Greta Thunberg is not a far-leftist by chance
All roads of woke lead to the undermining of our free, western liberal democracy
Leidmotif is decidedly anti-woke. That is why articles appear on a regular basis here that mercilessly analyze the creeping woke activism. The deeper reason is that the woke movement is culturally destructive and disruptive to our society. In doing so, woke is not afraid to aim its arrows at the canon of Western culture cobbled together by "white" geniuses, a domain we have decided to defend.
Author : Paul Boonefaes
If we are going to talk about woke, we must first define that concept properly. There are quite a few commentators who claim that woke does not exist. That it is a figment of the alt-right or the extreme right, that it is a catch-all term for all opinions that those stupid, narrow-minded, morally inferior Flemish or Dutch don't like. Some commentators like Bart Eeckhout go so far as to see in the rejection of political correctness a right-wing conspiracy theory.
The most concise and clear definition I know of comes from American writer Lionel Shriver. She defines woke as, "an obsession with seeing human life and history as a power struggle between oppressors and oppressed.
The glorification of victimhood is an essential feature of what we call 'woke'. Therefore, wokeness is not an emancipating ideology. On the contrary, this ideology pushes people even deeper into victimhood because it assigns extra status to it. The more a person acts like a victim, the higher his or her status.
So how does that work? There are four stages in the politically correct #WokeInsanity: Statement - Escalation - Demand - Discrimination (S.E.D.D).
The first stage involves posing a moral statement that no right-thinking individual can object to: 'Fat people deserve respect too!' Or: 'Black people deserve respect too!' Or: 'Queer/homosexual/trans/disabled (etc) people deserve respect too!' You can think of an infinite number of real or imagined minorities, and each time such statements are 'no-brainers': obvious statements. Anyone who would protest such statements violates a moral boundary. Why would you do so?
In a second stage, we see an escalation of discourse. This is where things start to derail demonstrably: namely, those minorities are portrayed as oppressed victim groups'. As separate identities. This is typically 'woke'. Since there was a clearly delineated moral position in the previous stage, it is now particularly difficult to counter that escalation. No one wants to be put away as 'morally reprehensible'. However, there is a very good reason to oppose such positions. After all, whoever says victims also says oppressors or perpetrators. Those 'oppressors', they are invariably white, Western, heterosexual, "normal" men. As for the woke, they are invariably the perpetrators.
This is an application of a Marxist dialectic. The application of that victim and perpetrator dialectic is an essential feature of woke ideology. This no longer has anything to do with "a little more empathy" or "a sensitivity to injustice". That is mere packaging. If it were about that, then I would be woke. Then we would all be woke. But that is emphatically not what it is about. Polarizing our society and magnifying problems where previously they were barely perceptible, if at all, to the normal mortal, is only the first step in the escalation of activism. It always creates a toxic atmosphere of hatred, division and polarization that did not exist before. The white, Western, capitalist, heterosexual perpetrators must pay.
In the third stage, this ideology completely derails, because those terrible perpetrators must also be dealt with. And those oppressed identities must be celebrated and promoted. Meanwhile, many more activists have joined, and protest is virtually impossible without heavy retaliation, online attacks on your reputation and attempts at cancellation. As more and more activists become active and occupy all our institutions, this ideology gains more power and a majority of people hardly dare to speak up. Thus, a crucial point is reached where the activists' demands are formulated and strengthened. Meanwhile, the phenomenon is bathed in a neo-fascist atmosphere. Contradiction is no longer an option. Shut up and do what you are told!
Equal outcomes
Under the guise of 'social justice' and 'equity', demands are made that all victim groups should receive preferential treatment. Not equal rights, but equal outcomes. In concrete terms, this translates into (racist) discrimination against that capitalist, white 'offender' target group, against all those who perform well, against all those who are 'normal' because 'normal' is now seen as privileged, white, capitalist and oppressive.
So discrimination must be organized. That is the fourth and final step. The demand for 'positive discrimination' always leads to 'negative discrimination' of always the same perpetrator group. For although there seems to be an infinite number of victim groups, for woke activists there is only one perpetrator group: white, Western, capitalist, heterosexual, "normal" men. A dangerous atmosphere of hatred is created that paves the way for all kinds of physical or psychological violence, discrimination, and finally: dispossession. For the woke activists, those white perpetrators are the bottom of society, the enjoyers of "white privilege". Thus we end up in a 1930s atmosphere of hatred of and rejection of all that is Western, white, capitalist, male, normal.
The end goal is always the same. The woke activists reject our Western, free, open, liberal democracy. Their manifestos literally say as much. As the ideology gains a foothold in all our institutions, media, culture and academia, we are sliding at an accelerated rate toward an oppressive, semi-Marxist, semi-Fascist, technocratic totalitarianism where borders, norms, values, family, nation and religion are rejected. The only communities these activists tolerate are victim communities. An unelected, technocratic elite thrives on them. That cynical caste increases its power at that increased polarization and division in our society. A wealthy global elite, meanwhile, has everything to gain from "open borders" for migration that put severe pressure on the working middle class. Without a middle class in the private sector, there can be no democracy. The transparency and balance of powers that exist in any healthy democracy are annoying obstacles to this increasingly powerful, completely disconnected left-liberal elite.
Free speech
Woke has deep roots in Marxism from which the Marxist model of conflict was imported. From fascism, woke derived ruthless totalitarian methods and the omnipotence of the state. One could argue that if Marxism and fascism made a baby together, it would resemble woke-ism.
Ultimately, all forms of woke-activism lead to the same goal. Whether it's LBGTQIA+ activism, or anti-racism, or fat pride, or environmental activism, or pro-migration activism: the stages cited above are always the same, the end goal is always the same, and the villain is always the same.
The villain, my dear reader, is you. The first victim is our free speech; the final goal is the dissolution of our open, free, liberal democracy. That is the logical endpoint of woke. You will own nothing and you will be happy. I don't think so.