Table of Contents
Introduction: What’s Going On, and Why It Matters
Chapter 1: What Is Woke?
Chapter 2: What Is the Woke Right?
Chapter 3: Why Is the Woke Right “Woke”?
Chapter 4: How Did We Get Here?
Chapter 5: Why the Woke Right Is a Problem
Chapter 6: Recognizing the Woke Right in Action
Chapter 7: What Can We Do About It?
Conclusion: A Stronger Conservatism
Introduction: What’s Going On, and Why It Matters
If you’re reading this, you probably care deeply about conserving what makes our societies great—freedom, tradition, family, faith, and the rule of law. You’ve likely watched with frustration as the progressive Left pushes ideas and uses tactics that erode those foundations: cancel culture, identity politics, and moral grandstanding that shuts down debate. You’ve likely cheered when conservatives fight back, whether it’s calling out “Woke” nonsense or rallying for common sense.
But have you noticed something unsettling creeping into our own ranks? A new kind of right-wing activism that fights fire with fire—but risks burning down what we’re trying to protect? That’s what this pamphlet is about: the rise of the Woke Right.
The term “Woke Right” might sound like an oxymoron, like trying to get oil and water to mix. “Woke” is a left-wing thing, right? It conjures images of blue-haired activists lecturing us about pronouns or tearing down statues. So how could it possibly describe the right-wing—people who seem like us, who value liberty, reason, and heritage? Well, in some sense, it doesn’t, but “in some sense” is doing a fair amount of work here.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: some right-wingers (and sometimes conservatives) are starting to mirror the Left’s tactics and view of the world, even while defending our principles—or something close to them. They’re using moral shaming, purity tests, and social media pile-ons to enforce loyalty, often targeting “fellow conservatives” who don’t toe the line. They initiate purity spirals about being “right-wing” enough and punish conservatives who don’t go along enthusiastically.
Most of these bad actors are not selling out to the Left, though. Instead, they’re adopting their playbook to fight for what looks like (but isn’t really) our side. That’s the thing. What they’re fighting for looks like fighting for our side but isn’t fighting for our side at all, and it’s dividing us when we need unity most.
Let us give you an example. Recently, a conservative watchmaker—Wasson Watch Co., which is solidly conservative in every way imaginable—got torn apart online by the online populist “New Right.” Their crime? After months of enduring rampant antisemitism in their replies on many posts on X (formerly Twitter), they spoke up and said “no more.” They said there’s a real problem with this behavior and messaging, and it doesn’t represent conservatism or MAGA. Their X exploded. While they got much support from conservatives, the online “New Right”—including many people who were not in any way named in the Wasson post—piled on, cried foul, and did a struggle session against the Wasson Watch Co., just for failing a loyalty test to extremists and radicals who genuinely don’t represent conservative views. Sound familiar? It’s a kind of struggle session. It’s also the kind of outrage we used to mock the Left for. Yet here “we” are, doing it to our own.
The story here isn’t about Wasson Watch Co. or even online antisemitism. It’s the behavior of the “New Right” against this sin of insufficient loyalty and deviation from “New Right” interests. This is the Right picking up the Woke tools of the Left. This is the Woke Right.
Drawing Lines
This pamphlet isn’t about pointing fingers or saying conservatives are “bad.” Far from it. Conservatives are rightly sick of seeing our values sidelined by cultural chaos. There’s reason for concerns, though. It’s a sad fact that in our zeal to fight back and protect our countries and ways of life, some of us are losing sight of what makes conservatism strong: reason over emotion, principle over tribalism, holding ourselves to higher standards of conduct, a continuity of our civic traditions including of decency, and a commitment to truth even when it’s uncomfortable.
This new “Woke Right” isn’t the majority of the Right, or even strictly conservative, but it’s loud, it’s growing, and it’s pulling us into a trap where we become what we oppose and set the Left up for ultimate victory. It’s fringe, but it’s not so fringe anymore that it can be ignored. Online and increasingly offline in strongly conservative spaces, it’s also rapidly growing, especially with young men. It’s a problem we conservatives can’t keep ignoring.
The thing is, the Woke Right isn’t really conservative at all. Many of its proponents openly reject conservatism as weak and as a loser. “It’s just progressivism doing the speed limit,” they think. It’s just a slower form of “liberalism,” by which they still mean Leftism. The Woke Right mostly rejects conservatism for something else.
Many of these radicals describe themselves instead as right-wing and are careful to distinguish “right-wing” from “conservative.” Some describe themselves openly as “radical right-wing revolutionaries.” Others explicitly say they’re right-wing, not conservative, because they have adopted the Critical Theory methods of the Left. Some call themselves “postmodern traditionalists.” A rare few have openly called themselves “right-wing progressives,” believe it or not.
Like it or not, this means these radical right-wingers do not share conservative values. They have different values, even if they’re twisted forms of conservative values. They might also speak to conservative values, but theirs are radical and revolutionary, not truly based in tradition and truth. These are radical activists who are more accurately understood as revolutionary progressives in conservatives’ clothing.
Okay, So What?
Why does this matter? Because division is our enemy, and becoming ugly is how we lose. More than that, right is right, and wrong is wrong. Woke is wrong, even when it’s on the Right.
Speaking practically, the Left thrives when we’re fighting each other instead of them, and it will play off every ugly excess, eventually very successfully. Every time we “cancel” a conservative for not being “pure” or “radical” enough, we shrink our coalition and drive ourselves further into an extremism the Left will use against us. Every time we demand loyalty over debate, we stifle the ideas that could win elections and shape culture. And every time we mimic the Left’s outrage culture, we risk alienating the moderates and independents we need to build a lasting majority and turn ourselves away from what makes conservatism—and America—noble and great. All of this will undermine MAGA and damage Trump, and perhaps it’s intended to.
If we’re not careful, the Woke Right will do more damage to conservatism and its causes than the Left ever could—all while implementing key parts of its anti-liberty agenda while getting MAGA to cheer it on. Worse, our reward will be putting the Left back in power with a renewed moral mandate and huge electoral base who feels stupid and betrayed for trusting conservatives, many against what they thought was their better judgment.
Getting Started
This pamphlet is your basic guide to understanding the Woke Right—what it is, where it came from, why it’s a problem, and how we can resist it without abandoning our fight. We’ll walk you through the ideas. We’ll show you why it’s tempting to join the outrage but why staying true to our principles is the stronger path. And we’ll offer practical steps to keep conservatism united, effective, and true to its roots.
You might be skeptical. You might think, “We need to fight to win!” or “This label is just another way to bash conservatives or keep us contained.” We hear you. Beating the Left is vital, and we’re not here to lecture you about being “nice.” But winning doesn’t mean mimicking the Left’s worst habits so that even if we “win” we lose who we are. Winning means standing firm on our values—liberty, reason, tradition—and building a movement that wins hearts, minds, and, yes, power to serve because it’s better, not louder, meaner, or more brutal.
By the end of this pamphlet, we hope you’ll see the Woke Right for what it is: a dangerously misguided detour that we can correct together.
So let’s dive in. The future of conservatism and the country depends on us getting this right.
Chapter 1: What Is Woke?
Say the word “Woke,” and conservatives roll their eyes—or see red. It’s the battle cry of blue-haired activists—what has been called “LGBTQ Race Communism”—the hashtag of choice for every sanctimonious Leftist lecture on social media, and the excuse for tearing down everything from statues to free speech.
But what is Woke, really? It’s a term we love to mock, yet it’s slippery as an eel—overused, misunderstood, vague, and weaponized to shut down anyone who dares think for themselves. If we’re going to talk about the Woke Right, we need to pin this beast down first. Spoiler: Woke isn’t just a leftist quirk—it’s a cultural trap, and conservatives aren’t as immune as we think. Another spoiler: Woke is deeper than you think, and it can infect anything, including the Right.
