Weaponizing Woke

Unsolicited advice from a left-of-center Gen Xer, to all noble-minded Progressives, as we approach the mid-terms.

woke
/wōk/
verb
past of wake
adjective INFORMAL•US
alert to injustice in society, especially racism.
"We need to stay angry, and stay woke"

I’m not posting the above trailer to show you, dear readers, how hot Will’s mom was before her shoplifting days. Reality Bites was, and is, the quintessential movie about my generation, the oft-overlooked Gen X.

As the New York Times opined in 2019,

Like many things considered “cool,” Gen X is pretty exclusive. You had to be born between 1965 and 1980 to get in to this gloomy, goofy club of forgotten middle children, and only about 65 million of us were. (Both boomers, at 75 million, and millennials, at 83 million, far outnumber us.)

The idea behind that “X” was about coming between. Gen X supposedly didn’t know what they were, or what they wanted. All they knew, they were told, was what they didn’t want — marriage, money, success — and then they shrugged and popped a Prozac.

I’m at the complete front end of my generation. Not a Boomer (by a year) and the furthest thing from a Millenial. If you really want to understand what makes my generation tick, this Twitter thread by Michael Girdley on “10 mind hacks to use with Gen X” is spot-on.

Since I’m on the older (oldest!) side of my great generation, I’m at an age (57) where I can appreciate the wisdom I’ve gained but still relate to the ideals of younger generations who are understandably concerned about the future of our planet.

Let me start by acknowledging the fact that the term “woke”, as defined above, has been appropriated by white America. It has entered the general lexicon, and I mean no disrespect by using it. As Michael Harriott points out:

In 1940, a West Virginia activist conceded that his fellow strikers in the Negro United Coal Miners had been lulled to sleep with discriminatory practices, but promised they would “stay woke longer.” Long before White America became authorities on what Martin Luther King Jr. would have wanted, Black people reminded each other to “Dream, but stay woke.” Childish Gambino and Erykah Badu sang about staying woke. One of my best friends hosted “The Stay Woke Show.” Staying woke had nothing to do with progressive ideas or politics; it was about white people.

Then, white people found out about it.

“Think of ‘woke’ as the inverse of ‘politically correct,’* wrote Times columnist Amanda Hess in 2016. “If ‘P.C’ is a taunt from the right, a way of calling out hypersensitivity in political discourse, then ‘woke’ is a back-pat from the left, a way of affirming the sensitive. It means wanting to be considered correct, and wanting everyone to know just how correct you are.”

I’m not here to argue the finer points of who should earn a woke badge. That has been debated ad-nauseam, and at this point, I don’t think it’s helping anyone’s cause. America isn’t the echo chamber of your Twitter feed. So, with a nod to history, let’s talk about the best way to win the next election and perhaps save Democracy in the process.

It’s no secret that attacking cancel culture and wokeness, is the GOP’s political strategy as we head into the next election. Drag Queen Story Hour and gender-neutral bathrooms are low-hanging fruit. To present a united front and hopefully win elections, liberals and progressives must agree on more than we agree on now.

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This is not just an American problem. Look at what happened in Italy this week. Scary stuff!

I encourage everyone to listen to the first 20 minutes of Rachel Maddow’s show Monday night. It’s terrifying and eye-opening, and we sometimes need to be reminded of the fact that history really can repeat itself. And sadly, Fascism is on the rise.

“If there is a party trying to cast doubt on elections as the way we choose who is in power, it means they want to stay in power regardless of elections. They want to stay in power without your consent and without your ability to remove them. Which means, they do not want to serve you. And that means if you want government to do anything at all to make your family's life materially better, more stable, more dignified; this is a flashing red siren about the abandonment of that task. And it is sometimes easier to see that in faraway countries than it is here and close-up. And it is sometimes easier to see it in history, so we can recognize how it both, leads to and rhymes with, what we are going through today."

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So, what don’t we agree on? Research done by noted developmental psychologist Dr. Travis Proulx suggests, quite a bit:

Proulx and his colleagues narrowed down the issues to four general tendencies that distinguished progressives and liberals. First, progressives supported imposing immediate changes to increase diversity, such as maintaining diversity quotas. Second, progressives were opposed to cultural appropriation. Liberals, in contrast, were more likely to agree with statements such as “People should be permitted to adopt whatever cultural characteristics that appeal to them [music, fashion], regardless of status inequalities.”

Thirdly, progressives supported publicly censuring those perceived to hold discriminatory views. In other words, progressives tended to agree with statements such as “Those who express bigoted views should be exposed and deserve the backlash that follows.” Finally, progressives were less likely than liberals to express a desire to incrementally promote equality for the long-term and tended to disagree with statements such as “Most progress has been made by ignoring social identity and appealing to our shared experiences.”

“Relative to traditional liberals within the U.S. left-wing, it appears that progressives are more likely to 1) advocate for ‘Mandated Diversity’ within institutional settings, 2) show ‘Cultural Appropriation Concerns’ regarding creative expression, 3) apply ‘Public Censure’ of divergent views, and 4) are less likely to pursue a ‘Recourse to Existing Institutions’ to bring about political change,” Proulx told PsyPost.

That’s an interesting list and it contains some ideas I can certainly get behind. What I find more interesting however, is what isn’t on the list. Specifically, the very items that the Right is weaponizing against the Left.

Liberals and Progressives support diversity, fairness, equality, and social justice. But we don’t always agree on how to get there. And it is this specific point, where my age and wisdom urge me to implore young people to be patient, and most of all, to vote! Don’t put the cart before the horse. America is at the end of a rapidly fraying rope. If we lose these mid-terms and Trump, or an even worse authoritarian comes to power in 2+ years, the American Experiment could essentially be over.

We need to win the elections in November. as a unified front. Despite your feelings on President “Dark Brandon” Biden, he has accomplished a great deal in his short time in office. It needs to continue. America is not quite ready for President AOC or some other Progressive wet dream; and the two-party system isn’t going away soon. We must toe the line and continue the present trajectory. There will be ample time for everything else later. Trust me, I’m from the greatest generation! ;-)

After all, we agree on more than we don’t. Stay woke my friends (but not too woke)!