lol

my personal definition of “wokeness,” as a pejorative, might be the adoption & enforcement of this sort of doctrinaire identity-flowchart-morality that ultimately goes nowhere but to serve as a propagandistic tool for power to legitimize itself, as religion once predominantly did

It’s the current iteration of a story as old as class divisions... Power absorbs the spirit of any given prevailing moral doctrine, legitimizes itself as the proper arbiter of it, enforces it punitively to protect its material interests, and makes criticism morally indefensible

I see a lot of scoffing at “antiwokeness” as a vague, illiberal reactionary impulse. If the ideology of wokeness is taken for granted—which is the thing about ideology—of course this would seem to be the case. I view “antiwokeness” as just run-of-the-mill skepticism.

Just to be clear: “antiwokeness” is not necessarily a reaction to what “wokeness” is in theory, but of how it is used in practice as a tool for power to legitimize itself. (“Diverse” CEOs, a green military, etc). Meanwhile, to be racist is still to be racist. It’s not “antiwoke.”