The Woke Left
Woke Leftism is the Woke you’re familiar with, and it isn’t about empathy, caring for the downtrodden, or fixing real injustices. That’s what its cheerleaders and propagandists want you to believe, but we don’t fall for the bait anymore. Woke is something else, and we know it.
At its core, Woke is a comprehensive way of viewing the world that fuses moral absolutism with a hunger for control. That is, it’s a way of seeing the world (a worldview) and behaving in it (a program for activism to gain power for itself in the name of victimized or alienated groups).
Under “Woke,” it’s not enough to have an opinion—you must conform to a narrow script of “justice” or be cast out as a heretic. Picture a secular inquisition, where the priests wear pronouns instead of robes, and dissenters face social excommunication and being fired instead of flames.
Woke demands you see the world through “intersectional” group identities—race, gender, whatever—rather than seeing individuals. It weaponizes guilt to silence opposition, insisting that disagreement equals harm. It transgresses societal norms in the name of fighting its enemies. And it swaps reason for emotional narratives, where feelings trump facts every time.
Take a real-world example. In America, universities now enforce speech codes that punish “offensive” words, all in the name of protecting “marginalized” students. A professor questions the policy? He’s not just wrong—he’s a bigot, complicit in “violence.” He might get fired. The goal isn’t debate; it’s submission.
The Woke crowd on the Left frames this bullying as compassion for oppressed groups, but it’s power dressed up as pity. If you don’t clap along, you’re the problem. Sound familiar? It’s the kind of moral browbeating conservatives have spent years fighting, whether it’s in boardrooms mandating DEI loyalty oaths and behavioral codes or against social media mobs screaming “silence is violence” and getting people banned for basic true statements.
Woke is obviously intolerable, and conservatives understand we can no longer tolerate it.
How We Fight Woke Matters
Why does this grate us so much? Because Woke spits in the face of everything conservatives and all normal people hold dear. We value free speech, but Woke demands censorship for the “greater good.” We champion merit and individual responsibility, but Woke obsesses over group quotas and collective guilt. We cherish tradition—family, faith, history, country—but Woke wants to rewrite and trash it all, from toppling Churchill’s statue in London to canceling the Founding Fathers as “slaveholders.” In both Britain and the U.S., as well as across the English-speaking world, protesters have defaced monuments, claiming they’re “decolonizing” history. Also, in country after country, famed for their reasonable tolerance of difference, corporations fire employees for “wrong” opinions, cloaking explicit exclusion and ideological purges as “inclusion.” Woke isn’t progress—it’s a tantrum dressed up as a sermon, and it’s why conservatives instinctively push back.
But here’s the kicker: fighting Woke doesn’t make us bulletproof. There are better and worse ways to go about it, like with anything. The same tactics we despise—shaming, tribalism, moral grandstanding, smearing, cancellation, mob abuse, struggle sessions—can creep into our own ranks when we’re not looking. Not to sound conspiratorial, but they can also be planted into our ranks to take us astray.
Basically, we see the Left wielding guilt like a club, and it’s tempting to grab one ourselves. We watch their mobs enforce loyalty, and part of us thinks, “Maybe that’s how you win.” If everyone gets to act like a mob except us—if they’re working as a team and we’re just individuals—how can we win? If they get to play dirty and we don’t, how can we beat them? That’s where the Woke Right comes in, starting from fear, despair, and righteous anger, they reach for the club and are ready to swing. This is why we need to understand Woke not just as the Left’s problem, but as a trap we could fall into too.
Explaining Woke
Woke is a whole phenomenon. It’s a way of seeing the world as split into two teams, not just us versus them but Woke versus everybody. Karl Marx famously said these teams could be described “in a word” as “oppressor versus oppressed.” The Woke view of the world is that this conflict and the oppression that defines it is the fundamental operating principle of society and, in fact, all of history.
So “Woke” means thinking in terms of irreconcilable division and the conflict it generates: oppressor oppressing oppressed and oppressed fighting back. It’s more than just seeing real oppression where it exists in the world and taking action against it; it means believing oppression fundamentally defines society and the conflict literally makes us who we are.
Marx specifically said what we regard as “Woke” today means bringing your sense of alienation by feeling oppressed into yourself and defining yourself that way. The goal is to see yourself as part of a collective whole—not as an individual but as a member of an oppressed group. The Woke view is that the oppressed group can always team up to attack and beat its oppressors if they’ll just wake up to this collective, conflict-oriented view of the world.
Woke Isn’t Limited to “the Left”
The essential claim in this pamphlet is that “Woke” is therefore not limited to what we usually think of as “the Left.” Particularly, “the Right” can pick it up and see the world that way too, and it can wield its nasty weapons. That’s Woke Right—the Right seeing itself as a wrongfully oppressed majority group who has been pushed out of its rightful place in society by a corrupt power and as justified in using identity politics, mob abuse, shame, purity spirals, cancel culture purges, moral grandstanding, smearing, targeted abuse, and all the rest to gain power—fighting fire with fire, so to speak.
The point is that Woke is bad on its own, no matter who uses it. It’s like the One Ring in Tolkien’s famous Lord of the Rings. It confers a great portion of the power of the Dark Lord to whoever wears and claims it, but the corrupting influence of that evil power always wins out. Taking the Ring to yourself always turns what you do, and you, to evil—even powerful good characters like Galadriel and Gandalf fear it for that reason and refuse its might. It also always ends up betraying whoever claims it because it belongs fundamentally to evil, to Sauron, to whom it will always return.
This Isn’t About Left and Right
Naming and identifying the “Woke Right” isn’t about giving the Left a pass—far from it. It’s not about controlling conservatives—exactly the opposite. The Woke Right, more than anyone else, wants to control conservatives, and they’re using Woke tactics to do it. They’re attempting to define what “true conservatives” have to believe even as they tell you themselves in some cases that they aren’t conservatives at all. And if you step out of line with their ideas, they’ll weaponize social and political forces to punish you—or get rid of you.
This isn’t about Left versus Right or Right versus Left. This is about opposing Woke evil, no matter how we meet it in the world.
Woke is a cultural wrecking ball, and we’re right to oppose it—in all its forms. To fight smart, we need to know exactly what we’re up against and how it can show up looking like our friend. Woke is always about control, not compassion; it’s made for conformity, not justice. It’s the opposite of the liberty, reason, and tradition we’re trying to conserve.
As we turn to the Woke Right, keep this in mind: the Woke Left’s playbook is powerful and seductive, even for those of us who would deny its authors and specific Leftist goals. Let’s see how some conservatives are picking up that playbook and worldview in the name of the “True Right”—and why it’s a terrible mistake.
Chapter 2: What Is the Woke Right?
Last chapter, we nailed down what “Woke” means: in practice, a toxic mix of moral bullying, tribal loyalty, and emotional blackmail dressed up as justice. But it’s more than that, too. It’s ultimately a way of seeing the world (worldview) and a toxic formula for behaving in it (activism). It’s been the Left’s favorite playbook for generations, and conservatives rightly despise it for stomping on liberty, reason, and tradition.
Introducing the Woke Right
So here’s the gut punch: some on the Right are starting to play the same game: not with pronouns or DEI quotas, but with a different brand of targeted shaming, purity tests, and mob tactics for not being right-wing enough; or even racist, sexist, or antisemitic enough. Meet the Woke Right—right-wingers who (sometimes) claim to love God, country, and freedom (usually not too much freedom) but who want to fight for them with the Left’s weapons and through the Woke’s tortured view of the world.
They’re not selling out to the Left’s progressives, though some may be plants; they’re borrowing the Left’s worst habits, views, and tactics in the name of defending our best values. That is, they’re not really defending our values. They’re using our values to advance their own power.
