Oh God, The Entire Left Has Lost Its Mind!

I was around 17 when I learned that you should be careful about who you criticise. 

My girlfriend at the time was having a fight with her sister. And frankly, this wasn’t anything unusual. Because, and I can’t stress this enough, her sister was a nightmare. 

My girlfriend knew it, her friends knew it, the rest of her family knew it. Occasionally the police knew it. But sadly, everyone was too scared to do anything about it. And one day, while my girlfriend was once again complaining about what a nightmare her sister was, I agreed a little too enthusiastically, thereby letting her know that I knew it.

I learned two things that day.

The first was that there are some arguments you can’t win, even when everybody involved knows you’re right. And the second was that it doesn’t matter how much somebody criticises their family. It doesn’t mean you can criticise their family

In my article, Hamas Finally Answered The Question: “What Is Woke?”, I criticised that most obnoxious, censorious, morally bankrupt progeny of the political Left: wokeness. 

I pointed out that several “woke” organisations had struggled to criticise the October 7th terror attacks. With some openly celebrating them. And I pointed out that none of this is surprising if you consider how rotten its foundations of critical theory and cultural Marxism are.

John seemed to think that I was criticising family. 

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John:

The real question that needs answering is why people keep falling into the “proof by anecdote” trap:

• Are the 57.5 members of the WWP relevant?

• Some DSA chapters comment, and the only examples you give of their awesome power!! are two members of Congress — who agree with you.

• By the ADL’s own admission, BLM chapters are independent, and the national group hasn’t commented.

• The beliefs of the Harvard students you mention are so pervasive that the source for your comments about them is titled “Harvard Student Groups Face Intense Backlash for Statement Calling Israel’ Entirely Responsible’ for Hamas Attack.”

Oh god, the entire left has lost its mind!

To be fair, you do write, “For the avoidance of any doubt, this isn’t an attack on liberalism or one of those insufferable ‘wHy i LeFt ThE lEft’ posts.”

But in real and practical terms, that’s basically what it is.

You take a few scattered voices in a big weird country where anything you can imagine is happening somewhere, and use it to portray the entire concept of “woke” as evil. But after all the nonsense, what does that word even mean? Nothing, except to conservatives, for whom it means “we hate the left.”

In other words, the only reason to use it at all is in the conservative sense — “wHy i LeFt ThE lEft.” Meanwhile, the standard stated position on the right is the opposite extreme, that Israel is blameless in all things and the Palestinians should be kicked to the curb. Not to play whataboutism, but if you’re going to go after liberals for positions that have zero traction in the halls of actual power, you ought to mention that the other extreme is gospel on the other side.

In political terms, the Democrats are 90% pro-Israel-but-let’s-at-least-consider-the-Palestinians. Republicans are 90% pro-Israel-and-screw-the-Palestinians, the remaining 10% being Nazis and other assorted “Jews will not replace us” types.

In other words, “woke” is meaningless, the internet isn’t real, and friends don’t let friends use proof by anecdote.

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Steve QJ:

Ugh, come on man, did you actually read the article? Every single one of your “points” is either addressed within or could have been addressed yourself with a millisecond of actual thought.

Yes, the Harvard student groups faced backlash, as well they should, because what they said was gross and asinine. That doesn’t change the fact that they said it.

I have no idea how many people were individually responsible for the statement from the WWP. But it was released as a statement by the organisation. If Disney released a statement on their website saying, “actually, Walt was right, we hate Jews,” would you point at the organisation as a whole? Or say, “well, I bet the people who work in the Disney store didn’t sign off on that.”

I also point out that BLM Global Network has commented. And though they don’t condemn the attacks, they do point out that the chapters are independent. That’s why I called out specific chapters.

My reference to AOC and Omar isn’t to demonstrate the DSA’s “awesome power” but to point out, as I literally spell out in the article, that these aren’t just edgy kids being dumb on Twitter but people with meaningful connections.

And besides, this isn’t about power. It’s about mindset. It’s about amorality posing as moral purity. It’s about people, one of them not too far away, who consistently fail to differentiate between members of groups and groups themselves.

No, the entire Left hasn’t lost its mind. I never once claimed it has. In fact, I repeatedly point out that these people are not the political Left or representatives of liberalism:

“For the avoidance of any doubt, this isn’t an attack on liberalism...” “Wokeness is not the Left. It’s not kindness or a tool for social justice….It’s everything liberalism exists to fight.”

Ring a bell??

Yet here you are: “if you’re going to go after liberals…” “Oh god, the entire left has lost its mind!” And, of course, comments of this sort wouldn’t be complete without a “well, ackshually, I know I don’t know you, and you said the exact opposite, but here’s what you really meant in ‘real and practical terms.’”

