What the Right Can Learn from a Left-Wing Critique of “Wokeness”
“Wokeness” is perhaps the most overused phrase in America today. Flip the channel to Fox News, or any of its less-popular imitators, and chances are you will be treated to some red-faced pundit or blonde-haired commentator ranting about the latest “woke” outrage. Even more sophisticated criticism from serious conservatives or classical liberals have been repeated to the point of tedium in the Wall Street Journal or the Free Press.
Fredrik deBoer’s latest book criticizing the concept, nonetheless, is more interesting than most standard-issue, anti-woke hot takes. Titled How Elites Ate the Social Justice Movement and out this month in a new paperback edition, it is a no-holds-barred attack on the excesses of cutting-edge progressives from their own left-flank. Although conservatives are unlikely to agree with deBoer’s perspective entirely (he was raised as an outright communist and cut his teeth as an activist agitating against the Iraq War and for gay rights), they can learn much from his biting critique of the lunatics and failures who have seized control of left-wing politics.
DeBoer’s central thesis is that left-wingers have shunted working-class interests to make room for cultural concerns – making the left far less radical than it should be. He certainly affirms the goals of anti-racist, feminist, and gay rights activists, but also recognizes how the business and political establishments can co-opt these causes to stifle pushes for radical economic change. DeBoer is warning his left-wing readers that the supposedly proper slogans about identity and “righteous” motivations cannot replace the hard work of political organizing that translate to tangible wins for their base.
In this sense, deBoer actually resembles his counterparts on the right who also position themselves against “neoliberalism.” Populist voices such as American Compass economist Oren Cass or Republican senator and vice-presidential nominee J.D. Vance have been pushing for their party to refocus on a certain vision of economics over and against the more traditional concerns of social conservatives. An even more extreme sect of ideologues within their camp might even be called “Right-Wing Marxists,” and advocate abandoning Reaganite priorities for the sake of revolutionary power politics.
Read more in Providence.
