OnlySubs Episode 142: Is the “Woke Right” Really Woke? is available for FREE to everyone! To get access to all past and future episodes, consider becoming a contributor on one of the following platforms:
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What is the “Woke Right”? Does it really exist? Is it really Woke? If so, how? These are increasingly important questions in our present circumstances as a visibly radicalized Rightism is emerging from within the broader conservative coalition and aiming to distort its aims and values along some new (or new-old) path. In this special long episode of James Lindsay OnlySubs, my subscribers’ only podcast, I take you through an essay about the Woke Right written by someone ostensibly on the Woke Right, C. Jay Engel, published in late May 2024 in American Reformer. Join me to explore the idea that the Woke Right really is Woke (and the Right hand of the Left) through an analysis of one of its members’ own words.
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9 comments
Lots to chew on and digest here (and some to disagree with). First, remember who the political enemies to conservatives are: the Left, whether it be Marxist, cultural Marxist, child groomers, Woke, BLM, Bernie Sanders, or the Democrat Party when they support the Left. Our political allies are primarily (not exclusively) conservatives, Republicans and Christians. Criticize the Left with all intellectual guns blazing, but have some proportion when you criticize the Right and do it with some prudence. Don’t hamstring the conservative momentum by policing speech on the Right. Having just won a great election, it would be folly to destroy political capital by descending into internecine squabbling.
Yes, Engel’s essay is edgy! Particularly his claim that Buckley co-opted the conservative movement away from the “True Right”. Also, he is sloppy in not well defining terms such as “individualism”, or “universal propositions”. But there is much in his essay that rings true if one can back away from the “this sounds like fascism” cliché, which is way too close to how the Left would criticize him.
IMO the term “Woke Right” is not a good one. The term “woke” is understood by 99% of the public to describe left-wing politics. In a pithy statement, Tucker Carlson called it “LGBTQ race Communism”. James says that restricting “woke” only to left-wing politics only is “thin”, but we are not doing academic/mathematical pontificating here. We are arguing political philosophy, which should be more oriented to mass understanding and common sense. “Woke” is now firmly left-wing and to muddle the definition now will just confuse everybody (as Chris Rufo just said). Perhaps one could say that conservatives have slowly “awakened” to the fact that the Left is running a cultural bulldozer over America. But don’t call it “woke”.
Instead of “Woke Right”, I suggest trying the following phrases that fit different aspects of Engel’s essay:
• “awakened conservatives” – conservatives are now awakened to the threats to our civilization, as mentioned above.
• “nostalgic Christian right” – this applies to anyone who thinks that America has declined morally since the 1950s (which is virtually everybody) and wishes to somehow get back to the moral climate in place then. (Not getting back of course, to southern segregation – this would be the silly left-wing accusation.)
• “edgy Christian Right” – this might apply to some things said in Engel’s essay. Christians don’t want to be trampled in the prone position as they’ve been the last 50 years, and are becoming more edgy or aggressive.
• “newly assertive Right” – this is anyone who has awakened to the fact that non-assertive conservatism has barely slowed down the Left’s cultural domination in the last half-century.
On James’ assertion that whites are not the real target in the Left’s war on whiteness, but just a symbolic target group (like the “great Russian”) in order to gain power; this seems to be (again) distinctly over-academicizing the issue. I think that anti-white racism is very real, whether or not it is primarily to serve a power grab.
James, I appreciate very much your anti-Marxist/anti-woke research, as well as your insight into Hegelism and Gnosticism! I think that keeping your arguments against the Left is very valuable, but turning such arguments against certain kinds of right wing thought just doesn’t ring as true. I would suggest that you abandon your usage of the term “Woke Right” and keep your focus upon our true political enemies, the “Woke Left.”
Engels seems to be wobbling off kilter. He uses the term Liberal, but describes Classical Liberalism, another animal entirely. His diatribe is rife with misstatements and seems to be a jumble of misunderstanding and misapplication. I have no idea if his definition of WOKE right is valid since he writes like so many indoctrinated by the public education system… full of sound and fury signifying nothing.
It seems unkind to take seriously his offering in the same way that it would be unwise to loan money to an addict, the act only serves to enable dysfunctional behavior.
For clarity I think some terms need to be created, defined and used so people don’t get their wires crossed as you maneuver around in a complex subject. Use terms that stand for and distinguish particular ideas, like neocon, rino, right, conservative, republican, liberal, or anything you want to make up, that carry meaning different from each other
James goes on and on against Marxism but has a blind spot for stolen land redistributed to a group of religious supremacists because it’s “antisemtic” to point out how Israel is a Marxist construct. Call them out for what they are or you’re just a gay woke right cuck for the Zionists.
‘Sociologist’ is mistaken in part at least. Yes, behind a great many politicians there is little other than desire for self-advancement, but behind the politicians and activists there are 10,000 college professors pushing ideas, and behind the petty professors there are major influencers, and behind the major influencers there are mighty spiritual/religious desires, just as JL identifies. They may not know it explicitly, but the smallest destructive activist is feeding off those forces. JL does a fantastic job of tracing things back to their roots.
However, I have to say that I don’t get it when he starts talking about the woke right. I thought by definition that woke is drag queens, DEI, transgenderism and every other evil manifestation of Marxism in its modern day form. It seems most confusing to start talking about a woke right; apart from anything else, it surely doesn’t have the same roots.
linked in from x, video did not play
addendum. it came to me after i clicked with the idea i would like to link to this discourse within my substack. and so i have done that. your ideas are imo really important for us to renew in a new way the value of the individual expressing life.
all the best
guy
hola, james.
i’ve recently begun diving into your works. powerful and important! so important i’ve been sharing you far and wide!
wow! this particular title and the ideas in it caught my attention, in no small part because jan 7, 2024 i made similar claim that there is a woke right. i state that in my substack essay “Good-Bye Woke: It Was Fun While It Lasted”. (if curious: https://gduperreault.substack.com/p/good-bye-woke)
i make the argument that both ‘right’ and ‘left’ rely on the removal of the individual for the ‘good’ of the many. i wrote it in a rather circular way as i discovered it following a conversatoin by a devout ‘liberal. it was interesting to me to re-read quickly after listening to some of your discourses. i seem to have come to a similar kind of conclusion you have, albeit without the detail and history that you provide. (i’ll be re-looking at it more closely in time after investigating your history of ‘woke’ and its evolution.)
fascinating!
all the best with what is changing. everything changes! with peace, respect, love and exuberant joy.
🙏❤️🧘♂️☯️🧘♂️❤️🙏