I’ve been thinking a lot lately about people I know who’ve been woken up to the systemic issues affecting their lives, and how this epiphany, more often than not, doesn’t result in empowerment but in debilitation. /1

To certain people, especially those outside of academia, the knowledge of their powerlessness in the face of systemic forces outside their control can cause irrevocable harm. Some will radicalize and transform into balls of rage. Most will outright give up. /2

This isn’t an argument for keeping people in the dark, but when going woke is so damaging to people’s psyches, I think a few questions need to be asked. Is it worth it, for the average person, to know “the truth” if it so often results in misery? Is there another way? /3

I've seen happy people become miserable overnight on account of their new newfound wisdom. The problem, I think, is that this "knowledgeable misery" is the seeming endpoint of their wokeness, and the goal of wokeness as a whole. /4

This knowledgeable misery is fine if you're in academia or if you're on Twitter, as it carries social capital in those spheres, but it serves no purpose, and is a huge detriment, if you're a normal person out in the real world. /5

I don't know what the solution to this is, but as Internet ideas seep out into the culture, people who should've never gone woke, will go woke--they will know the score, but their newfound knowledge will leave them feeling like they've perpetually lost. Is it worth it? /6