Keeps Left Parties Legitimate Without Economic Power**

Left parties, having abandoned substantial economic promises since the 1980s–90s, shifted to social justice causes that don't require taxing the rich.

This strategy trades tangible public goods (healthcare, pensions, infrastructure) for low-cost cultural wins like gay marriage and symbolic gestures.

Symbolic activism (flags, rhetoric, calling out racism) preserves a party’s moral brand while avoiding costly redistributive policies.

Corporations benefit because these surface-level commitments provide PR cover without changing exploitative labor practices.

The result: electoral signaling that costs little politically but fails to address structural economic problems, weakening class-based legitimacy.

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WHAT IS POLITICS? - [Why the “Left” is full of Cancel Goblins, Stalinist Gooners, D.E.Idiots and Post-Modern Tallywankers](https://blog.giersig.eu/reposts/36de4/).