This is similar to something you’re familiar with on the Woke Left. The Woke Left runs its tyranny in the name of defending positives like compassion, empathy, fairness, and equality (though not really equally), or in the name of defending and promoting “marginalized” people at the receiving end of “social injustices.” It sounds noble, but we know it’s a lie. They’re using these values and people as cover for their own radical agendas.
Well, sadly, the Woke Right does the same thing, claiming it defends faith, family, and country while imposing tyrannical purity codes around each. It claims to care about its own identity groups, who are sometimes getting a short shrift in Woke Left–controlled society: whites, men, straights, Christians—it has it’s own “intersectionality”! It’s a lie too. The Woke Right is mainly interested in its own power.
Of course, on the chopping block in both cases, Left and Right, is freedom, even while both claim to be fighting for a different, better kind of freedom. Also getting axed are decency, fairness, truth, justice, and, frankly, the American way. Social control and social engineering are not American values!
Woke Right: A Closer Look
Let’s unpack what this looks like, why it’s happening, and how it’s different from the conservatism we know and trust.
The Woke Right isn’t a secret society or a gang of traitors, at least not for the most part. It’s a tendency—a fever some conservatives catch when the culture war gets hot. They’re not necessarily abandoning many of their core principles; they’re still pro-life, pro-family, pro-faith, but they’re not pro-liberty anymore. Worse, instead of arguing with reason or building strong, voluntary coalitions, they’re adopting the Woke tactics we just defined: moral grandstanding, group identity, victimhood status, and social control through shame and abuse. That’s the Woke Right—same ideas, wrong playbook. Or, same positions, different goals. Or, put better in reference to the Woke Left—same energy (Woke), opposite direction (reaction).
As a result, while some of the key values are retained, others are lost—honesty, integrity, truth over tribe, fairness, decency, and stability. As with the Woke Left, these virtues are traded away in the name of desperation, expedience, and power. Times are desperate, they argue, so the ends (power, “winning”) justify the means (abuse, manipulation, and dishonesty). “Knowing what time it is” means believing you have to throw your principles away to seize the means of production and control of society.
Traits of the Woke Right
Let’s break it down with four key traits, straight from the Woke blueprint we saw last chapter.
First, moral grandstanding. The Woke Right doesn’t just disagree—they frame dissent as betrayal, good versus evil. It’s not “I think your policy’s off”; it’s “You’re a traitor to the cause!” Imagine a hypothetical Republican congressman voting for a bipartisan infrastructure bill receiving a flood of angry replies like, “He’s a globalist shill destroying America!” Never mind his 90% conservative voting record or the bridges that got fixed. The Woke Right doesn’t want to debate the bill’s merits—they swing the same moral hammer the Left uses to brand people “racist” when someone isn’t toeing their entire line. It’s Woke-style absolutism, just wearing a red (or black!) MAGA hat.
Second, identity politics, right-wing style. Remember how Woke obsesses over group labels like race or gender? The Woke Right does the same, but differently in two ways. First, their tribes are “true patriots,” “real Christians,” or “defenders of the West,” or just “straight, white Christian men.” Second, they take up the exact same labels as the Woke Left but in the opposite directions, like being openly racist or deliberately adopting a pro-white “racial consciousness.” These aren’t just ideas—they’re badges you must wear or face exile.
The general policy is “No Enemies To The Right (NETTR),” while attacking everyone who falls short of their “based” performance standard. This can only radicalize, just like the Woke Left’s policy of “No Enemies To The Left” radicalized them into a pit. It is a guaranteed purity spiral. The world gets split not into us-versus-them but into Woke-versus-everybody, and identity labels get coded as “good” (friend) and “bad” (enemy). This is the polarized, divided world of Woke.
Third, enforcing conformity through shame. The Woke Right doesn’t argue—they “cancel” conservatives who stray. Think of a hypothetical conservative podcaster who questions a total abortion ban’s electoral odds, still firmly pro-life. Within hours, social media would light up: “She’s a fake conservative! Boycott her show!” Hashtags might trend, sponsors would be pressured to bail, and her voice would be sidelined—not for rejecting conservative values, but for not passing a purity test. This isn’t the robust debate conservatives used to pride ourselves on; it’s the Left’s mob tactics, repurposed to police our own.
Fourth, occupying victimhood status. The Woke Right doesn’t see itself as a voice contributing to the conversations of the day. It sees itself as a dispossessed majority group whose voice has been silenced and sidelined, requiring them to define new conversations entirely on their own terms. They may not openly claim victimhood like the Left does, but the mentality is the same.
Conservatives have not traditionally discussed politics as a mortal battle between “friends and enemies” using Nazi political theorists until the last couple years when the Woke Right popularized and pushed Carl Schmitt for that purpose. Racism is not a conservative value, but the Woke Right promotes it as a virtue—not just playing defense but “going on offense.” No one doubted that Hitler was the bad guy of World War II until the Woke Right pushed it. All of these views are validated in Woke logic by their “suppressed rightful majority” outsider status—what the Woke Left calls “marginalized knowledges” and “other ways of knowing.” Same Woke cult of transgression, just transgressing the other way.
The Woke Right does this because it fundamentally perceives itself—meaning radical right-wingers, not all of conservatism—as a victim group of the forces of history. The Woke Right sees itself as the unjustly displaced heirs to our societies who also understand that they now need to take back their inheritance by force. This puts them on closer ground with transgender activists than with conservatives who want to make their countries great again.
Even conservatives have marginalized the Woke Right line, they argue, calling the Woke Right position the “True Right” and saying it’s finally reemerging as the “New Right.” It’s the same line we heard ten years ago with the rise of the so-called “Alt Right,” an “alternative” Right that wasn’t just opposed to the Left and liberalism but also to “status quo” conservatism as weak, corrupt, and ineffectual. It’s also the same line we heard from the Woke Left, claiming they were the true “liberals” who cared about all the right things.
This isn’t what conservatism is supposed to be. Think of Ronald Reagan, who cut deals with Democrats to slash taxes, not because he loved them, but because he knew half a loaf was better than no bread at all. Or Margaret Thatcher, who stood firm on free markets but didn’t demand every Tory chant her gospel. They built coalitions, persuaded skeptics, and won by sticking to principles—liberty, reason, tradition—not by shaming allies. The Woke Right, by contrast, burns bridges faster than it builds them, trading pragmatism for a feel-good purge. It also trashes Reagan and Thatcher as compromised “neocon” sell-outs who betrayed the conservative cause because of their insufficient right-wing purity—just like the Left does with its former leaders.
But We Need to Fight!
You might be thinking, “Hold on—the Left’s running wild! Don’t all of us need to fight dirty to survive?!” We get it. The Woke Left’s censorship, identity politics, and moral crusades are a cultural steamroller. The Woke Right’s passion comes from a real fear of losing our way of life—family, faith, freedom. The fear, despair, and desperation (the “blackpill”) are based on concerns that are real, but that doesn’t mean they lead us to making good decisions.
Here’s the trap: mimicking the Left’s tactics and adopting the Left’s worldview (framing) doesn’t make us stronger; it makes us a mirror image of what we’re trying to stop.
It’s tempting to fight fire with fire, to swing as hard and as dirty as they do. We’ve felt it ourselves. But we have to pause and ask: is this about ideas, or just feeling righteous? The Woke Right’s tactics are seductive because they promise quick wins, but they’re a shortcut to division, corruption, destruction, and handing the whole game back to the Left.
But will it work? Almost definitely—by which we mean it will almost definitely ruin us and hand the whole game back to the Left.
