Thread by @ConceptualJames

I used to give a three-part definition ofa critical theory, or critical consciousness, so Woke, derived from Max Horkheimer, who created the critical theory:

1) utopian concept of society
2) critical attitude towards everything opposing that concept
3) activist duty for 1 & 2 🧵

The question really is how can we tell "Woke Right" from people who want to save our country. The equally hard question from five years ago was how do we tell "Woke (Left)" from people who just have a socially progressive left agenda? It's hard, but these criteria are key.

1) Holding a utopian standard for society is key to Woke thinking. Woke people "know" how society should be, and everyone who doesn't agree with them is somehow deficient: morally, intellectually, psychologically, etc. No clear utopian vision need be articulated, to be clear.

Wokes rarely have a clear utopian vision except that it will be a world absent all the problems we currently face, and it will be that way because (Woke, superior) people like them hold power and enforce the required standards and "virtues" on everyone, which will make it work.

Secondary to this utopian standard for society under their power are historicist beliefs that construe history as inexorably moving in a particular direction, usually some concept of justice, and enemies of the vision being in the way and holding it back.

Also secondary to this utopian vision is the entitlement relationship to power. The Woke are awake, Erwacht, Elect, and they obviously are therefore natural betters to the sleeping people who labor under false (not-Woke) consciousness, thus they must rule.

Tertiary from there, we see not just an entitlement to power but also a confidence (like the con in con man) that when they, the Woke, hold and enforce their power, we'll be on track to utopia, even if the beginning is rough. They're Woke and ruling, so it'll work out.

Derivative from that is the conspiratorial victimhood mentality that history and its enemies have conspired to keep them, the Woke, away from power because obviously the status quo must maintain itself for the ruling enemy class. It's all a contrivance again the poor Wokes.

2) Downstream from that, therefore, Wokes hold a critical disposition towards everything in society that doesn't move toward their utopian concept for society, in the sense of a ruthless criticism of everything and everyone outside of their political aspirations and vision.

That is, Wokes adopt a critical theory of reality, which allows them to identify and call out everything that stands between themselves and power, which is the way they believe their utopian standard will manifest. Again, they don't need to know what utopia looks like for this.

Critical theories are wholly negative pursuits that believe themselves to "become positive" by virtue of their purge of un-Woke evils. As Horkheimer had it, they don't need to know what an ideal society looks like, only what it doesn't look like, which they can then criticize.

That means that a trait of Woke thinking is that through enough negative, you will get a positive, but of course only through accepting their critique and their claim on control of those undesired elements that comes with it.

Secondary to this trait of Woke is the friend/enemy distinction in politics. Those who aid the utopian concept and its agents are the good guys, and those who don't are enemies, not just of the cadre, but of the people at large and of history itself, which they alone comprehend.

3) Woke thinking always combines theory and praxis (activism), so there's a requirement to do activism (pursuant to 1 and 2) that moves society toward utopia and away from "enemy" positions. It's not enough to be awake, Wokes must act to direct history in its intended direction.

Combining the corollaries of 1 & 2 with this demand for social and political activism arrives at an entitled attitude where the ends justifying the means comes in. The only Woke ethic is that whatever moves the world towards the Woke standard is ethical; nothing else is.

Thus lying, smearing, character assassination, cancelling, propaganda, and eventually political violence are all on the table for the Woke because all are ethical under any Woke ethics. Limiting principles are lifted from Wokes and applied ruthlessly to enemies.

Downstream from this is the two-tiered society that reads like "for my enemies, the law; for my friends, everything" that we associate with all corrupt regimes. They justify this view through the entitlement complex that is ultimately what it means to be Woke in the first place.