Thank you for this detailed and well thought-out essay !
I'm from France where woke theories coming from the anglo-saxon world have progressed but there remains a staunch resistance to the "woke ideology" in the media. I follow all of those debates from Europe. I find myself torn ; I've defined myself as a leftist and a feminist all my life and moved in higher-educated, progressive, multicultural circles for the best part of my adulthood. I never defined myself as a woke activist, but some of those world view definitely seeped into my understanding of the world, also because my sister is deeper in this bubble than I was, moving in parisian queer circles. We had mostly agreed on everything until now.
The difference is that I had extended contact with people outside of those bubbles, because I had the chance to live abroad in central africa or asia for years, where people challenged my woke preconceptions and the easy categorization of people into "priviledged / marginalized" categories. Spending time with African friends who did not have those frameworks was freeing, thought-provoking on a lot of subjects ; race, feminism, privilege etc
As the left moves further to the left in this woke style, I find myself politically homeless, a change that has been accelerated by the transgender orthodoxies seeping into the feminist debates you mention. Economically, I remain a leftist with a focus on class but socially I find myself way more conservative than I was used to. I find myself increasingly alienated by the woke view of the world and as a result I sense a wedge between my sister and I, where I cannot be truthful on a host of issues, especially my true feminist views. I agree with her still on a lot of things, but the framework of understanding is completely different...
the battle rages on in France and we'll see how it developps in the next few years meanwhile I'll remain a closeted "conservative leftist"
This was such a refreshing and thought-provoking read! I think you’re pointing to a lot of issues the left hasn’t addressed honestly enough- but we can and should. Whether readers agree or disagree with you (and you have a LOT of views so it would be unsurprising to disagree with some), this piece gives progressives the chance to think through why they hold the positions they do. We’ll never agree on everything (nor should we), but I wish we could move toward a norm where ingroup critics were understood as doing something courageous and essential to a group’s well-being rather than being dismissed as disloyal or harmful. Whether a dissenter is right or wrong, it’s an opportunity for the group to do some critical thinking about their values and strategies, which can’t be a bad thing! You make it clear your critiques are rooted in a real desire to see the left avoid counterproductive directions that diminish the chance for political solidarity. Thanks for writing this!
Thank you for writing this. It was like a novel I couldn't put down ... or maybe a car crash I couldn't look away from.
It is all so disheartening. When I think about the challenges we face: climate, breaking the tech robber barons, getting a fair shake for gig workers or creative workers, the answer that comes to me again and again is collective action. Historically it is the only way that change has ever come without violence or without preexisting wealth/power.
And yet it seems the well has already been poisoned. Progressive advocacy groups melting down. Academics self-censoring. Public policy obsessed with optics and never with substance. In the 2010s it looked like social media would reignite the 60s in the internet age, but instead it turned us all into narcissistic jerks who can't accept working with people that share ONLY 90% of our goals.
I am politically homeless. In 2016 some Republicans styled themselves "Never Trumpers". Perhaps we need a new term for liberals who want equality but are are committed first and foremost to clear thinking and freedom of expression.
well, it took me a good week to read all of this, but it was well worth reading slowly!! I actually think you could have stood to make this even longer because there is clearly so much thought you have put into this and you have a real talent for organizing your thoughts (though I guess that's what the substack is for..hopefully more to come?!). I am sure this was a BEAST to put together though, so THANK YOU for doing it. VERY well done.
Erica! Thank you so much for getting what's clearly years worth of deliberation and debate and observation out here for us to all read. I heartily agree! And thank you too for saying the "unspeakable" things out loud. The more people who point out that the emperor has no clothes, the more we can bring down the stigma and bring out the open-mindedness. And this line- "I gorged like someone who doesn’t know how hungry they are until they start eating." - Man, do I know what you mean. When I first broke away from wokeness, I realized I had been caging my intellectual curiosity in a very small box, with firm boundaries on what ideas I was even allowed to contemplate (if even to ultimately reject). So much of the woke craziness I think derives from very intelligent people whose intellect is "bouncing off the walls," inventing new vocabularies or systems of hegemony just to occupy their own minds as they've run out of space to even explore or people to interact with. I hope more people start to test the waters outside the box.
I liked this piece a lot. I didn't agree with parts of it.
-I'm not sure paying cashiers and doctors the same salary is desirable. One requires five hours of training, the other a decade of intense schooling.
