Woke continuum

The Woke continuum, or simply just The Continuum is comprised of a group of movements active in the world today. Most of these movement shave appeared within the last few decades and they have characteristics in common. These movements include Marxism, feminism, Black Lives Matter and Extinction Rebellion. Another one that is not as well known is the BDS movement. Each of these movements could be described as woke.

Although there are many forms of feminism on paper, Intersectional feminism won decades ago. This is so true that referring to feminism without further qualification is a reference to intersectional feminism. Intersectional feminism concerns itself with the intersection of various grievances based on gender, ethnicity or sexual preferences. This set up feminism to be central to the woke continuum that was to come.

It also prompted some anti-feminists to start referring to the grievance hierarchy in reference to the difficulties feminists have in adjudicating difference sorts of grievances.

BDS is short for boycott, divestment and sanctions. The BDS movement is an anti-Israel movement. While it’s officially opposed to Israel it seems to be anti-Jewish as well. In 2018 some women’s marches in the US excluded Jewish women’s groups. This is a good example of the types of problems encountered within intersectionality.

Black Lives Matter was founded by three women, Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi. Cullors has explicitly referred to herself and Alicia Garza as trained Marxists. During one interview Cullors commented on the wide range of philosophies she had read while attending a year-long course at the National School for Strategic Organising (NSSO):

We spent the year reading, anything from Marx, to Lenin, to Mao, learning all types of global critical theory and about different campaigns across the world,...

Meanwhile Cullors has invested millions of US dollars in real estate. Some Marxism. Information on what BLM truly believes used to be on their website but was removed in September 2020:

We make our spaces family-friendly and enable parents to fully participate with their children. We dismantle the patriarchal practice that requires mothers to work “double shifts” so that they can mother in private even as they participate in public justice work. We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and “villages” that collectively care for one another, especially our children, to the degree that mothers, parents, and children are comfortable.

And later on the same page:

We foster a queer-affirming network. When we gather, we do so with the intention of freeing ourselves from the tight grip of heteronormative thinking, or rather, the belief that all in the world are heterosexual (unless s/he or they disclose otherwise).”

Here we see clear links to feminism and Marxism.

BLM was ostensibly founded to assist Africa-Americans but it was clear during the riots in 2020 that it was doing nothing of the sort.

Extinction Rebellion is a radical environmental group that is well known in the UK and Australia for disruptive protests. Extinction Rebellion aligns itself with feminism and BLM in embracing anti-Colonialism and also aligns itself with BDS in taking an explicitely anti-Israel position.

Generally speaking groups like Extinction Rebellion are pushing for a reduced standard of living to counter what they term as an imminent threat from climate change.

Movements These movement exist on a continuum. They don’t all agree with each other on everything. Their members don’t all agree. But they exist on a continuum and they work together when it makes sense to do so.

This helps them to be evasive. They can deny an association with one of the other groups when needed but then join with them when it makes sense to work together. This gives them plausible deniability and has made it difficult for those outside of these movements to define them. Each of these movements have characteristics in common.

They tend to be good at manipulating language. They redefine words in a manner reminicient of New Speak from Nineteen Eighty-Four and thus avoid clear definitions. Consider a word like Colonialism. Who can deny that colonialism happened? But they change the implied meaning.

I believe that since about 2015 feminism has been less successful at manipulating language. They’re tending to produce more clear definitions which is making our job a lot easier. We can now direct responses at their clear definitions and discredit them.

A good example is toxic masculinity. They are increasingly listing characteristics that they argue constitute toxic masculinity. In particular they talk about stoicism as leading to toxic masculinity while stoicism is very much a double edged sword. It can be destructive but it can also lead men to greatness.

These movements are intolerant of alternative view points and tend to shout down opposition. They all seem to have been influenced by Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals.

They tend to be grass-roots and have little or no strong leadership. Even BLM which has identifiable leaders has tended to be decentralised with different groups managing to act in a concerted effort with little coordination.

Support decolonisation.

Many supporters tend to be sincere but they are divorced from the leadership of these movements.

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