Enough About The ‘Woke Right’

The debate over the term has run its course

Commentators can’t stop talking about the “woke right.” The term, first popularized by James Lindsay, denigrates conservatives for being too right-wing/“racist.” It’s primarily an epithet used in internal battles on the Right. For instance, Lindsay and other conservatives called Matt Walsh “woke right” for defending Shiloh Hendrix. The term, however, is no longer limited to internal right-wing battles. Liberals, such as Jonathan Chait, have now adopted the term to attack the Right.

It demonstrates why this discourse needs to be put to bed. Liberals and moderate conservatives will continue to harp on the “woke right,” but right-wingers should either ignore it or laugh it off. It’s no longer worth the energy.

The Woke Right attack arguably found its chief expression in this recent post from Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon.

If you're trying to figure out if someone on the right is running the woke operating system, try asking these diagnostic questions about the claims they've been making:

1. Do they claim that an oppressive identity group (Jews, elites, globalists, etc.) secretly controls everything?

2. Do they claim to have “awakened” to this hidden reality, and urge others to wake up, too?

3. Do they scapegoat this identity group as collectively responsible for cultural decline?

4. Do they reject well-established historical narratives (WW2, for example) as distortions designed to reinforce the liberal democratic order and rule out more forceful alternatives?

5. Do they claim conservatism has failed our culture to the point where the use of coercive power to impose a new moral framework is both justified and necessary?

6. Do they claim the “postwar liberal consensus” prevents us from doing that?

7. Do they claim the Constitution is problematic for the same reason?

If a right-winger answers “yes” to most of these questions, “they’ve adopted the structural framework of wokeness,” according to Dillon. This is retarded. For one, nearly all conservatives would answer “Democrats” to these questions and urge people to wake up to their dangerous conspiracy. Conservatives also attack “liberal lies” about history, and demand that people learn that it was the DEMOCRATS who supported slavery and Jim Crow. I guess that might count as WOKE.

Second, none of these questions relate to what woke actually is. Conservatives have long struggled to define woke. They know they don’t like it, and they can tell what it is when they see it. But they find it tough to put into words what it means. Bethany Mandel, who wrote a whole book about woke, couldn’t define it during a TV interview in 2023. Most of the time, it’s a stand-in for “liberal” or politically correct.

However, woke can be defined. It’s the belief that America exhibits systemic inequalities and only radical measures can solve them. Even if America no longer has segregation, it’s still inherently racist towards blacks and other minorities. It also disfavors women and gays. For the woke, whiteness is America’s cardinal sin–and it demands a purge.

No one on the Right believes America is defined by systemic inequalities, nor do they back the Left’s radical proposals. By definition, they cannot be woke. It’s one thing to just use “Woke Right” as an epithet; it’s normal in politics to do this. Back when the Alt Right was a thing, conservatives began warning of an “Alt Left” threatening the nation. There was no real Alt Left. It was just a term people on Fox News came up with to attack their enemies. Nobody tried to seriously argue that the Alt Left was animated by the same motives as the Alt Right.

But the proponents of the “Woke Right” term genuinely believe these people are woke. It’s not a mere epithet. Lindsay, Dillon, and Chait all argue that these right-wingers are the true adherents of identity politics.

It’s a free country. People are allowed to be stupid. Sadly, these people have large platforms and can influence ordinary Americans, so people have to confront this idiocy.

The only way t the term “Woke Right” could exist is if no one knows what woke actually means. The purpose of the term is to tarnish the real Right as antithetical to “American principles” and a bigger threat than the woke left. If the Right doesn’t want to be called that, then it must abandon the identity issues and get back to… tax cuts, or something.

It’s worth confronting this stupidity, but the discourse has gotten out of hand. Fighting over “Woke Right” seems to be the main concern of a number of RW influencers. It’s maybe time to ignore the morons who deploy the term.

The reason why so many people are complaining about the “Woke Right” is because nationalism is ascendant. Other factions of the Right are in decline, and they’re not happy about it. They hope saying Woke Right ad infinitum will convince ordinary conservatives that the nationalists are just like the Left, and then return to “classical liberalism.” So far, this strategy has failed.

That’s why it might be time to retire the Woke Right discourse. It’s not a real thing. The people who believe it’s a real thing are either morons or liberals acting in bad faith. Getting riled up any time a commentator uses it unironically isn’t the most productive use of time. The epithet indicates how powerful nationalism is and how much its foes fear it. It’s a natural product of success.

It’s time to stop giving James Lindsay and his hysteric cohorts so much attention. They’re yesterday’s news. The future lies with those they deride as “Woke Right.”