True. You were stating it explicitly, not implying it.
Only to people who regard "British" as a biological group rather than a nationality. When such people express their pride in that biological trait, they're villified as white supremacists, "far right" or even as Nazis.
You're reversing reality, which is common amongst advocates of biological group identity. Saying that all people with a particular biological trait have the same identity (i.e. "they're all the same") is about imposing homogeneity, about suppressing diversity. Saying that each individual is an individual is the opposite. You are doing what you're objecting to. I am doing the opposite of what you're objecting to and falsely claiming I am doing. You're reversing reality. Doubleplusgood Newspeak, Citizen!
Also, biological group identity politics is absolutely not about "the choice to associate with an identity". You're reversing reality about that too. A key point of biological group identity is that it's not a choice. Or are you arguing that sexual orientation is a choice and therefore not a biological group identity?
I think you're misunderstanding what I'm actually advocating, you've jumped on the whole Pride thing with the suggestion that it's pigeonholing a group of people and implying a harmonised connection between all of those groups akin to saying all gay people have this identity on account of them being Gay, at least that's my understanding of your argument. The problem for me is that doesn't actually hold up when you examine the way individual people feel about the situation. I'll continue with the pride comparison because it's where we started but it applies to a lot of other groups.
Pride means many different things to many different people, but let's take the celebration of homosexuality thing, due to the nature of homosexuality, particularly in relation to the sexual revolution during the 60's, the underground nature of the culture and the eventual breaking out during the 80's there is a very specific culture that has grown up around the gay scene. That is not to say that all gay people buy in to gay culture, but it is a cultural subsection that is inherently linked to homosexuality because that's what gave birth to it. Celebration of that culture does not imply that all people need to buy in to it in order to be gay, it also doesn't alienate those people who don't buy in to it. However, that cultural phenomenon is built on a history that all gay people share, regardless of whether you buy in to it, the current situation for gay people in the UK and the USA where pride is most prevalent is built upon decades of oppression, on struggle and on certain shared tragedies and successes, that history is inherent and shared.
Now I wonder whether we have our wires crossed in that you seem to believe I am advocating a full on dystopian idea that there is a tick box list of what makes a gay person or a black person or a whatever, I'm not, and neither are pretty much any of the people who ascribe to a particular culture, or who choose to celebrate pride. Maybe the issue here is that you seem to think that people buying in to that rigid and divisive concept of identity politics are in a majority, where as actually they're at the fringe of the argument.
I suppose the crux of the argument around pride, certainly in relation to the debate we two are having is whether you believe that pride is solely a celebration of being gay, or if it's a celebration of gay culture, the gay struggle, gay success, being able to be who you are vocally instead of behind closed door, which is how I view it. The fact that gay people can't change that they are gay doesn't erase the shared history and subsequent culture that evolved from that history.
I suppose one of the additional things to remember when having this debate, particularly because people like to make the argument that having a celebration that's so narrow in scope is some how not inclusive, is that the evolution of gay culture as an entity came about because of a segregation of gay people at the behest of the rest of society, it's not like they packed their cultural bags one day and said, "we're going to go and be gay over here".
I'd be really interested to know what you'd like the World to look like in relation to this kind of thing, what is the role of individual culture and group belonging in your ideal structure? Not being arsey, I enjoy a debate and I'm genuinely interested.