-I perceived (incorrectly?) a rather negative take on Jordan Peterson but I think that if you examine him closely and what he says, you'll find that his message is excellent. For everyone. And 95% of his demonization is based on the woke left making mountains out of mole hills.
I think it's very important for left leaning persons for yourself to stand up and say, enough of this! I see that you drew distinctions between the far left and other progressives who don't necessarily agree with that direction. That's all fine and good, but the problem is that so often this dissent is silent.
Even if it's not true, it can often seem like the entire left is on the side of the woke because democrats so very rarely seem to stand up to their fringe elements. They appear to condone it all via silence which can make it seem as though everyone on the left is in agreement.
I hope that the left can find the courage to stand up to the woke crowd because the direction they're pushing society is towards a massive realignment to the right, possibly even the far right. For only so long will people tolerate being called a racist because they like bagels or show up on time, before they snap and say to hell with all of this.
Also, I think that the damage has been done with the word "racist." It's become everything, and so it's nothing. The woke left is doing active harm to the causes it purports to serve, but the wolks don't appear to care. To me they seem like religious zealots who are focused on their own goals rather than any perceived benefit to society. A coterie of narcissistic clowns who don't actually want to solve anything because if racism didn't exist they wouldn't exist.
Anyways, keep writing! Thank you for this great article!
Wow, what an incredibly thoughtful and well-written essay! I’m politically a bit to the right of you, especially on economic theory, but was always a bit more centrist on social issues and you’re spot-on about everything here.
I am trying to figure out how to un-indoctrinate my daughter, a sensitive soul who fell hook, line, and sinker for the most extremist version of leftist rhetoric and now will not take any actions in her own self-interests for fear of being “privileged”, and being bullied again as she was by the woke teenage mob. All of this isn’t just theory, there is terrible harm being done to vulnerable kids, lives with so much promise being destroyed by this ideology.
I will suggest that on economic theory I feel you are a bit attached to the zero-sum theory, which posits that there’s a fixed amount of wealth to go around and one person having something necessarily means that someone else doesn’t. While those on the right tend to focus on how to improve the overall economy and total wealth, but ignore how that total wealth is distributed. At one extreme you get the 80’s Soviet Union where people stood in line all day for a loaf of bread - everyone gets an equal share of nothing, because nothing is being produced and all the focus is on equality. At the other extreme you get oil-rich Middle Eastern countries that simultaneously have some of the highest per capita incomes in the world and some of the highest percentages of people living in poverty - lots of wealth to go around but it’s owned by a tiny percentage of the population while everyone else is dirt poor. IMO we have to focus on both things - improving the economy overall and producing things like homes and healthcare that people need, and also ensuring that wealth is not hoarded by an ever-decreasing percentage of the population. We can do this both through laws preventing the exploitation of workers (I personally don’t think minimum wage laws accomplish this, but understand many people think otherwise) and by educating people on how to make choices that are in their own economic best interests.
It took about four hours for me to get through this, but it was well worth reading. Your journey in many ways mirrors mine, though - and of course - I disagreed here or there. Overall you articulate well what I have been thinking, feeling and saying since 2020 when woke went totally off the rails. It has been on my mind far too much. I don’t know how it stops or changes course but articles like this and writers like you give me hope. You’ve got a new friend. Thank you for sharing.
This reads so true for me. Oct 7th and the appalling reaction from my “progressive” colleagues has upended my world view, though TBH it’s been a long process of honestly witnessing the very real harm wokeness does, for all the reasons you articulate so well. Thank you
Thanks for a great article. As a long-time progressive, now 75 years old, I am also done with wokeism and now feel politically homeless. I popped out of the left bubble and began listening to voices on all sides, including people I'd long believed were Totally Terrible People (without ever having listened to them myself). I do see growing numbers of leftists waking up from wokeism, and so I'm hopeful that things are changing. Again, great work! 🙏
Thank you for putting all of this into words. I’ve been trying to do the same for years now, but everything is so nuanced the task seemed impossibly daunting.
YES!!!!!! Thank you for your honesty, vulnerability and courage!! Not an easy thing to go against your "tribe," especially right now. I have always traditionally been on the Left. I've only ever voted Left, including for Bernie in 16. But, following Trump's extremism which pushed the fringe left extremism, I began to think more critically and independently, and I started listening to thinkers like Sam Harris, Coleman Hughes, and the 5th Column podcast. My perspective really began to change. At this point I feel the fringe left has come full circle to embrace (symbolically) the fringe right. We're seeing that with the Israel/Palestine protesting and fringe left support of Hamas, etc. I've realized for a while now that Wokeism is well-intended but ultimately steeped in group-think, ignorance, racial stereotyping, and gross generalizations. All it does is create tribal war and infighting. It gets us nowhere. Pew tells us Black, Hispanic and Asian voters are way, WAY to the right (in the Dem center) of the fringe left.