The Woke Right isn’t every conservative with a strong opinion. Strong opinions are good. It’s also not every conservative who is a Christian. Far from it. The Woke Right is when passion turns to dogma, when disagreement becomes treason. It’s a drift we can correct, but first we need to see it clearly.
Next, we’ll dig into why these Woke tactics are showing up on our side—and why they’re a trap we don’t need to fall into.
Chapter 3: Why Is the Woke Right “Woke”?
If you’re a conservative, the word “Woke” probably makes your skin crawl. We spent the last two chapters tearing it apart: a worldview that bullies with moral absolutes, that’s rooted in victimhood mentality, who obsesses over group loyalty, and who enforces conformity through guilt. It’s the Left’s signature moves, and we’re the ones fighting it—or so we thought.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: the Woke Right, those right-wing “victims” we met last chapter who shame, tribalize, and “cancel” their own, is playing by the same Woke playbook. Not with the same ideology—they’re still for God, country, and tradition—but in a different, evil spirit, and with a radical ideology of their own. They’re not conservatives; they’re radical right-wing revolutionaries by their own admission.
They’re not chanting Leftist slogans, but they’re wielding the same weapons and see the world through the lenses the Left gave them. Let’s look in the mirror and see how the Woke Right is Woke, why it’s tempting, and why we need to ditch this trap before it catches us.
Woke Right Wolves in Conservative Sheep’s Clothing
Nobody likes hearing their side’s got flaws, especially when we’re locked in a culture war with actual Woke ideologues. But denial’s a lousy strategy. The Woke Right isn’t Woke in the blue-haired, pronoun-policing sense. They’re not pushing DEI (but maybe reverse-DEI) or tearing down statues (yet). But their tactics? Eerily similar. Their worldview? Almost the same. Remember the Woke traits we defined: moral absolutism, group identity, victimhood, and social control. The Woke Right checks every box, just with a right-wing twist. It’s like a wolf in conservative sheep’s clothing—same teeth, different fur.
Before addressing those traits, let’s remind ourselves what Woke is. It’s a way of viewing the world and of behaving in it. The way of viewing the world is an oppressor-oppressed dynamic where the oppressor and all who side with it are completely evil and the oppressed and those who join forces with it are completely good. This dynamic is believed to be the fundamental organizing principle of society.
People who understand and agree with the “Woke” perspective of the world have an “awake” or “Woke” consciousness, and people who don’t have a “false consciousness” that has to be awakened through Critical Theory. People who aren’t “Woke” yet just might not understand, or they might be “willfully ignorant” of the state of the world, maybe by benefiting from the existing order or being paid shills for it. “Woke” is ultimately a conspiracy theory against the “oppressed” victim group.
Woke is also a way of behaving in the world that results from that core belief. That means using radical activism to change the world to destroy the oppressor, its sympathizers, and the system that produces the oppression itself. Woke will always destroy anything that gets in its way. And its favorite targets? Those closest to it who still don’t go along!
All the Woke tactics we have come to hate stem from that Woke view and that Woke disposition, which defines being “Woke.” That can be mob tactics, collectivism, bullying, Machiavellianism, lying to gain power, cancel culture, shaming, targeted abuse and harassment, hate mobs—whatever. Woke means doing anything to get power, which the Woke Right calls “winning.”
Traits of Woke
Now let’s understand that anyone can adopt a Woke lens and Woke behavior and tactics for their own ideological views, so long as they can convince themselves they’re unfairly oppressed by mainstream society.
Conservatives can decide that the demands of DEI, CRT, and Woke (Left) society oppress and victimize them just like anyone can—and they have a point, just like the Woke Left had a point, just one that gets exaggerated and twisted. They can also adopt Woke bullying tactics either strategically or out of desperation. That’s not answering evil with blessing, though, or standing in our values; it’s answering evil with evil, which is wrong even when it feels justified.
Now let’s look at the traits. Start with moral absolutism.
Woke Leftists frame dissent as evil: disagree with their dogma, and you’re a “bigot” or “oppressor.” The Woke Right does the same, swapping “bigot” for “traitor” or “RINO.” Just like the Woke Left uses tons of bad names (racist, sexist, homophobe, transphobe, capitalist, conspiracy theorist, grifter, etc.), the Woke Right has tons too (sellout, cuck, Jew, Goy, faggot, regime shill, neocon, liberal, globalist, controlled opposition, grifter, etc.). These names aren’t meant to describe; they’re made to brand someone an enemy and target them for abuse.
That’s Woke-style black-and-white thinking, where nuance is treason. The Left calls it “harm”; the Woke Right calls it “disloyalty” or “selling out.” Clinical psychologists call it “psychopathic splitting” (splitting the world into all good versus all evil). Same game, different jersey.
The Woke Right also takes a crass “reverse Wokism” policy to many of the Woke Left’s excesses.
For example, the Woke Left calls everyone racist over nothing. The Woke Right answers by deciding to be a little racist, then a little more, then eventually a lot because “racism doesn’t mean anything anymore.” Except it does.
When the Woke Left pushes these boundaries, it’s easily identified as a form of transgression. Society agrees not to be racist, and the Woke Left transgresses that boundary by making it impossible not to be racist and exempting their own favored groups from the label “racism.” When the Woke Right replies by leaning in and actually being racist within their own favored groups, they don’t resist the Left so much as they also transgress mainstream society’s boundaries. Same energy, opposite direction.
Next, look at group identity, which is ultimately politically defined and rooted in a sense of systemic victimhood.
Woke ideology hinges on tribes—race, gender, whatever—demanding loyalty to the “right” victim groups, which are defined politically. Remember Nikole Hannah-Jones from the NY Times Magazine’s “1619 Project” tweeting that there’s a difference between being “politically Black” and “racially black”? The Woke Right mirrors this with its own tribes: “true patriots,” “real Christians,” or “defenders of the West.”
The American Christian Nationalist movement mirrors this exactly with what it calls the “New Christian Right,” which we can see as being “politically Christian” rather than religiously Christian—or just followers of Christ. It’s the same collectivism we mock when the left demands “allyship” from “privileged” groups, only now it’s draped in conservative flags. The Woke Right isn’t about individuals or ideas—it’s about proving you’re one of the chosen Elect.
Both Woke groups also behave the same way. Imagine someone objecting to the Woke Left’s 1619 Project. Well, you had better be black, or you can’t have an opinion. And if you are black and still disagree, you are a “race traitor” who isn’t being “politically Black.” The same thing happens on the Woke Right. Object to Christian Nationalism or its sometimes theocratic visions? You had better be a Christian or you must just “hate” Christians. And if you are Christian and still object, you’re “attacking brothers” who is betraying some Christian code. This isn’t honest debate. It’s manipulation.
This is the same Woke trick a perverted drag queen uses when he gets called out for dancing sexually in front of children, claiming the rightful public objection to his deranged behavior is “anti-LGBTQ hate” and “attacking LGBTQ people.” The pervert hides behind gays and lesbians who want nothing to do with that behavior—and denounce it alongside the rest of us—by claiming the hate for his behavior is actually “hate” for a whole much broader preferred group.
Finally, although we just touched on it, let’s look closely at social control.
Woke Leftists “cancel” dissenters to enforce their dogma, using shame and mobs to silence. The Woke Right does the same, just with bot-enhanced social media pile-ons, cancellations, and boycotts instead of campus protests.
Consider what would happen if a conservative author (or watch company) criticized a radical populist figure’s divisive rhetoric, while strongly supporting conservative policies. Social media would light up immediately: “He’s establishment trash!” “Boycott his books (or watches)!” “He’s not conservative!” “He’s controlled opposition!”
It’s not hard to imagine his speaking events being cancelled, his work pulled from conservative channels and outlets—not for abandoning solid conservative values, but for stepping out of line. That’s woke social control, repackaged as “holding the line.” The Left cancels “problematic” voices; the Woke Right cancels “fake” conservatives. Same hammer, different nail.
