1/ You will never defeat the left if you do not understand that postmodernism and critical theory (which the woke left use to create their arguments, ideas,and concepts) were created entirely to attack, subvert, and undermine enlightenment liberalism.
Once you underatand that...
2/ You can begin to understand that "liberalism" is not what creates wokeness...nor is wokeness an extension of liberalism.
Wokeness as created by critical theory and postmodernism (both of which are a reaction to and against enlightenment liberalism) takes advantage of...
3/ Gaps in the armour of the theories that support enlightenment.
As such, wokeness (the alloy of critical theory and postmodernism) is not an extension of liberalism, it is an ideological framework (or worldview) that exploits weaknesses in the armour of liberalism.
4/ So what is the answer?
We need something that is capable of withstanding the woke onslaught. Something thaat is not vulnerable to woke attacks.
I have seen a number of people attempt to try to take elements of wokeness and try to use woke theories against wokeness....
5/ This is a mistake.
If you adopt woke theories you will always end up with relativism, because if you follow Critical Theory and Postmodernism to their logical conclusion you will always get nihilism, cynacism, and relativism; even if your starting point is on the right.
6/ Wokeness is dialectical. That is, it proceeds by endlessly processing, changing, theorizing, and using writing, cinversation, arguments and (this is a key term) *DISCOURSE* to endlessly ratchet toward woke goals, ideas, aspirations, and ends.
The *ONLY* way to defeat this...
7/ Is to intellectually engage in a way that does not get sucked into the dialectical process.
Once you form an opposition to wokeness, if you do it wrong, the woke will pull you into their dialectic and try to mix your opposition to wokeness into the dialectical stew.
AKA...
8/ They will simply try to nuance, refine, process, and otherwise try to synthesize your woke opposition into the larger dialectical framework.
Thats complicated, so let's break it down.
Here is what that will try to do:
9/ They have wokeness, you oppose wokeness.
So they set up a dialectic. It will be a discourse, exchange, debate, or conversation where they set wokeness up on one side, and anti-wokeness up on the other.
So what's next?
The next thing is the key piece of the whole thing....
10/ The dialectical woke left does not try to use dialogue to discover truth.
What they do is *MAKE THE CONVERSATION PROCEED ACCORDING TO TERMS OF DEBATE AND THE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT THAT ACCEPT THE FUNDAMENTAL ASSUMPTIONS, AND PRIORS OF WOKE DIALECTICAL LEFTISM*
11/ They want to "synthesize" both sides of the debate. And how they will do that is by taking ideas and insights from anti-wokeness which they can repurpose to advance woke leftism, and then mix those ideas and concepts with the most potent woke ideas from the left.
Then...
12/ They will hold up this concoction of formerly anti-woke ideas (that they can repurpose to usein the cause of wokeness) mixed with very potent woke ideas, and say "we have solved the dispute by mixing the best ideas from both sides," all the while the entire process...
13/ Of setting up the conversation, picking ideas from both sides, mixing those ideas, and presenting the "new" solution (or third way) has been proceeding according to the values, goals, ends, ideas, and standards of woke dialectical leftism.
See how this works???
14/ People get duped into adopting woke terms of engagement and adopting woke concepts (thinking they can use woke ideas against wokeness) and end up in a dialectical process which has as it's first principle and main goal the achievment the ideological vision of the woke left...
15/ The entire dialectical process has as its main end the achievement of a leftist utopia (exactly the kind of utopian society described by Marcuse and Marx) and as such movement toward that goal is baked right into the process from the start.
Once you accept a role in that...
16/ Process you have already lost.
The process is always: 1. thesis>>> 2. antithesis >>>3. Synthesis.
In this case it goes 1. Thesis (wokeness)>>> 2. Antithesis (anti-wokeness) >>>3. Synthesis (third-way wokeness or neo wokeness)
Now here is the point, listen carefully....
17/ If you accept your role as "the opposition to wokeness" you have already accepted your role and place in the woke leftist dialectical process
Why? Because you've defined yourself in terms of opposition to wokeness, and that makes you the "antithesis" to the woke "thesis"...
18/ Once you do that *IT DOES NOT MATTER WHAT YOU DO* because the whole process is occuring according the the terms of debate, rules of engagent, and conceptual framework of the "woke" (dialectical) left.
This means you *CAN'T* win from a position where you set yourself up as...
19/ "The real opposition to wokeness" or as "the main opposition to wokeness."
Once you accept that framing you have already lost because that framing makes you merely the opposition to wokeness, and that just maked you part of a conversation and discourse the woke control...