No, this is not a “why I left the Left” post. I’m not leaving the Left. I was here first. I was here before it was invaded by a bunch of amoral, illiberal, historically illiterate morons. I was here when we still thought judging people by the content of their character instead of by group identity was a good idea. I was here when we were intellectually sophisticated enough to oppose the oppression of Palestinians in Gaza and to oppose the slaughter of babies as a means of ending it.

God, I would save so much wasted time replying to comments if people would read instead of projecting.

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John:

I may be missing your point, but it seems like you're missing mine: I feel you're basing your thesis on a small collection of politically powerless nobodies who just happen to be loud on social media. The only significant people you mention disavow the stance their organization has taken.

Side note: as always with liberals, I take the word "organization" with the daily output of a salt mine. Forget herding cats, cats think liberals are hard to manage.

America is 330 million weirdos, so a few fringe political parties and dumbass college students high on the arrogance of youth doth not a relevant coalition make. Rounding error to a scientist. Sofa cushion change to a millionaire.

Thus, I'm not sure about the point of the article. You've taken the word "woke," which has been stripped of all meaning other than the conservative definition of "we hate liberals."

Now you're trying to draw some conclusions about its bloated carcass based on the rantings of, well, a small collection of powerless nobodies who just happen to be loud on social media.

Does anyone say "woke" without irony other than Republicans running for president?

Unless I'm missing something, this seems to be a futile enterprise other than giving ammunition to conservatives. I don't know your readership, but if it's large enough to move the needle, right-wing sites will be aggregating this piece. That title is a gift, and they'll use it to bludgeon everyone they can.

So yeah, we probably agree that most of these crazies are not right in the head. On the other hand, Israel is in no way blameless in the whole conflict, and for all we know, tomorrow we'll wake up to an atrocity they've committed. In that case, the identity politics types on the right — that is, all of them, from nobodies to major national figures — will line up to blame it on the Palestinians.

I'm not saying you're wrong. But does that matter if there's nothing to be right about?

So, color me confused is all.

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Steve QJ:

BLM, even just BLM Chicago and Grassroots, are not political nobodies (especially as, again, BLMGN did not disavow the stance of those or any other chapters).

Many students at Harvard are not, or soon will not be, political nobodies. And the current president of Harvard did not disavow the stance of the students.

The WWP are not political nobodies. And nobody in the WWP, as far as I'm aware, has disavowed the statement released on their official website. God, the short-sightedness is astonishing.

What would be enough for you? Biden sitting in the Oval Office in sunglasses saying, "F*** them Jews"?

Again, my key criticism here is about a mindset that allows people, who think they’re on the side of good, to applaud and celebrate naked terrorism. There is absolutely abundant evidence of this. And if you look, there are no good ol’ boys in those crowds. There are no God and country Republicans. They’re people who would claim to be on the Left despite being the most illiberal people imaginable.

You're worried about my single article providing ammunition to the Right??! You don't think the thousands of people openly celebrating terrorism in rallies and marches already did that far more effectively? Are you high?

It’s like there’s a fire in your house and you’re mad at me for pointing to it.

"Woke" is the de facto term for a world and political view built around critical theory and cultural Marxism. I'd be extraordinarily happy to do away with the term, as would many other lifelong liberals.

The problem is, every time we point to the obvious issues with this political movement, we get bright sparks like yourself saying "wOkE iSn'T a ThInG!!11!"

So in the immortal words of Freddie deBoer, "please just fucking tell me what term I am allowed to use for the sweeping social and political changes you demand." Or for the cancerous worldview that allows people to celebrate the murder of 1400 innocent civilians.

Seriously, instead of burying your head in the sand, try actually answering this. Because it sure as hell isn't liberalism or representative of the Left.

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Spoiler: John did not try to answer this.

It’s easy to understand the instinct to close ranks when somebody criticises your “side”. But the Hamas attacks should be all the evidence we need (if we still need further evidence) that this problem is getting increasingly urgent.

Because we’re way past silliness about microaggressions and pronouns at this point. We’ve reached the “openly celebrating terror attacks in the streets” stage of proceedings. We’ve reached the university professors advocating the murder of people they disagree with stage of proceedings. Do we really imagine they’d be more moderate with political opponents closer to home?

As I said to John, “wokeness” is not liberalism or representative of the political Left. But like it or not, it is a disease of the political Left. Just as Trumpism is a disease of the political Right. And if we don’t want Tucker Carlsen or Trump to be the ones guiding discourse on what “woke” is, the silent liberal majority needs to stop being so silent.

I know it, John knows it, even the woke know it. They’re just counting on us being too scared to do anything about it.