The abusive tactics would be similar too for all Wokes, Left and Right. Abusers use a tactic called DARVO (which stands for Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim and Offender) when they’re exposed. Woke Leftists turn everything around into some contorted way you’re “harming marginalized groups.” That’s standard Woke Left DARVO.
Woke Right DARVO very frequently takes the form of getting called out for divisive, radical, hard-lining stances that cross important lines and turning around and saying their critics are the cause of the division. “He’s dividing MAGA!” is the cry, but all he’s doing in reality is saying that the radical direction being proposed is a bad one to take. With the Woke Right, like with all Wokes, it’s 120% of their way or the highway.
What Is the Woke Right, Really?
The fact is, Woke Right is a radical right-wing splinter movement operating within conservatism. Their objective is to take as much of the conservative movement with them into right-wing radicalism as they can, no matter how much it breaks or how much opportunity it brings to the Left. That’s divisive by definition, but it’s almost invisible until it gets pointed out. To cover their tails, they blame the division on the people who spot what’s going on and say something. That means they give conservatives two bad choices: go with us into radicalism without complaining or be blamed for dividing the movement.
Why the Woke Right Succeeds
Why do conservatives fall for this? Because Woke tactics are seductive to anyone once they’re dressed up in the right moral language. If they talk boldly and sound like conservatives, they can seduce people. When we hear our moral language being spoken, we tend to listen—and agree. Tribalism easily takes precedent over truth for almost everyone.
The Right is particularly afraid and demoralized lately, too. That makes it worse. The left’s been winning by swinging hard—censoring, shaming, rallying their base—and it feels like we’re losing ground. It’s easy to get desperate. The Woke Right takes advantage of that situation, sometimes very manipulatively. It sees the Woke playbook and thinks, “If it works for them, why not us?” It’s tempting to fight fire with fire, especially when you’re angry or terrified. The outrage is cathartic, but it will usually cost us. Woke tactics promise power, activity, and decisiveness, but they’re a shortcut to nowhere, trading long-term wins for short-term applause.
Here’s the rub: adopting Woke tactics doesn’t just mimic the Left—it risks turning us into them. The term “Woke Right” is confusing because it seems like an oxymoron. That’s not because they’re not “Woke,” though. It’s because that behavior doesn’t seem to match the Right, which people confuse with conservatism.
Every time we shame an ally, we erode the free speech we claim to defend. Every time we demand tribal loyalty, we ditch the individual liberty we’re fighting for. Every time we participate in these abuses, we contribute to them.
The Woke Right thinks it’s slaying dragons, but it’s raising one, fracturing our movement in the process. We don’t need Woke weapons to win. Conservatism’s strength is in our principles—reason, freedom, tradition, liberty—not in becoming a right-wing version of the Woke mob.
What Should We Do?
So what’s the way out? We start by seeing the trap for what it is and standing up to it, while we invite as many of our friends to come back to sanity and conservatism as we can.
The Woke Right isn’t the Left, but it’s closer than we’d like to admit. If the Woke Left is a kind of neo-Marxism, the Woke Right is a kind of neo-Fascism in reply. We’ll lose our freedoms either way.
The Woke Right isn’t popular. It’s a splinter that should be kept as small as possible and allowed to break away without taking conservatism with it. So, we can—and must—fight the culture war without their playbook, using arguments that persuade, values that are true, and coalitions that endure.
Next, we’ll explore how we got here—why conservatives are falling for this—and how to chart a better path.
Chapter 4: How Did We Get Here?
If the Woke Right is a new twist in right-wing and conservative activism—using progressive tactics like shaming or tribalism to defend twisted versions of conservative-sounding values—how did we end up here? Nobody wakes up one day and decides, “Let’s mimic the Left!” At least not until they’re as desperate for power as the Left.
The rise of the Woke Right didn’t happen in a vacuum. It’s a reaction to real pressures and real fears: a culture that feels like it’s slipping away, a Left that’s gone off the deep end and that seemingly cannot be stopped, politicians and corporate leaders enacting global plans with no accountability, and a world where outrage travels faster than reason. To understand why some on the Right are fighting fire with fire, we need to look at the forces pushing us there. This isn’t about blaming anyone—it’s about seeing the bigger picture so we can chart a better path.
The Cultural Context
Let’s start with the cultural context. Over the past decade, the progressive (and Marxist) Woke Left has pushed harder than ever to reshape society. In America, we’ve seen schools teaching kids about gender ideology before they can spell. In Britain and America both, statues of historical figures have been toppled in the name of “decolonization” and “antiracism.” History is being erased and rewritten. Policy is almost all Woke.
The impacts are real, awful, and in some cases proving dangerous and deadly—consider the military helicopter that recently crashed into a passenger jet over the Potomac River as it came in to land in Washington, D.C., at the Reagan International Airport, for one tragic example. Across many Western countries cancel culture has silenced voices, from comedians to professors, for stepping out of line. Some have even committed suicide. And let’s not forget the corporate embrace of “Woke” policies—think DEI quotas or brands preaching about social justice, even in the military and air traffic control, not to mention medicine.
For conservatives, this feels like an all-out assault on the institutions we depend upon, the countries we love and defend, and the values we cherish: free speech, tradition, merit, and common sense. In some sense, it is. It’s also dangerous. It also feels unstoppable as we’ve sought to fight back but the Left just keeps going.
This overreach has sparked a backlash, and rightly so. Conservatives have watched their institutions—schools, churches, public commissions, academia, the judiciary, even the military—get infiltrated and bend to progressive demands, and we’re fed up. The Woke Right emerges from this frustration, saying, “If the left plays dirty, we need to match them.” It’s why you see conservatives on social media rallying along with right-wing radicals to “own the libs” and to destroy “cuckservatives” with the same moral fervor the Left uses to shame “bigots.” The logic is simple: when the other side’s screaming loud, you grab a megaphone too. But here’s the catch—when we adopt their tactics, we risk losing what sets us apart.
The Effect of Social Media
Social media is the gasoline on this fire. Platforms like X amplify outrage, reward hot takes, have algorithms that are easily gamed, are filled with foreign and domestic propaganda and political warfare, and turn debates into tribal wars. A single post calling out a “RINO” or “traitor” can rack up thousands of likes in hours, many of which are actually fake, making the poster feel like a hero. On the other hand, posts defending good values can get viciously attacked and “ratioed” just as easily and, often, just as fakely. This isn’t reasoned debate; it’s digital manipulation and lynch mobs, fueled by the same dynamics that power left-wing cancel culture.
Social media isn’t just a digital public square where everyone’s voice can be heard. It’s also a propaganda battlefield where fifth-generation warfare tactics and psychological operations increasingly define the online experience. It’s also an unbelievably opportune space for creating false appearances, reflexive campaigns, and fake news. The trouble is that too much fake news and manipulation can also make a Fake MAGA. That’s the Woke Right.
The Psychological Drivers
Then there’s the psychological side. Normal humans crave certainty, especially in chaotic times. For conservatives, the world feels chaotic indeed: globalization eroding national identity, secularism challenging faith, and elites (even conservative ones) seeming out of touch. The Woke Right offers a kind of simplified but dark moral clarity: “We’re the true defenders of the West, and anyone who disagrees is the enemy.”
It’s comforting to divide the world into heroes and villains, especially when you feel under siege. That’s why you see conservatives rallying around terms like “Christian Nationalism” or “America First” with an almost religious zeal. It’s not just about policy—it’s about belonging to the “right” tribe. But again, “us versus them” easily gets twisted into “the Woke against everybody,” which becomes “our way or the highway.”
