Wokal Distance is, perhaps, one of the most important critics of wokeness and general commentators out there today.
Here he expertly defines what "woke" does and doesn't mean, as well as why the woke don't want you to be able to define it.
We are about to dive into the weeds here, put on your gear and hop in!
We are not allowed to call *it* anything. *It* of course, is wokeness. Now before @BenjaminSWatson (tagging for honesty) says I can't define it, let me go ahead and define it and then explain the game that is being played when we are told that we cannot define "woke."
Wokeness is the alloy of Critical Theory and Postmodernism as applied by the left to "Social Justice" broadly construed. You know when someone says something like "White priviledge is a product of systemically racist social structures which center whiteness and marginalize people of color while reproducing white supremacy. This reinforces dominant power structures and a cultural hegemony that benefits cisgendered heterosexual white males at the expense of BIPOC, Latinx, and LGBTQS2+ folx."
The ideology behind that is what we call "woke."
We've all seen that jargon coming from people with similar views, politics, and ideas, all demanding sweeping social change from the left There is clearly a coherent worldview at work, but every time we try give that worldview a name they say the name we pick is problematic.
This prevents people from being able to talk about the project of social, cultural, and political change coming from the left. They want to agitate, advocate, and demand social change without acknowledging, much less defending, the worldview at the center of their project.
They want to behave as if their worldview is so obvious that it should be taken for granted and accepted without debate. They will even tell you that they want to change society, change the world, and change the culture.
OK... So then why can't we give your movement a name?
I'm going to explain what's going on using Zebras as an analogy. Trust me, this will explain it perfectly. Many animals have fur, feathers, or skin that blends in to their environment. This acts like camouflage so they can blend in and hide. This owl is a fine example:
Zebras, however, are different. They're covered in black and white stripes even though the environment they live in is mostly brown and green. If you see a zebra by itself, it's very easy to see. It's like they have a neon sign over them saying "lions, please eat me."
But...
The zebras' stripes don't help zebras blend into the environment, they help them BLEND INTO THE HERD Zebra camoflouge works by making zebras blend with the herd so that lions can't focus on any one zebra and target it. If lions can't pick a target the Zebras are safe. See:
Scientists discovered this as they studied Zebras and got confused about which zebra was which because the zebras look alike and blend into the herd. They tried to fix this by tagging a zebra with red paint so they could recognize it from the others. Guess what happened? The Lions killed the tagged Zebra. A tagged zebra stands out from the herd so lions can tell it apart and focus the hunt on it. Lions don't catch weak zebras, they catch the *IDENTIFIABLE* Zebras they can focus on.
This is a great analogy for the game the woke are playing.
Once a worldview is named and defined, it can then be pointed out, highlighted, and subjected to criticism. Once you can *IDENTIFY* a worldview or set of ideas you can focus on it. Naming an idea lets us separate it from the herd of other ideas and examine it up close.
The woke don't want anyone to be able to give a name or label to their ideology because if that happens we can "tag" examples their ideology with a label when we see it. This allows us to highlight it, point it out, and examine it when we see it. They don't want that.
We label and name things to help us "tag" them, so we can point them out and focus on them, the woke are trying desperately to destroy all of our linguistic "tags." They do not want us to be able to single out their ideas and subject them to criticism. They want to embed their ideas into the culture in a way that makes those ideas a part of the social fabric. They want to bake those ideas into the culture and they do not want us criticizing and examining those ideas before those ideas become embedded into our social fabric.
Woke ideas really can't withstand proper rational and logical analysis. The lions of reason: evidence, logic, rationality, etc, will eat the Zebras of Wokeness, CRT, and Critical Social Justice for lunch if the lions of reason can focus on and identify the woke Zebras.
And this is what the woke want to avoid. The woke think our criticisms are not legitimate; just an attempt by us to attack them so we can hold on to "power and privilege." For that reason the woke seek to insulate themselves from our "illegitimate" criticism.
So, to avoid getting eaten by the lions of reason the woke want to mix their ideology into society and have it blend in so it becomes just another part of the social fabric. They don't want wokeness to be seen, pointed out, highlighted, or (in woke parlance) "made visible."
They want hide their worldview by making it impossible to focus on and impossible to tag, label, or name. so they can say they are "just doing history" or "just discussing gender," and "blend in" as though wokenss fits right alongside reason, evidence, logic, and rationality. Using labels like "woke," "CRT," AND "Critical Social Justice," lets us tag woke ideas so we can hold them up to the light and examine them...helping us point out wokeness to other people so they can see it too. This is what the woke want to avoid.
THIS IS IMPORTANT: They want to act like all the bits of woke activism we see are unconnected phenomena spontaneously springing forth in the name of justice in an undefinable way. When in fact woke activism is the fruit of a well thought out and clearly defined worldview.
This is why they are so desperate to discredit any word, term, or phrase we use to names, label, point out, or highlight the woke ideology.
Do not let them do this. Do not let them play games and use linguistic and rhetorical sleight of hand to hide their worldview.
These woke people who have labelled everyone they disagree with as:
-racist-bigot-sexist-white supremacist-nazi -fascist -transphobe-homophobe-christian nationalist-ableist-misogynist-anti-black
absolutely do not get to complain about being labelled as "woke."
Label, name, highlight, and point out their ideas. Label fairly. Use labels from their literature. But label those woke ideas and then subject those woke ideas to the bright light of rigorous criticism and analysis.
It's impossible to defeat a foe if you can't name them and identify them.
That's why they reject any labels they are given.
The woke are dangerous and must be stopped. Giving them an accurate label is the first step in the battle against cultural Marxism.
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