20/ You must frame yourself as a worldview or framework that is comoeting with wokeness...but *NOT* merely by opposing it.
You not define, identify, or frame your self in terms of wokeness...nor can you be the "solution" to wokeness. The moment you do that the woke will say...
21/
"Let's say 'Wokeness' is the thesis, 'the solution to wokeness' is the antithesis....let's try to take the best of both worlds."
At which point they'll repurpose your "solution" and mix it with potent woke ideas and just take a few more steps toward their woke goals...
22/ See how that works???
The only way out is to assert that your view is *true* and then refuse to accept the legitimacy of their dialectical process....and that includes refusing to frame yourself interms of your opposition to wokeness.
Accepting any role in their process...
23/ Including saying "we are the main opposition to wokeness" is a losing battle.
/fin
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Left leaning institutions (universities, think tanks, NGO's, non-profits, consulting firms, and the democratic party) are staffed by woke activists who see woke political goals as moral imperatives, not mere political preferences
2/ According to woke ideology, anyone who in not actively advocating for woke social and political objectives is "complicit" in the systemic oppression of marginalized groups. On this view, a political compromise with people who oppose wokeness is like cutting a deal with Hitler.
3/ The woke have a concept called the "unbearable searchlight of complicity." It's their term for constant, unending, hypervigilant searching for anything complicit with "systems of oppression" (racism, sexism, etc)
It's the conceptual equivalent of an all seeing eye of wokeness
1/ Congress gave The National Endowment for the Arts *207,000,000*, and then told the NEA to fund projects focused on "the history of Systemic Racism"
Let's look at what the NEA did with your money.
A thread🧵
2/ Congress has the power to fund agencies and tell them how to spend their funding, and Congress told the NEA to "Continue prioritizing diversity" and to prioritize increasing diversity among "NEA staff, the National Council of the Arts, Discipline Directors, and Peer Panelists"
3/ In 2021 the NEA said they were "centering equity and justice along the lines of race, ethnicity, gender, disability, religion, gender identity and sexual orientation, geography, poverty, and the infinite ways these intersect in everything we do"
1/ Much of what @GreeneMan6 said in our debate caught me off guard. If I looked unprepared it's cause I was.
For Example, I wasn't ready for claims like:
"The people will have the opinion that the state teaches them, we are talking about how the State will create public opinion"
2/ In the moment, I wasn't prepared for that, but I think I have an answer to that now.
I do no think that State has the ability to reach into the heads of people and re-arrange their thinking. The sort of brainwashing that is implied by his claim simply won't work at scale.
3/ The claim that he has is that the widespread practice of transing kids is due to everyone believing in trans cause of schools is deeply flawed. It was not that most people agree with trans ideology and in fact, trans ideology and queer theory are intensely unpopular...
1/ DEI has taken over The Department of Veteran Affairs.
The VA is using Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for "hiring and position and talent management," and also created a "Gender-affirming Program with Speech" to help people change sex.
How DEI captured the VA,
A thread🧵
2/ In September 2021 the Department of Veterans Affairs created an Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Action plan Pursuant to E.O. 13985 on racial equity.
This action plan is the Genesis for the adoption of DEI across the entirety of the VA.
3/ According to the Action Plan, the VA created "an 18-member Task Force to elevate and identify strategic opportunities across VA’s vast ecosystem of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access (I-DEA)."
The VA had *18 people* dedicated to creating a plan to DEI implementation.
2/ As "woke" dies, Leftists will abandon the woke "oppressor/oppressed" categories (white vs black, straight vs gay, queer vs normal) and will move back to the old materialist oppressor/oppressed categories (rich vs poor, capitalist vs worker, proletariat vs bourgeois, etc).
3/ This materialist focus will be paired with "sustainability politics" revolving around environmental issues (pollution, climate change, global warming, etc).
So, we will see two "mass line" formations emerging: one focused on class warfare, and one focused on "sustainability.
From 1940-1960 the British tried to teach peasants in Malawi's Shire Valley to farm. When the British taught peasants to use "ridging" to combat soil erosion, they were surprised to find Malawian Farmers saying ridging doesn't work.
2/ But there is a twist...
Because the soil in Malawi's Shire Valley is sandy, the use of Ridging leads to increased soil erosion during the rainy season, while exposing the roots of plants to white ant attacks during the dry season.
In Malawi - ridging doesn't work...
3/ The Malawian Farmers were not able to provide an articulate, clear, rational explanation for they avoided using "ridging"...only that it didn't work and that they had traditional practices that did work.
The British were wrong because they made exactly the following mistake: