A few months ago I happened to listen to two podcasts back-to-back that took sharply different slants on the culture wars, or how incredibly woke things are going to get. Peter Boghossian, interviewed by Melissa Chen and Angel Eduardo on the FAIR Perspectives
I just dearly hope that it fades from my progressive Gen X social network at some point, but they've all dug in their heels. (I see larger signs of it lessening, worry about the backlash that's already started, and keep my mental strength up by focusing on the little good faith corner of Twitter that I managed to find, obviously including you!)
Well put, the thing that distinguishes woke from liberal to me is that they want to blame and punish. They add the punitive part, so rather than say, end racism, it's punish white people for racism, that seems to be the operative part of wokism.
All these political terms are generalizations, left wing, right wing, alt right, nazi, authoritarian, etc etc what do any of them exactly mean? We speak in generalizations because we need to in order to have a conversation.
So when someone says what is woke?, it means "I am woke and don't like getting called on it".
Oct 20, 2022·edited Oct 20, 2022Liked by HistoryBoomer
Great post, Carl. A friend shared it with me. I'm a fairly regular caller to Jesse Singal's Callin show, and I told him a while back that I believe in the vibe shift. I believe that the further we get from the madness of 2020 (truly Ground Zero for woke shit), the better we feel.
Written in 2021, he predicts that as unpleasant as Social Justice Politics (his term for wokeness) are, they will eventually fail. Just like the 60s and the early 70s gave way to Reagan's 80s, times change. There's an ebb and flow.
Before I moved to Ecuador, I was told "Ecuador is about fifty years behind the rest of the world". So far this seems to be true in many respects. No one here talks about wokeness, or has any clear idea what it is or why anyone should care about it. Instead, we are in the throes of 1970s feminism. It's sobering to think that in about 2060 people here will be starting to say "chequea tu privilegio" while people in the rest of the world will be saying "can you zap me an orgum zynaster 172, my bontish quiggle" or some such newer-fangled gobbledegook.
I’m several months late to this, and I want so badly to believe that you are right. But- I’m an elementary school teacher in Canada and honestly, schools are totally insane right now. Which I suppose goes to what you wrote about the perception of the problem being related to a person’s milieu. I have definitely noticed a shift in the media (although not in Canada) but what’s happening in the schools is really worrisome. There are of course lots of teachers who don’t buy into all of it, but many do, especially the young ones. And more importantly, the school boards are totally captured. There are some really outrageous things happening in Canadian education right now and there is zero pushback, including from the media. In Canada we don’t really have have much of an alternative to the MSM. And politically, the Conservative party is terrified of addressing any so called culture war issues so there is no pushback from them either.
There is a nurse in British Columbia who is currently in the midst of a hearing that will decide if she loses her license. She was investigated for having been involved in putting up an “I love JK Rowling” billboard in Vancouver. I wish I was kidding. Her case has received no media attention and there are no politicians supporting her.
I’ve definitely noticed that the people I know seem to now be rolling their eyes at some of the excesses of “wokeness “ but I don’t have a lot hope that things will change at an institutional level..
I wish I could share your optimism, but given how institutionally embedded it all is, I think the dieback is temporary. People will forget how insufferable "wokism" is in a decade or two, while its true believers will remain comfortable ensconced in positions of educational power and influence, and we'll be doing this whole song and dance again with a new generation.
Fantastic read, Carl.
I just dearly hope that it fades from my progressive Gen X social network at some point, but they've all dug in their heels. (I see larger signs of it lessening, worry about the backlash that's already started, and keep my mental strength up by focusing on the little good faith corner of Twitter that I managed to find, obviously including you!)
Well put, the thing that distinguishes woke from liberal to me is that they want to blame and punish. They add the punitive part, so rather than say, end racism, it's punish white people for racism, that seems to be the operative part of wokism.
All these political terms are generalizations, left wing, right wing, alt right, nazi, authoritarian, etc etc what do any of them exactly mean? We speak in generalizations because we need to in order to have a conversation.
So when someone says what is woke?, it means "I am woke and don't like getting called on it".
I’m a little exhausted after reading, but more importantly, thankful for your voice and insight.
Great post, Carl. A friend shared it with me. I'm a fairly regular caller to Jesse Singal's Callin show, and I told him a while back that I believe in the vibe shift. I believe that the further we get from the madness of 2020 (truly Ground Zero for woke shit), the better we feel.
You mention Freddie DeBoer, and I'm a huge fan of him too. This is my favorite piece of his: https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/this-too-shall-pass
Written in 2021, he predicts that as unpleasant as Social Justice Politics (his term for wokeness) are, they will eventually fail. Just like the 60s and the early 70s gave way to Reagan's 80s, times change. There's an ebb and flow.
The history of the term "Woke" could arguably be taken back further to the "Wide Awakes" at the beginning of the Civil War:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wide_Awakes
Before I moved to Ecuador, I was told "Ecuador is about fifty years behind the rest of the world". So far this seems to be true in many respects. No one here talks about wokeness, or has any clear idea what it is or why anyone should care about it. Instead, we are in the throes of 1970s feminism. It's sobering to think that in about 2060 people here will be starting to say "chequea tu privilegio" while people in the rest of the world will be saying "can you zap me an orgum zynaster 172, my bontish quiggle" or some such newer-fangled gobbledegook.
I’m several months late to this, and I want so badly to believe that you are right. But- I’m an elementary school teacher in Canada and honestly, schools are totally insane right now. Which I suppose goes to what you wrote about the perception of the problem being related to a person’s milieu. I have definitely noticed a shift in the media (although not in Canada) but what’s happening in the schools is really worrisome. There are of course lots of teachers who don’t buy into all of it, but many do, especially the young ones. And more importantly, the school boards are totally captured. There are some really outrageous things happening in Canadian education right now and there is zero pushback, including from the media. In Canada we don’t really have have much of an alternative to the MSM. And politically, the Conservative party is terrified of addressing any so called culture war issues so there is no pushback from them either.
There is a nurse in British Columbia who is currently in the midst of a hearing that will decide if she loses her license. She was investigated for having been involved in putting up an “I love JK Rowling” billboard in Vancouver. I wish I was kidding. Her case has received no media attention and there are no politicians supporting her.
I’ve definitely noticed that the people I know seem to now be rolling their eyes at some of the excesses of “wokeness “ but I don’t have a lot hope that things will change at an institutional level..
I wish I could share your optimism, but given how institutionally embedded it all is, I think the dieback is temporary. People will forget how insufferable "wokism" is in a decade or two, while its true believers will remain comfortable ensconced in positions of educational power and influence, and we'll be doing this whole song and dance again with a new generation.