My Issues With Wokism - 5/12/2023

There was a time when the word "woke" was used differently. I'm not referring to usage as in, "I woke up at 7:15 to get ready for work," which would seem to be the traditional, textbook use of 'woke'. What I'm referring to came about in the 60's or 70's, I guess, around the time of, or soon after Civil Rights legislation of the mid-60's was put into effect. At that time, 'woke' was used, mostly by Black people, to express that they were aware what racism and prejudice are, and they weren't any longer going to look the other way when they see it and recognize it. When someone at that time said they were woke, what they were saying is that they were going to call a spade a spade (no racial pejorative intended or alluded to in the use of that cliche to describe what can also be described as 'calling it like I see it'). That's where woke entered into the conversation in a different context than getting up for work.

Today, 'woke' has taken on a much broader context. It starts with another phrase today: 'intersectionality'. This right of center opinion writer's take on intersectionality is that it refers to a collective alliance between diverse groups with leftward leanings on many issues. And before I delve into that, I'll start by pointing out that 'woke' is now used by anyone who's aligned and actively willing to speak out on all, some, or any of the issues of the left. Within the intersectionality concept there's a "Three Musketeers" kind of 'one for all and all for one' thing going on. What makes me, as a right of center guy, most uncomfortable with 'woke' as used in this intersectional context, is that for each and every one of the issues, the drivers and agenda pushers are at the left edge of the spectrum, the activists, not just left leaners. It seems the further from the center, the louder and more assertive the voices become. The far right has the same thing going on, but we don't have the same kind of nearly formal multi-issue alliance the left has built on the intersectionality foundation.

So for me, 'woke' has become a pejorative. It's a circle-jerk of the furthest left activism on a whole range of issues. It's wrong for me to characterize the whole of the left by its extreme parts? Blame intersectionality and the chorus of the loudest voices on the left that dominate what little dialogue there is out there. The right does the same thing you say? Well, maybe so. I'll take one issue as an example. January 6th. I have from the beginning BEFORE January 6, 2021 that holding a demonstration or protest on that day was one of those 'nothing good can come from it' deals. The protest ought to have been on the 3rd, 4th, or 5th, NOT on the day the Electoral College was set to vote. That being said, I had, and continue to have, my own concerns about the conduct of the 2020 Presidential Election. Recent revelations about the CIA's meddling have only strengthened my doubts. Many of the protesters in D.C. have similar concerns. We are not all insurrectionists. They were not all insurrectionists. Far from it. But that is the portrayal and that is the narrative used by nearly the entirety of the left when it comes to January 6th. The whole of the right lumped in with the extreme of the right (and a whole lot of US Government agitators and undercover entrappers).

I think the difference between the right and the left is the intersectional alliance on the left. It kind of reminds me of some of the worst aspects of a unionized workforce. While the union is for the good of the overall workforce, sometimes the tactics make members uncomfortable. "Our representation said what?" But, by and large the membership says nothing, because the collective is it's strength for the individual, and it's better to look the other way sometimes, because the same people are bringing better working conditions, wages, and benefits to the group. So what if we all agree the employee was in the wrong and deserved to be fired? If me or any other members get sideways with the company, won't we want to same fighters in our corner? You bet we will. So while the woke people are pushing for something stupid like allowing biological men who identify as women to destroy women's sports and undermine real women, the rest of the left is silent and complacent. After all, their pet issue requires the same unity. What's funny is how aghast they seem to be when the regular people who aren't activist and aren't woke at once and in unison say, "What the fuck?" I'm thinking Bud Lite and Dylan Mulvaney, for example. How could they have not seen the backlash coming? I mean, really.

One last thought about wokeness. There seems to me to be an unspoken other side of the coin. "We are woke. We are enlightened. We are educated. We understand. We have the answers." I'm not woke. That leaves me asleep, unenlightened, uneducated, lacking understanding, and without legitimate answers. Woke is at once a claim to the territory of logical thought and righteousness, and at the same time a dismissal of dissenting persons and their opinions. It is a sidestep of dialogue and debate. Because we're uninformed, misinformed, and unenlightened, ya know. Well, I'm not going to be dismissed that simply and easily. They may be woke, but I'm not sleepwalking through life. I have my eyes wide open.