Do A Majority Of Americans Really Support Wokeness?

The media paints an inaccurate picture of a new poll on the matter

A new poll released last week announced a surprising discovery: most Americans positively view the term “woke. ”The USA Today/Ipsos poll found that 56 percent of Americans believe woke means “to be informed, educated on, and aware of social injustices.” A third of Republicans agree with that statement. Meanwhile 39 percent believe woke has the more negative meaning of "to be overly politically correct and police others' words."

The mainstream media covered this finding as proof that a majority of Americans support wokeness and that GOP anti-woke campaigns will backfire. However, this is misleading. The poll did not definitively conclude that the majority of Americans support wokeness. The poll just asked respondents to choose one of two meanings for wokeness. The majority choice does not indicate approval of wokeness–it just indicates that Americans understand what the Left means when they say woke. The survey did not ask whether they viewed the term negatively or positively. It only asked respondents which meaning corresponds best to their comprehension. A conservative could still say woke means “awareness of social injustices” and oppose it. 

Most importantly, the poll found a plurality of Americans consider being called woke an insult rather than a compliment (40 percent vs. 32 percent). This paints a more complicated picture than the headlines would want you to believe.

The poll is also undermined by election results. The public responds well to anti-woke appeals. Glenn Youngkin became governor of a blue state thanks to an anti-woke pitch. Ron DeSantis won a battleground state by a sizable margin thanks in part to anti-woke rhetoric. Polls show that voters disapprove of specific woke policies.. A majority of Americans oppose critical race theory. A majority of Americans oppose gender identity indoctrination in elementary schools.  A majority of Americans oppose affirmative action. A majority of Americans oppose defunding the police. A majority of Americans oppose reparations.

This doesn’t indicate Americans are all that woke.

That’s not to say the public is fully committed to an anti-woke crusade either. The general public still accepts the Left’s moral framework to some extent. The Left claims to fight for things that a majority of Americans view positively, such as equality and tolerance. This is reflected in the majority belief that America is rife with social injustices and that they should be addressed. The tolerate san abundance of wokeness in media and advertising. Hardly any company goes woke and goes broke, in contrast to popular conservative thinking. A strong majority of Americans supported Black Lives Matter at the height of the George Floyd riots. Public opinion has since changed on that topic, but the 2020 view does indicate how susceptible the public is to left-wing moralizing. 

The complacent majority will shrug their shoulders at many of the changes they see around them–unless it directly affects them. Plenty of centrist parents woke up and stormed school board meetings after discovering their schools were teaching anti-white racism and showing porn to kids. They also voted for candidates who promised to end these insane policies that made their lives worse. Yet, many of these Americans will say they support wokeness or social justice in the abstract. When it directly affects them, they change their tune.

It’s unfortunate that the Left’s worldview is the standard moral framework for most Americans. A lot of the country believes liberal myths, from seeing America as a “nation of immigrants” to blaming black dysfunction on past discrimination. People may believe these things and still vote against wokeness. But the prevalence of these views allows wokeness to take hold in the first place. Many people may be anti-woke but still think these ideas are good in principle–they’re just taken too far. 

That has to change. There needs to be a moral framework that can challenge the Left’s value hegemony.. People need to think that they are fighting for what’s right and good, not that they are merely limiting the excesses of what’s right and good. That’s the critical battle over wokeness.