The response to the attack is the latest example of how identity politics is beginning to break down under its own contradictions. Identity politics only condemns violence when the attacker belongs to a “privileged” group and the victim belongs to a “protected” one. Yet there is a kernel of truth there, especially when applied to identity politics, the practical fruit of postmodernism in public life. The details of the Nowak case did not conform to the tastes of identity politics. European and American elites would do well to understand that identity politics is not a game that can be played indefinitely.