"Woke" Has Become A Sick Joke
Only Nobody Is Laughing
Yes, sports fans, wokeness is now officially everywhere. It’s even on the political right, where it threatens the very core of political conservatism.
For proof, we need only consider Jordan Peterson’s comments on an episode of Joe Rogan’s podcast.
The fuse was lit on one of the world‘s largest media platforms, the “Joe Rogan Experience,” where Jordan Peterson, a psychologist—turned-public-intellectual-superstar — said the “woke right” phenomenon isn’t political at all.
It‘s the product of social media algorithms empowering “psychopathic pretenders” to “invade the idea space” and “use those ideas as false weapons to advance their narcissistic advantage,” Peterson said.
If you believe that nonsense, I’ve got lovely piece of swampland to sell you, complete with mosquitos and malaria.
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and his will already be familiar with this topic, as he has been tackling this head on for some time now. If you haven’t read his commentaries on this topic yet, you should.Alas, the rest of the mediaverse is not so clueful. A number of ostensibly “conservative” influencers are now putting out alarms that people must be worried about the presence of lefty-sounding tropes and ideas wrapped up in what we are meant to consider to be the memetics of the political right.
This entire non-controversy can be easily deconstructed and laid to rest with a simple overlay of the geopolitical rubric of Great Power Competition.
GPC is a classic feature of modern international relations grounded in a traditional power politics approach. Specifically, GPC is a permanent, compulsory, comprehensive, and exclusive contest for supremacy in a region or domain among those states considered to be the major players in the international system. The contest varies in intensity over time and space but remains a persistent aspect of the international system of sovereign states.
Great Power Competition has merit in geopolitics because it provides a coherent framework for assessing geopolitical conflicts regardless of context or culture. The core premise is that states generally aspire to greater power and influence, and in any geopolitical theater there will be a subset of states in competition with each other to gain and wield hegemonic influence over others.
What is happening among presumably “conservative” influencers is fundamentally the same thing: competition for influence, which is analogous to “power”. The more crowded the media landscape becomes, the more challenging it is even for established voices to continue to be heard.
Small wonder, then, that a cadre of established influencers on the political right have suddenly discovered “wokeness” among some of their bretheren. As “wokeness” is the original sin of the political left, tagging even a portion of the competition with the “woke” label becomes an effective means to delegitimize them. It is a rhetorical device intended to kneecap the competition.
Even I use the term derisively against elements of the political left. Using the term against elements of the political right may be fairly presumed to be similarly derisive and derogatory.
However, there is a subtle but important distinction in how people come to that point of demeaning someone else’s ideas.
I can only speak for myself, but I dismiss ideas from the political left as “woke” because I have examined them. I’ve listened to various advocates and I’ve assessed their arguments. Applying the label of “woke” to the political left is the culmination of the process of weighing those ideas in the balance and finding them wanting. It is for me a conclusion, not a predicate.
From what I have observed of others, I believe this to be broadly true about the use of the term “woke” against the political left. It is, for the most part, an earned appellation.
What Jordan Peterson, James Lindsay, and the others who are “alarmed” about the rise of “wokeness” on the political right are doing, however, is attempting to prevent certain ideas from even being weighed in the balance. Theirs is a blatant effort to silence competing voices. Their goal is patently obvious: they want to kneecap the competition.
When they speak of other people trying to “invade the idea space”, they are attempting to delegitimize them as participants in public dialog. When they make sweeping generalizations of people as “psychopathic pretenders” they are making a claim of moral supremacy which is charitably described as problematic.
It’s a tactic to preserve influence and power. It’s not even a subtle one.
It’s also not how public discourse is meant to go.
The only rational way to engage in public debate is to listen—and that means people do not prejudge someone else’s ideas, but instead allow them the space to say what they have to say.
Some people even on the political right will have ideas that do not work. That happens.
Some people even on the political right will use framing and vocabulary for their ideas that turns out to be clunky and in desperate need of refining. That happens too.
Some people will have ideas that do work, with framing and vocabulary that brings those ideas home as truth.
If we engage with the ideas, we can quickly ascertain which ideas will work and which ideas will not. We can easily establish which ideas need more refinement in their expression—and we can then facilitate the process of refinement.
We do well to remember always that everyone invariably has an agenda. Jordan Peterson has an agenda. James Lindsay has an agenda. I have an agenda—and yes, part of my agenda is I want you to listen to what I have to say!
You can rest assured that James Lindsay, Jordan Peterson, and every other dissident and establishment voice in the mediaverse has that much in common with me.
When people go out of their way to discourage their audiences from listening to competing voices, they are not fostering public discourse but suppressing it. They are attempting to wield power by silencing other voices.
When Jordan Peterson and James Lindsay complain about the “woke right”, they have their interests in mind, not yours. They are attempting to preserve their power and influence by silencing other voices.
Always remember this one fundamental truth: the Jordan Petersons and James Lindsays out there need you far more than you need them. As a self-styled independent data journalist and commentator, I need my audience far more than my audience needs me.
In the marketplace of ideas, as with every other marketplace, it is always more challenging to be the supplier of ideas than it is to be the consumer of them.
We do not have a problem with a “woke right”. Jordan Peterson, James Lindsay, and others have a problem with competition—they’re getting some and they don’t like it.
That’s their problem. It should remain their problem, and not become anybody else’s.
Peter, there you go again, being level-headed, fair, objective, insightful and generally excellent. You see the inherent aspects of humanity: the chafing at new competition, the egotistical need to keep the spotlight. Once a person obtains something of value - power, wealth, influence, attention - they gravitate to “if some is good, then more is better”. Anyone infringing on their striving for more is seen as a threat. It’s the rare person who can remain balanced, as you are. This alone is a good reason to listen to you, not to mention all the other good reasons.
The silver lining of increased competition amongst the Right is that it’s an indication of a larger audience being reached. There are so many followers, subscribers, readers and financial backers that more influencers see a way to make a living or become a star via this, and so the competition becomes fiercer. The solution is to grow the ‘pie’, and then there will be more ‘customers’ for everyone on the Right. A classic free-market solution!
I think you're right about this.
The whole subject is rather odd, because they aren't even discussing "ideas" they're discussing *people* who discuss ideas.
I can never be interested long in such topics.
For me it's like watching other people playing poker.
"I know, let's go sit and watch people, sit and watch each other!" 😆😄😂