A cottage industry of “anti-Woke” content has arisen over the course of the past decade, becoming nearly as ubiquitous as Wokeness itself…
When we look closer at the motivations of certain “anti-Wokes,” it becomes clear that they’re not really against the left: they’re just ashamed of it…
“The left is no longer liberal- I am actually the tolerant and open-minded one.”
“I thought leftists cared about oppressed people, but now I think they’re the real racists.”
“The left is against the “Open Marketplace of Ideas”—if we just have a reasonable conversation, we can all get along.”
The problem with these points is that they don’t actually oppose the left’s moral frame, and instead come off more like attempts at tone-policing or one-upping: “I am more sensible about being left-wing than those other lefties over there. I’m uncomfortable with their ways of expressing these ideas.”
Why bring up Rubin’s video from 2017? Simple: with the power of hindsight, we can see the results of these ineffective talking points. Has “Wokeness” gotten more pervasive or less pervasive since then? Read more…
