Permalink: https://revcom.us/en/woke-destructive-force-political-intellectual-artistic-and-ethical-life-society
Bizarre and capricious rules enforced by cancel culture threats. Puffed-up unscientific claims to “represent the marginalized.” Insisting that people “stay in their lanes” in fighting oppression. “Woke” lunacy manifests much that is harmful with the capitalist-imperialist system and its dominant culture, furthering the nightmare of humanity!
“Woke” once meant righteous awareness of racial oppression but has long since morphed into fanatical lunacy and vicious mob mentality. A bloodlust to target and tear into individuals, while cowardly ducking, and often, actively obstructing the real and needed fight against the system, especially its overthrow through an actual revolution!
Woke Lunacy and the fascist steamroller moving through society are in a deadly dance, mutually opposing, while fueling and feeding off the other. Fascism is by far the greater danger, but in this dynamic, brazen white supremacy and misogyny feast on and defeat the brittle bravado of “woke.”
At a time of unprecedented change—as the “powers that be” clash and as cohering norms of the U.S. are ripping—there is a much greater chance to bring this whole oppressive edifice down. We have a chance to aim for something radically different; we have a responsibility to fight for something actually liberating. We must seize this chance and rise to this responsibility.
Out of love for humanity and the planet, out of a profound respect for truth and science, and out of a necessary revolutionary determination for the emancipation of all of humanity, we will defend and debate the following, in the public square and in public discourse:
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1 Woke Lunacy: Insisting there is no objective reality; each person “owns” their “truth”
Woke Lunacy denies an objective reality, while at the same time brutishly dictating which parts of reality people of different “identities” are allowed to discuss or act upon. If objective reality is just a “white European” or “masculinist” construct, try crossing the interstate at rush hour without getting hit by the reality of speeding cars.
Truth is not a composite of “narratives.” Truth is what corresponds to objective reality. This can be determined through scientific, evidence-based methods. Direct lived experiences can contribute to this process, but science, and the scientific method, is decisive for determining what is true—and acting on that basis to radically change the world.
2 Woke Lunacy: An obliterating obsession with changing words—and an ugly erasure of women
Woke Lunacy does not differentiate between malicious, neutral, or benign intent. The ritual humiliations of well-meaning people for using “wrong” words are the petty power plays of schoolyard bullies. Word changing is no substitute for WORLD changing.
Nowhere is this more destructive than the erasure of women. Increasingly relentless and vicious attacks on trans people must be vigorously fought! But the substitution of dehumanizing non-synonyms like “people with uteruses” and “chest-feeders” for the word “woman,” ostensibly for “trans-inclusivity,” does harm. In the face of the greatest assault on women’s lives in generations—the overturning of the right to abortion—the woke establishment’s refusal to even use the word “woman” muddied the heart of this attack, blunted its danger and demobilized resistance. This strengthens the Christian fascist crusade to cement forced motherhood and traditional gender roles.
3 Woke Lunacy: “Me, Me, Me”—cocooned in an American Empire that savages the world
The one privilege wokesters rarely call out is American privilege. Indeed, many want all they can get of that privilege.
The woke mob tweets their accusations of “privilege” and “colonization” from cell phones brought to them by the blood and tears of children in Congo, mining for the cobalt those phones require. To those whose horizons don’t extend beyond mere “inclusion” and “equality” within the most blood-soaked empire ever known, we dedicate these lyrics from Bob Dylan: “We looted and we plundered on distant shores. Why is my share not equal to yours?”
4 Woke Lunacy: Hiding from reality with “trigger warnings,” “safe spaces,” and “trauma culture”
Terrible things happen to people under this system. Exposing this is not “trauma porn.” Everyone needs to learn about and confront the barbaric history of slavery and white supremacy and the continuing reality of racial oppression.
Acting as if oppressed people are fragile beings who will fall apart at a “triggering” phenomenon is the hallmark of condescending saviors. Trauma from this system is real and harrowing, but needs to, and can, be directed towards fighting the source of oppression and injustice.
The best things to happen in college are intellectual challenges, debate and critical thinking, learning about the world… standing up for a great cause even at the risk of one’s safety, and radically changing the world with revolutionary joy.
5 Woke Lunacy: Firestorms of woke-mob “cancel culture” to tear down individuals
Instead of righteous struggle to expose and transform oppressive institutions, woke culture unleashes cruel witch hunts to destroy the reputations, careers, and lives of people. This is revenge, not justice. Woke Lunacy judges people by a single mistake, or even a mere accusation, rather than by the arc of their lives. Imagine if this criterion were applied to all of you!
The world of woke invokes the Red Queen of Alice in Wonderland, “Sentence first—verdict afterwards.” Rule of law, presumption of innocence, and evidence out the window. With regard to centuries of horrific sexual assault, what is sorely needed is an atmosphere where women can come forward, be taken seriously, and where there is due process, all as part of getting to a radically different world.
6 Woke Lunacy: Accusations of “appropriation” to censor artistic expression
Identity hustlers have turned censoring art into an art form of its own. Cancelling authors, blacklisting fiction, covering murals, censoring art because the creator is of the “wrong” identity—or because it’s not “their” story to tell. Woke Lunacy treats the diverse fluorescence of cultures and struggles of our planet as property to be owned and commodified, miserly guarded against “appropriation.” If art and fiction were restricted to direct experience alone, would there be any left?
7 Woke Lunacy: Insisting all follow “BIPOC leadership”—when there is no such thing!
Who is “BIPOC leadership,” pray tell? AOC? Kamala Harris? Candace Owens? Clarence Thomas? When children in Yemen, Pakistan and Afghanistan were afraid to look at a clear blue sky because of Obama’s drones raining down bombs and terror, do you think they gave a fuck that he was the first Black president?
Leaders should be evaluated not based on “identity,” but on whether they are correctly identifying the source of the problem, pointing the pathways to getting humanity free, and bringing forward others who can do the same.
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In the words of Bob Avakian, revolutionary leader and author of the new communism:
Instead of “staying in your lane,” and “going for self,” while this system is moving to even more decisively crush any hope for a world worth living in, people need to be looking at the bigger picture, focusing on the greater interests of humanity and the possibility for a far better world—and acting to make this a reality….
Instead of snarking and sniping at each other, and being divided by “identities,” people should be working to unite everyone, from every part of society, who can be united in the fight against oppression and injustice, with the goal of putting an end to this system that is the source of this oppression and injustice.