It's hilarious to read your question because, in the US at least, the right is so much more dogmatic about identity politics than the left.

It's been about 9 years since the Western left took its idpol turn

Define your terms.

• What happened 9 years ago?
• What exactly is “idpol”?
• What exactly is the “Western left”?

If I had to guess, I’d say that you watched a few YouTube videos selected for you by the YouTube algorithm, and then assumed everyone else in the Lemmyverse is in the exact same headspace as you.

My Marxist-Leninist conceptualization of what “Western left” and “idpol” mean might be very different from yours.

• Western Marxism: How it was Born, How it Died, How it can be Reborn
• Imperialist Propaganda and the Ideology of the Western Left Intelligentsia: From Anticommunism and Identity Politics to Democratic Illusions and Fascism
• https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Western_Marxism
• https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Left-wing_anticommunism
• https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Identity_politics
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combahee_River_Collective

.
Previously: https://lemmy.ml/post/15667745/11073512

I actually have a Black-led, Black-issue-focused organization to clique up with now, rather than spending another five years getting talked over by "we don't have a race problem in this country"-assed white Amerikans. Forever a plus in my books; I don't intend to go back.

What event is this referring to?

I don't think picking an arbitrary time of, like, 9 years ago is accurate for when the western left's "idpol turn" started. Labour rights and anti racism have always been closely intertwined causes and the trade unions have been closely aligned with queer groups since the 80's at least.

But whatever.

What has that accomplished?

Created a more organised front against the current reactionary pushes and helped getting marginalised people politically active despite the neoliberal attempt to crush grassroots political activism.

Who has it helped?

Plenty of people, myself for example: leftist agitation caused both a reform within the Welsh NHS' gender service to move away from antiquated gatekeeping and towards self-id and informed consent, while at the same time these same groups successfully pushed the Senedd to bring out free prescriptions. My poor, post-grad self wouldn't have had the time to fight to get a gender identity certificate nor the money to afford HRT treatment if it wasn't for the intersectional tactics of the "western left".

I had to look up "idpol" ... which is a simplification of the division.

The left wants to include all the diversity of underrepresented minorities. The right wants to ignore or erase instead.

The process has both helped and hurt. I have known countless people who feel like they could come out and be themselves, in the hope that society had finally reached a level of acceptance. And now, the right has shown how much judgement and hate still thrives.

I hate everything to do with identity politics. All it has done is divide us even more and caused more conflict between ordinary people.