I wrote a book called “Crap Towns”. It seemed funny at the time

> The good news is that I don’t think that the illiberalism of identity politics will endure much longer.

That's a weird thing to say in 2025 , considering what the US government is deporting people for having the wrong opinions domestically, and attempting to export the identity politics of the current administration via tarde deals with the UK. I suppose one might be blind to it because of their own political persuasion, suggesting that identity politics peaked in 2021 says more about the author's biases than the present reality.

> No one has been deported for their opinions, yet

You probably thought I was talking about El Salvador. I wasn't.

Is it not deportations when multiple university students have stripped of their visas without notice, by order of "Little Marco" and forced to leave the country?

> How would you react to 10 million tourists moving to your country, buying up all the food from your grocery stores, drinking and driving, stealing, dealing drugs,...

...ask the kingdom of Hawai'i

> attempting to export the identity politics of the current administration via tarde deals with the UK

Not only can I not understand how you could imagine this to be the motive; I can't imagine how you even understand the term "identity politics" such that they could even in principle be "exported" in such a manner.

Are you suggesting, for example, that tariffs are somehow being differentially applied to different products from the same country, according to the ethnicity, gender, etc. of the manufacturers?

> Not only can I not understand how you could imagine this to be the motive

That's a fair question, and I suppose you may not consume British media and may be missing the necessary context.

> I can't imagine how you even understand the term "identity politics" such that they could even in principle be "exported" in such a manner.

I got you: the Trump admin wants to export its ideology on gender-identity by coercing the UK into changing its LGBTQ policies as a prerequisite to a trade deal with the US. The European right is not as crotchety about non-heteronomative relationship as the American right, and the Trump admin would like to change that. You may start here https://www.advocate.com/politics/us-uk-trade-deal-lgbtq https://www.snopes.com/news/2025/04/18/trump-uk-trade-lgbtq-...

>The European right is not as ...crotchety about non-heteronomative relationship as the American right

This very much does not agree with my own observations over the years, but I suspect there is no productive discussion to be had here.