The Beginning of an Anti-Anti-Woke Backlash?

Stop pushing the pendulum and stand firm on liberal principles.

By Daniel Sancho from Málaga, Spain - Foucault, CC BY-SA 2.0,...

(Audio version here)

In an excellent piece for

The Free Press

,

River Page

argues that “The Online Right is Building a Monster.” Detailing the rise of casual and alarmingly popular racist, misogynistic, homophobic and antisemitic rhetoric on X, he writes.

The right’s increasingly extreme rhetoric is eventually going to freak the hell out of ordinary people, just as the left’s crazy ideas did. Then what happens? A backlash. I’ve seen how this process plays out.

Yes! It is utterly baffling to me that this is not clear to everybody who has been paying attention for the last decade. I have been trying to get this across too, but a lot of people on the illiberal right who can describe precisely how the illiberal left became extreme, authoritarian and unhinged and exactly why this alienated & pissed everybody off & inevitably resulted in a massive backlash from the right seem convinced that replicating the extreme, unhinged, alienating process will make everything better & definitely not get the right backlashed out of existence & reignite the woke.

My observation is that this backlash is already starting to form. When wokeness on the left began to rise and finally exploded in the Spring of 2020, I, as a critic of these theories and associated activism, received a rapidly increasing crescendo of SOS emails from people having it imposed on them in their places of work, university or child’s school. These were liberally-minded people who opposed racism, sexism, homophobia and other bigotries, but could not support the irrationalism and illiberalism of the woke or their detachment from material reality. They perceived me to also be a freedom-orientated liberal opposed to such prejudices and somebody who cared about what is true, and so they wrote to me.

I am hearing from people with similar values again right now. This is what sparked my two-parter linked above. This time, however, I am hearing from an increasing number of liberals from all over the political spectrum who have stood against the authoritarian ‘woke’ movement, but who no longer feel they can. They inform me that the rise of unhinged extremists with abhorrent views they express in the name of “anti-wokeness” make them feel that they can no longer ally with the “anti-woke.” Some add that perhaps the woke had a point and that the illiberal right are evidence of this. In any case, they are, at least, opposed to the vile racism, sexism and homophobia being spewed all over the internet by the anti-woke and especially the ‘woke right’ and, if they have to pick a side, it will need to be that one.

My perception is that people are writing to me about this decision because they feel conflicted about it and have a need to explain their alienation from the anti-woke and increasing sympathy for the woke to somebody they consider ‘anti-woke’ but who they do not feel has become an illiberal extremist. This is suggested by repeated language like, “I respect you and your work, but…,” “I still think you’re right about wokeness, but…” and “I supported the anti-woke because of people like you, but it’s just far-right racism and bigotry now.” I urge them to hold firm and continue to oppose those who favour fact-free ideological narratives over the truth and extremist identity-politics over liberal principles consistently. I remind them that they can oppose the illiberal identitarian right without supporting the illiberal identitarian left. I say that the only way to stop the pendulum swinging madly is to stop shoving it from side to side and stand firm and resolute against bullshit and illiberalism of all kinds. Nevertheless, I feel them slipping away. People are not yet writing to me at anything like the same volume as they did about the explosion of wokeness in 2020, but I fear that this sentiment is growing. I fear that the rise of the illiberal right-wing anti-woke and woke right will do considerable damage to innocent people before getting smashed aside by a resurgence of left-wing woke. I agree completely with Page when he writes,

When I pointed this out on Twitter last week, a lot of people called me a faggot. Be that as it may, I’m a faggot who knows to get out of the way when a pendulum is about to swing right into him. So, a final word to my conservative friends: The pendulum is going at breakneck speed. It will fly back, and when it does—it’ll hit you harder than you think.

We may not be able to get through to the extremist true believers on the illiberal right. My comments at the moment include “Sorry, I want woke right. We have had 20 years of woke left. It’s our turn now" and advice to “cope and seethe that the anti-Woke movement is no longer utilising ineffective strategies, and is starting to be effective.” Effective at what? Undermining sane & principled critiques of ‘wokeness’ & making it seem positively benign and reasonable in comparison? Making ordinary people wonder if the anti-woke were always virulent misogynistic, homophobic, white supremacist antisemites and the woke were onto something when they said the first three of these, at least, were a dominant discourse hiding beneath the surface of liberal society? Making the most vocal voices on the right those of the most appallingly hateful, inhumane, mindless and indiscriminate prejudice? Yes, this is something you are doing very effectively indeed.

I decline to “cope and seethe” and instead intend to support ethical conservatives who both repudiate the authoritarian, vengeful extremists among them on principle and see precisely what is likely to unfold here, because, as Page said, they’ve seen how this process plays out. Genuine conservatives who seek to conserve the principles underlying their liberal democracies are going to be vital in ensuring that the unhinged extremists do not gain cultural dominance. Those of us on the liberal left who have been opposing left-wing wokeism for a decade or more and being told by fellow leftists that wokeness is not a real thing and also that it’s a good thing that functions as an essential corrective are best placed to understand the abuse, bullying and misrepresentation that liberal conservatives are likely to face for some time. We must put aside partisan differences and support them. It may seem like it would not be a bad thing if there was a mass exodus of conservatives from the right saying things like, “I didn’t leave the right. The right left me” but, in reality, we need an ethical, liberal right to stay put.

The liberal left can, however, hope for an influx of genuine centrists and swing-voters as a result of illiberal right-wing overreach, but achieving that will require strengthening the credibility and integrity of the left. Equally, the liberal right will need to restore its own credibility and integrity if it wants to retain or attain public support. Reactively surging towards left-wing wokeness or right-wing wokeness won’t achieve that. Standing solidly behind consistent liberal principles and a commitment to what is true will.