Consider that, whenever a critic of some woke supposition lays out the case for, say, why defunding or even abolishing the police is a terrible idea (as Neiman ably does)
In that regard, wokeness must serve a very useful function in contemporary capitalist society, which means it will be much harder to leave behind than it may seem.
The story of how exactly it serves that function has yet to be adequately written. It probably has something to do with the immense (and immensely wealthy) “nonprofit” sector and the revolving door between large influential corporate foundations, the Democratic Party, the media, and the government. A self-reenforcing circuit that surely operates in ways similar to the military-industrial complex.
fedcobin, here is incredibly easy logic why it works the way it does in the real (capitalist) world: some out-groups are not allowed into the capitalist class. When they are allowed in - it leads to dramatic deradicalization (see civil rights movement or more recently gay rights) of demands and marginalization of radicals. It doesn’t mean being normal empathetic human being to other people suffering is not leftist, christ sake.
As bad as wokeness is, what’s next could always be worse. If Foucauldian-Schmittianism wrought havoc on the Left, this “mind virus” is likely to cause even more trouble if its tenets become widely adopted on the Right. Consider that the major impulse of wokeness was a kind of reflexive pity for victims.
Yet the “victimology” mindset can go both ways. If the woke have insisted that characteristics like a person’s skin color, or their gender, or whatever else, marks them as fundamentally different in a grand metaphysical way and have made that point central to political appeals, then what happens if the Right takes up the charge by simply reversing the friend-enemy polarity? They will say to young men that their loneliness is not a function of “toxic masculinity” but instead the result of women’s claims to equality. And they will say to poor whites, who are adrift and frustrated, that they don’t need to “abolish ‘whiteness’” — instead, they should embrace it. We already see this beginning to happen — a reversal of the Left’s hard-fought victory in the civil rights era.
We should be worried about the fact that the woke paved the way for a hard right in more ways than one. Not only has particularly outlandish woke rhetoric offered right-wingers a set of increasingly easier political layups, their mocking rejection of patient democratic persuasion offers them a playbook for how to do political combat in an age of ideological nihilism.
recent compactmag implosion is the reason
“wokeness” is a buzzword used by the right, if you take the concept seriously, you’re a either a fool or a tool
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It did, however fascists have taken hold of it and it is used much like “SJW” was used a few years ago.
Yeah it was originally an aave term, white libs stole it like they do everything else and now it means anything chuds don’t like
Let me write a long boring screed where I randomly reference 18th and 19th century philosophers to make my writing “flow”, all so I can justify ignoring black and queer people. I am very far left.
Why does this shit get published?
- recent compactmag implosion is the reason fedcobin accepting redbrown refugees
idfk
Yet the “victimology” mindset can go both ways. If the woke have insisted that characteristics like a person’s skin color, or their gender, or whatever else, marks them as fundamentally different in a grand metaphysical way and have made that point central to political appeals, then what happens if the Right takes up the charge by simply reversing the friend-enemy polarity? They will say to young men that their loneliness is not a function of “toxic masculinity” but instead the result of women’s claims to equality. And they will say to poor whites, who are adrift and frustrated, that they don’t need to “abolish ‘whiteness’” — instead, they should embrace it. We already see this beginning to happen — a reversal of the Left’s hard-fought victory in the civil rights era.
How can someone be this stupid? THEY WERE ALREADY FUCKING DOING THIS DECADES AGO. Does this dumbfuck actually think that racism or sexism were solved problems?
Jesus fucking christ who would give the okay to publish this trash instead of just adding the author to a blacklist?
If this can get published in jacobin, so can bmf
Unlikely; bmf usually had good points and just presented them in a bizarre and disjointed way.
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Anyone who says “woke” unironically during political discourse are to be treated as children who yap at the adult table
Contributors
Dustin Guastella is director of operations for Teamsters Local 623 in Philadelphia.
So first the leader dickhead goes to the RNC then this shit? I’m getting real fucking sick of Teamsters really fucking fast.
They’re a blue collar union in amerikkka, probably a majority of their members are Republicans, there’s nothing to be be surprised about here
Are they seriously comparing the nonprofit industrial complex to MIC? It’s like 3 orders of magnitude smaller, while doing more good for the population and acting as a (miniscule) jobs program.
more real question though, would foucault be a gooner?
He would identify the discourse that produced the identity of gooner and the way that category was embedded in existing power relations
Gooning is an inverse panopticon
In the middle ages gooners were considered one of the natural states of man and occupied a specialized place at the margins of society, but were not excluded from it
That’s all I got
“woke” is being used the same way “DEI” is being used. It just means “thing I don’t like/perceive as being leftist”.
Amazing. Every paragraph more puzzling than the last. So many head scratchers. So much ink spilled giving form and detail to a deliberately amorphous right wing concept, inventing the most tortured and deranged particulars for it, and then attributing that abomination to the left. Or liberals? Or the ruling class? All of the above I guess? Rocks in this person’s head.
Elite capture is a thing but holy
Social democracy is objectively the moderate wing of fascism. Fedcobin is a perfect example of that.
Legend of Zelda: Twilight Wokecess
Yet another think piece about woke that never defines woke
Only part I somewhat agree with is
One reason it’s so hard to make sense of the thing is that defenders of wokeness almost never substantially engage with critics like Neiman. Indeed, many of today’s woke sympathizers deny that wokeness is, or ever was, an identifiable set of influential ideas. Wokeness takes its self-conception as natural. Its advocates do not argue for their position, they merely mock.
I’ve run across enough Epic Western Anarchists online to know that a lot of people do use mockery to cover for a hollow understanding. Not to be a “debate me” person but if your sarcastic mockery is hard-countered with facts you don’t get to just double down on mockery.
Mockery has its uses, but it’s not the end-all-be-all communication method a lot of people seem to think it is. It’s fun and entertaining, though, so it gets defended more than it should.
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Fisher published Vampire’s Castle ten years ago, the normal whites thesis saw the best midterm results in modern history, Kanye debuted at number one. Jacobin is a lagging indicator-- the scolds are through 😤