The left does NOT represent minorities; more and more they represent the 8% of rich young white elites in journalism.
Erica: You and I should do a cross-post or mutual guest-posts or interviews, etc etc. We're very much on the same page. I also reject the Right and Republicans as the answer. Both extremes are unhelpful. I still think the Dem party is the way forward....but from the rational centrist perspective where the vast majority of Americans sit. I also think we need younger, more diverse and more energetic leadership in the Dem party.
Another person in recovery. More evidence we are on the downslope of our Creedal Passion period. It would be nice to see some recovery stories like this from conservatives similarly infected with radical memes.
Thank you for this thoughtful and brave #longread. It’s a LOT to digest. Much of it resonated and made me look at myself (very much falling into reasons 1. and 2. of “wolk” you describe), and some of it (obviously, due to its length and your unique personal experience) didn’t.
But it is well worth spending some time considering and discussing the many points you and other thinkers have obviously spent a lot of deep thought and rumination on developing. I really appreciate having such a meaty essay to chew on! (Sorry for the food analogies, I haven’t had breakfast!)
Nice work - keep it up. You covered a lot of ground and for the growing numbers of us whose exasperation with half-baked, ill-considered rhetoric has reached unsustainable levels this piece could serve as a touchstone. So thanks! It does seem like twitter is near the root of the problem. At a time when clarity and charity are in short supply a platform that’s perfect for scaling-up schoolyard insults is worse than worthless. Here’s a novel suggestion for lefties: get back behind free speech and democracy. Doubling down on them will work wonders for your political prospects. The food, music, perspective and humor awaiting you will help clear up a lot of those mental health issues. Oddly enough, you’ll discover that there’s plenty of good company and all those poor schleps who inhabit the flyover country of the mind aren’t so bad. Some of them may actually be glad you showed up.
Thank you for this detailed and well thought-out essay !
I'm from France where woke theories coming from the anglo-saxon world have progressed but there remains a staunch resistance to the "woke ideology" in the media. I follow all of those debates from Europe. I find myself torn ; I've defined myself as a leftist and a feminist all my life and moved in higher-educated, progressive, multicultural circles for the best part of my adulthood. I never defined myself as a woke activist, but some of those world view definitely seeped into my understanding of the world, also because my sister is deeper in this bubble than I was, moving in parisian queer circles. We had mostly agreed on everything until now.
The difference is that I had extended contact with people outside of those bubbles, because I had the chance to live abroad in central africa or asia for years, where people challenged my woke preconceptions and the easy categorization of people into "priviledged / marginalized" categories. Spending time with African friends who did not have those frameworks was freeing, thought-provoking on a lot of subjects ; race, feminism, privilege etc
As the left moves further to the left in this woke style, I find myself politically homeless, a change that has been accelerated by the transgender orthodoxies seeping into the feminist debates you mention. Economically, I remain a leftist with a focus on class but socially I find myself way more conservative than I was used to. I find myself increasingly alienated by the woke view of the world and as a result I sense a wedge between my sister and I, where I cannot be truthful on a host of issues, especially my true feminist views. I agree with her still on a lot of things, but the framework of understanding is completely different...
the battle rages on in France and we'll see how it developps in the next few years meanwhile I'll remain a closeted "conservative leftist"
This was such a refreshing and thought-provoking read! I think you’re pointing to a lot of issues the left hasn’t addressed honestly enough- but we can and should. Whether readers agree or disagree with you (and you have a LOT of views so it would be unsurprising to disagree with some), this piece gives progressives the chance to think through why they hold the positions they do. We’ll never agree on everything (nor should we), but I wish we could move toward a norm where ingroup critics were understood as doing something courageous and essential to a group’s well-being rather than being dismissed as disloyal or harmful. Whether a dissenter is right or wrong, it’s an opportunity for the group to do some critical thinking about their values and strategies, which can’t be a bad thing! You make it clear your critiques are rooted in a real desire to see the left avoid counterproductive directions that diminish the chance for political solidarity. Thanks for writing this!
Thank you for writing this. It was like a novel I couldn't put down ... or maybe a car crash I couldn't look away from.