This tribalism is supercharged by a loss of trust. Conservatives no longer believe in the media, academia, or even some of their own leaders. In the U.S. think of how many Republicans rightly view “the establishment” with suspicion, blaming it for weak responses to Marxist policy and reckless progressive gains. In the UK, Brexit exposed a similar divide, with many Tories feeling betrayed by party elites who seemed too cozy with globalism. When you don’t trust the system, you turn to populism—and populism loves simple narratives and demagogues. The Woke Right thrives here, offering black-and-white answers: “If you’re not with us, you’re against us.” It’s “us against the world.”
As for the Woke Right themselves, they are often driven by dark impulses. As we discussed earlier, underneath the drive to radicalism is often despair, desperation, fear, and anger. Lashing out in frustration or seeking catharsis over the injustices we’re seeing and suffering is real. Some are just playing a transgressive game—like leaning into racism or antisemitism for laughs or to “own the libs”—that gets out of hand. Others, more dangerous, present dark psychological traits like the “Dark Tetrad” traits of psychopathy (narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadism) or even personality disorders. Woke systems are easily gamed by these unsavory characters who can substitute obedience and malice for competence to rise through the ranks.
What Led Us Here?
Key moments have fueled this shift. In America, Donald Trump’s rise was a turning point, but that energy is being co-opted to drive right-wing extremism. His unapologetic style inspired conservatives to fight harder, but it also normalized a take-no-prisoners approach. Disagree with the leader? You’re a RINO, unworthy of the movement. In Britain, Brexit was a similar catalyst, galvanizing conservatives to defend “the will of the people” against any dissent, even from within. These moments were right, and they gave conservatives a taste of victory. But they also emboldened a mindset where loyalty trumps debate, and where tactics matter less than winning. In these situations, values and principles are the first casualties.
They were also unpopular—despite eventually winning. This initial unpopularity among the mainstream for both movements opened a door to a raft of first adopters, who got on board ahead of everyone else. In America, this was mostly the Alt Right getting behind Trump early on, though his coalition rapidly grew to a huge proportion of everyday patriotic Americans who are not extremists. Nevertheless, these radicals not only found an early political home in these movements; they also came to identify with them. To the Alt Right, MAGA has always been their movement, and they see it as a grave injustice that less radical Americans have come to define the brand, marginalizing them.
This fact has set up an uneasy coalition for over eight years, one in which the radicals increasingly had to behave themselves, particularly after the incidents at Charlottesville in 2017. Many slowly started to organize behind the scenes and lay their plans. Then, as Trump started to ascend again in the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election, they awoke and took action. Their goal was to seize back the movement and party they lost, and by that point, they had woven themselves deeply into its fabric.
Woke Right vs. Conservatism
The Woke Right has always been at odds with conservatism, though. It was conservatives who failed them in the first place, they think. It was conservatives who displaced them from their own movement, even though it couldn’t have won without mass conservative support. It is conservatives more than anyone—more even than the Left—who marginalizes the Woke Right. So it is conservatives who are the Woke Right’s main enemy. Again, not the Left. Conservatives.
As a result, the Woke Right attacks principled conservatism directly. They eagerly accuse “muh principles” as being the cause of “losing with dignity.” Principles, real values, and dignity all get washed away in the pursuit of power and “winning” at any cost. We have to ask ourselves: if that’s the case, even if we win, who have we become by winning that way? The answer is we’ve become Woke, and rather than defeating Woke, we become the authors of Woke’s ultimate victory.
But Shouldn’t We Want to Win?
You might be thinking, “What’s wrong with winning?! What’s wrong with fighting hard? The Left’s winning because they’re ruthless!” We hear you. The Left’s aggression has pushed us to the wall, and nobody wants to bring a knife to a gunfight.
The Woke Right’s zeal partly comes from a real desire to protect our way of life—family, faith, country, though according to their own frantic vision. To that end, it has adopted authoritarianism and attacks individual liberty. It’s also being pushed and channeled by bad actors who have more specific agendas.
At the end of the day, when we borrow the Left’s playbook, we risk becoming a mirror image of the evil that we hate. The Woke Right has already done this, and that is what it has become. Shaming our allies doesn’t strengthen us; it fractures us. Demanding purity doesn’t win elections; it alienates voters. And chasing moral certainty at all costs doesn’t preserve truth—it buries it under dogma.
Furthermore, it’s not like the Left has gone away. In fact, it’s oddly quiet about all this, ugly as it is. Smart money would guess it’s waiting, letting the Woke Right take conservatives and MAGA too far, and they’ll strike back successfully at the most opportune times—like right after a crisis or right before an election.
Who Benefits from the Woke Right?
The Woke Right didn’t appear out of nowhere. It’s both inorganic and organic; top-down and bottom-up. On the organic side, it’s a response to a world that feels like it’s turning against us, amplified by technology and distrust. On the inorganic side, it’s fueled by agents provocateur, foreign interference, clout-chasing grifters, and other bad actors. It’s also likely encouraged, if not funded, by some of the exact shadowy agencies we’ve been fighting on the Left—ask yourself, who really benefits here? And who is throwing the money behind this? China? Russia? Islamic countries? The Deep State?
Still, understanding its roots shows us why it’s a trap. We don’t need to mimic the Left to win—we need to be better. In the next chapter, we’ll explore why this shift is a problem, not just for our principles, but for our ability to actually achieve our goals and save our countries from Woke.
Chapter 5: Why the Woke Right Is a Problem
You might be thinking, “Okay, so some conservatives are getting a bit intense. What’s the big deal? We’re in a culture war, and the Left’s playing dirty. Don’t we need to match their energy to win?” It’s a fair question.
It’s also a little more complicated than that. There aren’t just two political teams slogging it out, and not all Wokes are created the same.
Pushers and Fellow Travelers
First, there’s a difference between “conservative” and “right-wing.” Second, like on the Woke Left, there are the pushers and there are the fellow-travelers. The pushers are the real Woke Right. They’re Woke on purpose and pushing decent conservatives into the Woke mode. The fellow-travelers are almost all good conservative people who are desperate, fearful, caught up in the momentum (say, of “winning”), or just wanting to fit in. The Woke Right pushers are setting the tone and the trends, and the Woke Right fellow-travelers probably don’t even know they’re being misled into being Woke.
The Woke Right fellow-travelers—those conservatives who have taken to using progressive tactics like moral shaming, identity politics, and cancel culture—come from a place of passion. They want to protect our values, just like you and me, but they’ve lost the plot.
Here’s the problem: their approach isn’t just a different style of fighting. It’s a trap that sacrifices conservatism from the inside out. It divides us, erodes our principles, and hands victories to the Left. It also corrupts those who participate in it, as all evils will do.
The Woke Right pushers, on the other hand—right-wingers (not conservatives) who are setting the Woke pace for other conservatives—come from a place of pursuing power. Some of them are very bad actors or even agents provocateur whose role it is to make MAGA fail. They’re using the fellow-travelers to get it done. It’s exactly the same as on the Woke Left, where Woke Left pushers are chasing power and using fellow-travelers and the name of minority groups to get it.
This is important because it means the Woke Right pushers are the real problem, and the Woke Right fellow-travelers, while still acting badly, are welcome and encouraged to come back to defending family, faith, freedom, and country in better ways as soon as they can see and escape the trap.
Woke is evil. It always works like this. Manipulative ideologues create circumstances like social circles and value structures (say, about what it means to be a “true conservative”) with cult-like organization and political litmus tests for “inclusion” to get other good, well-meaning people to carry their dirty water for them.
Woke Right Can’t Win
Let’s unpack why the Woke Right is a problem, not just for our ideals, but for our ability to actually win.
First, the Woke Right fractures our coalition.
