I grew up in a country very different to Britain, namely Russia. And I can tell you, from my personal experience, that this problem, the very notion of identity politics, is not present in other societies; it's simply non-existent. So other countries, other societies, focus on scientific research, defense, undermining Western societies; while we here in Britain keep wasting time, taking this a bit further than we should; we keep creating more divisions, we keep limiting our own freedoms; and you argue that only some horrible awful things can stop this.
I think this is very ignorant of the way ideas spread. The US and the EU are the trendsetters here; the media (including social) are amplifying and disseminating their messages, and whichever other societies are receptive to the Western ideas (and the Russian is) will inevitably absorb this kind of politics as well. Russia, being rather provincial, may seem spared at the moment, but the liberal westernized part of its society are of course assimilating the new Western culture, and the effects of this assimilation will only become more and more pronounced with time.