It is all so disheartening. When I think about the challenges we face: climate, breaking the tech robber barons, getting a fair shake for gig workers or creative workers, the answer that comes to me again and again is collective action. Historically it is the only way that change has ever come without violence or without preexisting wealth/power.
And yet it seems the well has already been poisoned. Progressive advocacy groups melting down. Academics self-censoring. Public policy obsessed with optics and never with substance. In the 2010s it looked like social media would reignite the 60s in the internet age, but instead it turned us all into narcissistic jerks who can't accept working with people that share ONLY 90% of our goals.
I am politically homeless. In 2016 some Republicans styled themselves "Never Trumpers". Perhaps we need a new term for liberals who want equality but are are committed first and foremost to clear thinking and freedom of expression.
well, it took me a good week to read all of this, but it was well worth reading slowly!! I actually think you could have stood to make this even longer because there is clearly so much thought you have put into this and you have a real talent for organizing your thoughts (though I guess that's what the substack is for..hopefully more to come?!). I am sure this was a BEAST to put together though, so THANK YOU for doing it. VERY well done.
Erica! Thank you so much for getting what's clearly years worth of deliberation and debate and observation out here for us to all read. I heartily agree! And thank you too for saying the "unspeakable" things out loud. The more people who point out that the emperor has no clothes, the more we can bring down the stigma and bring out the open-mindedness. And this line- "I gorged like someone who doesn’t know how hungry they are until they start eating." - Man, do I know what you mean. When I first broke away from wokeness, I realized I had been caging my intellectual curiosity in a very small box, with firm boundaries on what ideas I was even allowed to contemplate (if even to ultimately reject). So much of the woke craziness I think derives from very intelligent people whose intellect is "bouncing off the walls," inventing new vocabularies or systems of hegemony just to occupy their own minds as they've run out of space to even explore or people to interact with. I hope more people start to test the waters outside the box.
I liked this piece a lot. I didn't agree with parts of it.
-I'm not sure paying cashiers and doctors the same salary is desirable. One requires five hours of training, the other a decade of intense schooling.
-I perceived (incorrectly?) a rather negative take on Jordan Peterson but I think that if you examine him closely and what he says, you'll find that his message is excellent. For everyone. And 95% of his demonization is based on the woke left making mountains out of mole hills.
I think it's very important for left leaning persons for yourself to stand up and say, enough of this! I see that you drew distinctions between the far left and other progressives who don't necessarily agree with that direction. That's all fine and good, but the problem is that so often this dissent is silent.
Even if it's not true, it can often seem like the entire left is on the side of the woke because democrats so very rarely seem to stand up to their fringe elements. They appear to condone it all via silence which can make it seem as though everyone on the left is in agreement.
I hope that the left can find the courage to stand up to the woke crowd because the direction they're pushing society is towards a massive realignment to the right, possibly even the far right. For only so long will people tolerate being called a racist because they like bagels or show up on time, before they snap and say to hell with all of this.
Also, I think that the damage has been done with the word "racist." It's become everything, and so it's nothing. The woke left is doing active harm to the causes it purports to serve, but the wolks don't appear to care. To me they seem like religious zealots who are focused on their own goals rather than any perceived benefit to society. A coterie of narcissistic clowns who don't actually want to solve anything because if racism didn't exist they wouldn't exist.
Anyways, keep writing! Thank you for this great article!
Wow, what an incredibly thoughtful and well-written essay! I’m politically a bit to the right of you, especially on economic theory, but was always a bit more centrist on social issues and you’re spot-on about everything here.
I am trying to figure out how to un-indoctrinate my daughter, a sensitive soul who fell hook, line, and sinker for the most extremist version of leftist rhetoric and now will not take any actions in her own self-interests for fear of being “privileged”, and being bullied again as she was by the woke teenage mob. All of this isn’t just theory, there is terrible harm being done to vulnerable kids, lives with so much promise being destroyed by this ideology.
I will suggest that on economic theory I feel you are a bit attached to the zero-sum theory, which posits that there’s a fixed amount of wealth to go around and one person having something necessarily means that someone else doesn’t. While those on the right tend to focus on how to improve the overall economy and total wealth, but ignore how that total wealth is distributed. At one extreme you get the 80’s Soviet Union where people stood in line all day for a loaf of bread - everyone gets an equal share of nothing, because nothing is being produced and all the focus is on equality. At the other extreme you get oil-rich Middle Eastern countries that simultaneously have some of the highest per capita incomes in the world and some of the highest percentages of people living in poverty - lots of wealth to go around but it’s owned by a tiny percentage of the population while everyone else is dirt poor. IMO we have to focus on both things - improving the economy overall and producing things like homes and healthcare that people need, and also ensuring that wealth is not hoarded by an ever-decreasing percentage of the population. We can do this both through laws preventing the exploitation of workers (I personally don’t think minimum wage laws accomplish this, but understand many people think otherwise) and by educating people on how to make choices that are in their own economic best interests.