Conservatism is a big tent—libertarians, traditionalists, populists, moderates, and lately, in MAGA and MAHA, a lot of Democrats who want America saved from the Democratic Party, which has gone bad. They’re all united by a belief in things like liberty, tradition, free speech, reason and dialogue, and limited government. But when the Woke Right demands ideological purity, they alienate allies we need.
Imagine a football team where the players start brawling over who’s the “real” star instead of facing the opponent team. That’s what’s happening when we “cancel” conservatives for minor disagreements. Now imagine their posturing chases off a lot of the crowd that supports the team. That’s kind of what it’s like. It’s doing the Left’s work for them.
Second, the Woke Right undermines the very principles we’re fighting for.
Conservatism has always stood for free speech, individual liberty and responsibility, self-government, and reasoned debate—and most of all a commitment to truth and justice. In fact, it sees these as a sacred tradition from our forefathers that it is ours to protect and conserve, then pass on to future generations in our posterity. But when we mimic the Left’s tactics, we betray those ideals.
If we “cancel” a conservative for questioning a radical proposition, how are we different from progressives who silence dissent? If we demand loyalty to a group identity like “true patriot,” “whites,” “Heritage Americans,” or “New Christian Right” over individual judgment, aren’t we echoing the Left’s collectivism? If we adopt lying to gain power, how are we standing for truth? None of this is defending conservatism—it’s punishing free thought and association, the same way the Left does.
In the end, however, even if the Woke Right does manage to win, it isn’t conservatism that won. It’s radical right-wing authoritarianism with “right-wing” progressive aims. If the Woke Right wins, exactly the things conservatism exists to conserve will be lost. It’s a form of losing by “winning.”
It Isn’t About Conservatives; It’s About Americans
This hypocrisy hurts our credibility. Moderates and independents—the voters we need to win elections—see us acting like the Left, and think, “Why vote for an uglier copy when I can get the original?” At least the Left’s marketing slogan is about equality, not inequality. It sells better. Just look at New York City.
The Right taking up Woke is like a restaurant advertising “authentic home cooking” but serving fast food. We lose trust when our actions don’t match our values. It isn’t like moderates who lean left are supporting conservatives happily. If it’s the same Woke, different side, they’re going to take the one on their own side.
This issue is massively amplified when the Woke Right leans into things most people abhor, like (real) racism, sexism, antisemitism, and all the rest, not to mention authoritarianism, Fascism, or even National Socialism. Moderates who held their noses to vote for Trump will regret their vote and make sure never to do anything like that again—and they’ll tell ten friends how wrong they were and how they were tricked. We will not win anything that way, and what loses most is America.
Perversely, the Woke Right actually likes that losing situation because for all its talk about “winning,” it actually cares far more about doctrinal purity, control, and force, so it will destroy the coalition it takes to win in America by trying to force it all to be radically right-wing on its narrow terms. Like all Woke, the belief is that the only way to win is to have a forceful enough cadre in solidarity that will take power.
But It Is About Conservatives, Too
Worse, this hypocrisy and abuse creates a culture of fear within our own ranks. Conservatives start self-censoring, afraid to speak honestly lest they be branded a “RINO,” “cuck,” “Jew,” “neocon,” or “sellout.” People will be thrown out as fakes for not being radical enough.
This is already happening. The self-censorship is already shockingly deep, even with conservatives. If we can’t debate ideas openly, we’re not conserving freedom—we’re building our own echo chamber. If we don’t correct this soon, its disease will go terminal, just like we watched happen on the Left over the last ten years.
Having the Wrong Priorities
The Woke Right also costs us practical wins. Elections, policies, and cultural influence depend on broad support, not just passion, but their all-or-nothing mindset often sacrifices unity for purity.
What delivered Trump and maybe America out of the clutches of the Democrats was a big, broad coalition who came together for America, not a small band of abusive radicals. The mandate of the 2024 election was against the Woke Right radicals, but they’re acting like it was for them instead, and they’re bullying and abusing anyone who tells this obvious truth.
This behavior will turn off voters and shatter the coalition. It’s snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. These aren’t hypotheticals—they’re real losses we’re already suffering, and we will suffer them “big league” later because the Woke Right prioritizes being “right(eous)” over being effective.
Here’s a simple analogy to tie it together. Conservatism is like a ship sailing through a storm—the progressive waves are crashing hard. The Woke Right thinks the answer is to fire cannons at our own crew, who it blames for the rough ride. They’re shouting, “Only the purest sailors stay on board!” But every time we throw someone overboard, the ship gets weaker. We lose navigators, engineers, and deckhands who could’ve helped us weather the storm. Sometimes the cannons blow a hole in our own deck! The Left doesn’t need to sink us—they just watch as we sink ourselves.
Much of the Woke Right’s passion comes from a good place, or is based on real concerns, but its tactics are a losing strategy and its view of the world is Woke. These bad tactics are encouraged by a group of self-appointed cultural right-wing leaders who only care about gaining power—unless they’re plants meant to undermine us. They divide our coalition, betray our principles, and cost us winnable fights.
If we want to conserve what matters—freedom, family, faith—we need to reject this trap and fight smarter. In the next chapter, we’ll look at how to spot the Woke Right in action, so you can see it coming and steer clear.
Chapter 6: Recognizing the Woke Right in Action
Now that we’ve defined the Woke Right, explored its roots, and seen why it’s a problem, let’s get practical. How do you spot this tendency in the wild? The Woke Right (mostly) isn’t a secret club with membership cards—it’s a view of the world and set of behaviors that can creep into our conversations, social media feeds, and even our own thinking. Woke is a mind virus, and it can infect anyone. Conservatives have different “receptor sites” for the Woke mind virus but can suffer the same disease with only slightly different symptoms.
Think of this chapter as a field guide, like identifying birds in your backyard. By learning the signs—language, actions, and patterns—you’ll be better equipped to recognize the Woke Right in action and steer clear of its traps. This isn’t about pointing fingers; it’s about sharpening our instincts to keep conservatism strong, healthy, true to itself, and united.
The Woke Right shows up in four main ways: the language they use, the behaviors they exhibit, the mindset the hold, and the platforms where they thrive. Let’s break each down in turn. At the end, we’ll offer a way to check yourself, because—let’s be honest—we’ve all been tempted to join the outrage at some point.
Sign 1: Moral Grandstanding Language
The Woke Right loves language that paints issues as black-and-white, good versus evil. They don’t just disagree—they declare war on “traitors” or “fakes.” Words like “RINO,” “sellout,” “globalist,” “controlled opposition,” or “shill” (and a lot worse) are their ammunition, used to shame anyone who steps out of line.
If a conservative says something nuanced, like “Maybe we should prioritize border security over a total immigration ban,” the Woke Right might respond with, “You’re either for sovereignty or you’re with the open-borders crowd!” Notice the absolutism—no middle ground, no debate, just moral ultimatums—psychopathic splitting again. This kind of language isn’t about ideas; it’s about signaling who’s “pure” enough to belong.
How to Spot It: Listen for absolutes. If someone’s calling a conservative a “traitor” or “fake” over a single issue, or if they frame disagreement as a moral failing, that’s Woke Right language. Ask yourself: Is this about solving a problem, or just sounding righteous?
Sign 2: Shunning or Attacking Allies
The Woke Right doesn’t just argue with fellow conservatives—they try to exile them. If someone deviates from the “correct” line, they face boycotts, cancellations, or public shaming, often online. It’s not enough to disagree; the Woke Right wants to punish. This mirrors the Left’s cancel culture, where dissenters are cast out to enforce conformity. This isn’t debate; it’s a purge, designed to silence anyone who steps off the script.
