I’m interested in how you refer to “woke” as an ideology rather than as a new religion, as some others have—although maybe that’s a British thing, I think all the people who have deemed it a new religion are Americans. John McWhorter, linguistics professor and NY Times op-ed columnist, wrote a book-length rant (Woke Racism) declaring it …
I’m interested in how you refer to “woke” as an ideology rather than as a new religion, as some others have—although maybe that’s a British thing, I think all the people who have deemed it a new religion are Americans. John McWhorter, linguistics professor and NY Times op-ed columnist, wrote a book-length rant (Woke Racism) declaring it a religion (with extensive case examples of persons in academia castigated or even fired for offending woke sensibilities, even unintentionally). He named the religion “electism” (from the Puritan notion of “elect” being the people favored by God), though I think a better name would be the “New Puritans,” which was the title of an article in the Atlantic by Anne Applebaum in 2021, although from a glance at Amazon it looks like right wingers have glommed onto that name (maybe because, evil as they may be, they seem much better at judging words and phrases that resonate with the public). The identity-based communal aspects, along with the constant searching for and casting out of heretics, and of course the certainty that they morally superior to everyone else, all seem to point to something like a religion—which I’m sure will offend the heck out of the many social justice adherents who consider themselves humanist or atheist.
When I hear these people go on about how they’re just being kind, I hear in my mind Elvis Costello singing “You’ve got to be cruel to be kind…”
Finally, my big problem with the whole “woke” or “social justice” crowd is that they seem, as religious prophets sometimes do, intent on offending or upsetting as many people as possible. The notion of persuading anyone who does not already enthusiastically agree is anathema to them, it seems. Politically they seem so out of touch with the mainstream that they commit an endless stream of “own goals” and the only reason they haven’t enabled the Republicans here in the US to become more dominant is that the far right here is way crazier and more obviously dangerous.
I’m interested in how you refer to “woke” as an ideology rather than as a new religion, as some others have—although maybe that’s a British thing, I think all the people who have deemed it a new religion are Americans. John McWhorter, linguistics professor and NY Times op-ed columnist, wrote a book-length rant (Woke Racism) declaring it a religion (with extensive case examples of persons in academia castigated or even fired for offending woke sensibilities, even unintentionally). He named the religion “electism” (from the Puritan notion of “elect” being the people favored by God), though I think a better name would be the “New Puritans,” which was the title of an article in the Atlantic by Anne Applebaum in 2021, although from a glance at Amazon it looks like right wingers have glommed onto that name (maybe because, evil as they may be, they seem much better at judging words and phrases that resonate with the public). The identity-based communal aspects, along with the constant searching for and casting out of heretics, and of course the certainty that they morally superior to everyone else, all seem to point to something like a religion—which I’m sure will offend the heck out of the many social justice adherents who consider themselves humanist or atheist.
When I hear these people go on about how they’re just being kind, I hear in my mind Elvis Costello singing “You’ve got to be cruel to be kind…”
Finally, my big problem with the whole “woke” or “social justice” crowd is that they seem, as religious prophets sometimes do, intent on offending or upsetting as many people as possible. The notion of persuading anyone who does not already enthusiastically agree is anathema to them, it seems. Politically they seem so out of touch with the mainstream that they commit an endless stream of “own goals” and the only reason they haven’t enabled the Republicans here in the US to become more dominant is that the far right here is way crazier and more obviously dangerous.