It took about four hours for me to get through this, but it was well worth reading. Your journey in many ways mirrors mine, though - and of course - I disagreed here or there. Overall you articulate well what I have been thinking, feeling and saying since 2020 when woke went totally off the rails. It has been on my mind far too much. I don’t know how it stops or changes course but articles like this and writers like you give me hope. You’ve got a new friend. Thank you for sharing.
This reads so true for me. Oct 7th and the appalling reaction from my “progressive” colleagues has upended my world view, though TBH it’s been a long process of honestly witnessing the very real harm wokeness does, for all the reasons you articulate so well. Thank you
It's great to hear about your journey, Erica. I love your communication style, I had no idea what all went into it. Cheers!
Thanks for a great article. As a long-time progressive, now 75 years old, I am also done with wokeism and now feel politically homeless. I popped out of the left bubble and began listening to voices on all sides, including people I'd long believed were Totally Terrible People (without ever having listened to them myself). I do see growing numbers of leftists waking up from wokeism, and so I'm hopeful that things are changing. Again, great work! 🙏
Thank you for putting all of this into words. I’ve been trying to do the same for years now, but everything is so nuanced the task seemed impossibly daunting.
YES!!!!!! Thank you for your honesty, vulnerability and courage!! Not an easy thing to go against your "tribe," especially right now. I have always traditionally been on the Left. I've only ever voted Left, including for Bernie in 16. But, following Trump's extremism which pushed the fringe left extremism, I began to think more critically and independently, and I started listening to thinkers like Sam Harris, Coleman Hughes, and the 5th Column podcast. My perspective really began to change. At this point I feel the fringe left has come full circle to embrace (symbolically) the fringe right. We're seeing that with the Israel/Palestine protesting and fringe left support of Hamas, etc. I've realized for a while now that Wokeism is well-intended but ultimately steeped in group-think, ignorance, racial stereotyping, and gross generalizations. All it does is create tribal war and infighting. It gets us nowhere. Pew tells us Black, Hispanic and Asian voters are way, WAY to the right (in the Dem center) of the fringe left.
The left does NOT represent minorities; more and more they represent the 8% of rich young white elites in journalism.
Erica: You and I should do a cross-post or mutual guest-posts or interviews, etc etc. We're very much on the same page. I also reject the Right and Republicans as the answer. Both extremes are unhelpful. I still think the Dem party is the way forward....but from the rational centrist perspective where the vast majority of Americans sit. I also think we need younger, more diverse and more energetic leadership in the Dem party.
Michael Mohr
"Sincere American Writing"
https://michaelmohr.substack.com/
Another person in recovery. More evidence we are on the downslope of our Creedal Passion period. It would be nice to see some recovery stories like this from conservatives similarly infected with radical memes.
https://mikealexander.substack.com/p/cycles-of-radicalization
Thank you for this thoughtful and brave #longread. It’s a LOT to digest. Much of it resonated and made me look at myself (very much falling into reasons 1. and 2. of “wolk” you describe), and some of it (obviously, due to its length and your unique personal experience) didn’t.
But it is well worth spending some time considering and discussing the many points you and other thinkers have obviously spent a lot of deep thought and rumination on developing. I really appreciate having such a meaty essay to chew on! (Sorry for the food analogies, I haven’t had breakfast!)
Nice work - keep it up. You covered a lot of ground and for the growing numbers of us whose exasperation with half-baked, ill-considered rhetoric has reached unsustainable levels this piece could serve as a touchstone. So thanks! It does seem like twitter is near the root of the problem. At a time when clarity and charity are in short supply a platform that’s perfect for scaling-up schoolyard insults is worse than worthless. Here’s a novel suggestion for lefties: get back behind free speech and democracy. Doubling down on them will work wonders for your political prospects. The food, music, perspective and humor awaiting you will help clear up a lot of those mental health issues. Oddly enough, you’ll discover that there’s plenty of good company and all those poor schleps who inhabit the flyover country of the mind aren’t so bad. Some of them may actually be glad you showed up.