The anti-intellectualism of woke inhibits progress

Submitted by Dave (United States), Jul 24, 2022 at 18:49

First, let me give a reductive and pejorative opinion of woke. Woke can be seen as something of an overreaction to the Nazi era.

The Nazis divided the world between idealized whites and demonized non-whites, with Jews at the bottom of the non-whites. Woke makes the same racial division, but reverses it, with non-whites idealized, with Palestinians and blacks at the top, with whites demonized, and Israeli Jews, now called white, at the bottom. Both outlooks are absurd, but woke is far more attractive in that it poses as a champion of the underdog and human rights and appeals to western guilt over its colonial past and its outsized economic success. It has enjoyed explosive success among intellectuals, and even among many Jews.

Despite this appeal, woke shares many features in common with Nazism. Both ideologies are anti-intellectual in their oversimplifications of reality, intolerant in their binary thinking and demonize Jews, with woke being far more subtle and insidious. The liberal tendency to ignore violent excesses of terrorist groups can be traced to this bias.

As woke continues its relentless march in academia, in the media, in government, in corporations, among liberal religious denominations and in many other areas of life, it is killing critical thought and our ability to defend western culture and deal with complex problems realistically, particularly in the Mideast.

Specifically, it has prevented a realistic and critical view of Islamic ideology from being taught in our military and intelligence institutions, venues where life-and-death policies depend on accurate decision making. The result has been embarrassing. Remember George Bush and his constant refrain about democracy for the Iraqi people? Or Obama with his hectoring of Israel about the Palestinians and his disastrous Iran nuke deal? Naive is an understatement.

Many of the Muslim leaders who live in the Mideast must face the awful reality of Iran and of the multitude violent fanatics who want their heads. It's no wonder they're fed up with all the happy, woke talk. Maybe they can speak up.

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