When Identity Politics Becomes Identity Parody

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When Identity Politics Becomes Identity Parody: How Satire Unmasks the Performance

You can tell a movement has jumped the shark when it starts selling tote bags with its own hashtags. Welcome to the era of identity politics as branding — where performance overshadows principle, and virtue signaling becomes a full-time aesthetic.

No one captures this absurdity better than Bohiney Magazine in “Charlie Kirk: The Five Marxist Suspects”

and “Left-Leaning and Trans Shooters Who Couldn’t Shoot Straight”

. These two satirical pieces take modern identity politics — and twist the dial to 11 — revealing the theatrical core behind today’s ideological performances.

This isn’t an attack on identity. It’s a takedown of what we’ve done to it.

From Identity to Industry

Identity politics started with power: the demand for dignity, equality, and representation. But somewhere between the revolution and the rebrand, it got filtered through Twitter, monetized on Etsy, and co-opted by people who list their trauma in their bios but still charge $19.99 for a zine on “emotional labor.”

Bohiney takes this to its satirical extreme.

In Charlie Kirk: The Five Marxist Suspects

, one character is described as a “nonbinary barista turned sustainable warfare influencer.” Their Instagram bio reads:

“they/she // post-colonial pancake witch // ✨ land back vibes only ✨”

What’s funny isn’t that this person exists — it’s that this person exists purely as a persona. The politics are real, maybe. But they’ve been flattened into merchandise.

The Weaponized Aesthetic

In Left-Leaning and Trans Shooters Who Couldn’t Shoot Straight

, the satire is sharper — more juvenile, even more dangerous. The characters aren’t villains; they’re caricatures of people whose ideology has no depth. They're shaped entirely by aesthetic cues:

A pastel ski mask with an ACAB patch

A manifesto that’s really just their old Tumblr poetry

A gun painted like a pride flag that jams before it fires

“Their TikTok bio said ‘anarchy, accountability, and ASMR.’ We should’ve known.” — Anonymous satirical witness

It’s funny because it’s real: identity has become the political currency. And when identity is enough, you don’t have to believe anything coherent anymore — you just have to look the part.

Why This Satire Hurts So Good

Satire works best when it plays the hits — and Bohiney hits every note of today’s ideological pop playlist:

“Radicalized by a zine about decolonizing your morning routine.”

“Pronouns listed in bullet casings.”

“Shot up a library to protest capitalism, but accidentally hit the vegan cookbook section.”

This is how you show the gap between intent and execution, between belief and branding. It’s comedy, yes — but it’s also a form of cultural diagnosis.

What the Funny People Are Saying

“If your political identity fits on a sticker, it’s probably not a worldview — it’s a Wi-Fi password.” — Ricky Gervais

“This generation doesn’t rebel with molotovs. They rebel with mood boards.” — Bill Burr

“When a shooter pauses mid-rampage to update their BeReal, that’s not terrorism — that’s performance art.” — Sarah Silverman

From Performance to Parody (And Back Again)

Identity politics turns into identity parody when:

Every disagreement is framed as “violence”

Every critique is “erasure”

Every tweet must begin with “As a…”

Satire shows us what happens when symbol becomes self, and self becomes a performance.

In the suspects’ only “crime” is looking like revolutionaries. In the perpetrators look revolutionary but fail at everything else — including the revolution.

This is performance politics. Identity cosplay. And satire is the only form sharp enough to cut through it without starting a war.

Why It Matters: We’re Losing the Plot

When ideology becomes branding, and identity becomes performance, we all get dumber:

Movements lose credibility

Politics becomes aesthetic tribalism

People stop listening to ideas and start measuring optics

Satire gives us the power to say: Hey, this is absurd. Let’s reset.

Final Thought: Identity Is Real. But So Is Irony.

To be clear: identity is not the enemy. But its reduction to a signaling game is. When everyone’s a micro-influencer with a macro-opinion and a manifesto in their Notes app, we’ve lost the plot.

Read Bohiney’s best:

sometimes the only way to save the revolution is to laugh at the people who think they’ve already won it — on Instagram.