How to Spot It: Watch for attacks that go beyond ideas to target a person’s character or livelihood. If conservatives are trying to “cancel” one of their own over a single misstep, that’s Woke Right behavior. Ask: Is this criticism meant to improve our side, or just to destroy someone? If it’s the latter, why?
Sign 3: The Woke Mindset
Again, Woke is a way of viewing the world and a way of behaving in it. While we’ve been talking about the behaviors so far here, there’s also a mindset. It’s victimhood-driven oppressor-versus-oppressed splitting function. It’s you’re either all the way with them or totally against them.
It’s a world of doctrinally pure friends versus everyone else as enemies. It’s a world in which rebellion against civility, decency, and principle is justified because it can be framed as being against “the Left.” This is just the same as how everything Woke Leftists do is allegedly in the name of stopping “racism” or defeating “Nazis” or “Fascism,” even when they’re mostly targeting normal people.
How to Spot It: Watch for expressions that suggest feeling like a dispossessed victim of society and its structures, deep us-versus-them or Woke-versus-everyone-else rhetoric and framing, and claims that our problems are structural and require both structural solutions and group solidarity to “win.” Look for radical solutions that discard the Constitution as if it’s part of the problem. Wokes always attack the mainstream of society while pretending they’re attacking the radicals on the other side.
Sign 4: Social Media Pile-Ons
The Woke Right is a very online phenomenon, and it thrives on platforms like X, where outrage spreads like wildfire. They organize campaigns to shame or “expose” conservatives who aren’t “loyal” enough, using hashtags, memes, and threads to rally the mob. These pile-ons aren’t about persuading—they’re about enforcing tribal loyalty and flexing power. A lot of them are also fake, amplified by bot networks paid for by our enemies to sow and inflame division.
How to Spot It: Look for coordinated outrage on X or other platforms, especially when it’s less about debating ideas and more about rallying a crowd to attack. Smearing language is common, especially questioning someone’s loyalty, commitment, moral standing, alignment, or psychological health. If a conservative is trending for being “disloyal” rather than for a clear betrayal, that’s likely the Woke Right at work.
Checking Yourself
Here’s the tough part: the Woke Right isn’t just “other people.” We’ve all felt the pull to join the outrage, to call someone out, to prove we’re on the “right” side. We’ll admit it—we’ve caught ourselves retweeting a snarky post about a “RINO” before pausing to think, “Wait, is this fair?” Try this: next time you’re fired up about a conservative who’s “betrayed” the cause, ask yourself three questions:
- Am I reacting to their ideas, or just their failure to signal loyalty?
- Would I call them out this way in person, or is X making it too easy?
- Is my response building our movement and aligning it with its principled goals, or tearing it down or taking it in a new radical direction?
Recognizing the Woke Right starts with awareness. It’s not about being perfect—it’s about catching those moments when we’re tempted to trade reason for tribalism. By spotting these signs in others and ourselves, we can keep our focus on what matters: defending our values without becoming what we oppose.
In the next chapter, we’ll talk about what we can do to push back against this trend and strengthen conservatism.
Chapter 7: What Can We Do About It?
We’ve seen how the Woke Right—radical right-wingers using progressive tactics like shaming, tribalism, and purity tests—divides our movement and country, betrays our principles, and costs us wins. It’s tempting to shrug and say, “That’s just how politics works now. The Left set the rules, and we have to play by them or just suffer losing.” But it doesn’t have to be like this. It isn’t possible to beat the Left by becoming a different version of the Left.
Conservatism thrives when we stick to our strengths: reason, liberty, tradition, and a willingness to debate ideas without eating our own. The Woke Right is a detour, not a destiny, and we can steer back to a stronger, true, and united conservatism. We just have to remember our principles and the societal tradition we’re really trying to conserve.
This chapter is your toolbox—practical steps you can take, both as an individual and in your community, to resist this trend and build a movement that wins without losing its soul.
Individual Actions: Maintain Your Principles
The fight against the Woke Right starts with each of us. It’s not about grand gestures—it’s about small, deliberate choices that add up. Here are three ways to keep yourself grounded in principled conservatism.
- Know Your Principles (and Keep Them): You cannot stay true to your principles unless you know what they are. Spend some time getting to know the principles and the tradition (Anglo-American liberty and the Constitution) you are trying to conserve. Understand why these principles matter and why they deserve to be offended. You cannot defend or conserve your principles if you don’t understand what they are and why they matter.
- Pause Before You Pile On: Social media, especially X, makes it easy to jump into the outrage cycle. See a post calling out a “RINO” or “traitor” or something nastier? Before you retweet or comment, take a breath. Ask: “Do I know the full story? Is this attack about ideas, or just signaling loyalty?” Count to ten before hitting “send” on an angry post. It’s a small act that keeps you focused on principles, not mob mentality.
- Engage in Good-Faith Debate: Woke is almost always bad-faith debate pretending to be good-faith. The Woke Right shuts down disagreement with labels like “fake conservative” and “Woke Lite.” Don’t play that game. If you disagree with a fellow conservative, talk to them like an friend, not an enemy. Imagine you’re at a pub with a mate who’s got a different take on, say, trade policy. You wouldn’t scream “globalist!”—you’d argue your case and listen. Online, try the same. Good-faith debate builds bridges and sharpens our ideas, unlike the Woke Right’s shaming.
- Promote Ideas Over Identity: The Woke Right loves tribal badges—“true patriot,” “real Christian”—but conservatism is about ideas, not loyalty tests. Focus on policies and principles, not who’s “in” or “out.” If you’re sharing a conservative post, highlight the argument, not the applause. For example, instead of tweeting, “This guy’s the only real conservative left!” try, “Here’s a great case for school choice—check it out.” Ideas persuade; tribalism divides. Put truth over tribe, every time, even when it’s hard to.
- Watch Out for Subversives: Woke Right is mostly not an organic movement. It is shepherded by bad actors and fueled by the enemies of America, both foreign and domestic. It is not possible to win over a bot, troll, chaos agent, or subversive. Therefore, you have to learn to identify bad actors and limit their influence over you. Mute and block accounts on social media that promote radicalism over staying the course. Woke is always seductive, so you have to protect yourself.
- Disengage from Political Warfare: A lot of Woke activism is done “reflexively,” and that requires your participation. You’ve probably heard it called “the current thing,” which means the “current thing everyone is talking about right now.” You have to give your opinion, your “take,” and what you don’t realize is that the game is rigged. It doesn’t matter what opinion you give, just that you participate in the conflict. If you’re too moderate, you’ll be struggled toward radicalism. If you are radical enough, you’ll be celebrated by the radicals posing as being on your side. The point of the game is to raise the temperature, divide, polarize, and cause a fight that splits people apart. The only way to win is not to play.
Community Actions: Build a Better Conservatism
Resisting the Woke Right isn’t just personal—it’s about the spaces we create together. Whether it’s your local conservative group, church, or online circle, you can help foster a culture that rejects divisive tactics. Here’s how.
- Support Leaders Who Model Principled Engagement: Not every conservative hero needs to agree with you 100%. Back leaders who prioritize principled engagement over purity tests. In the U.S., a governor (Glenn Younkin, R-VA) recently won election by uniting libertarians, evangelicals, and moderates around shared goals like lower taxes and parental rights. When Woke Right voices tried to brand him “soft” for compromising on minor issues, his supporters pushed back, highlighting his results. Champion these voices—vote for them, donate to them, amplify their work on X. They show we can win without tearing each other apart. It’s not about supporting “sellouts.” It’s about supporting the principles upon which our society must be built to thrive.
- Create Spaces for Open Dialogue: The Woke Right thrives in echo chambers where dissent is punished. Counter this by fostering places where conservatives can debate freely, without fear of being “canceled.” This could be a local meetup, a church discussion group, or an X thread that invites real talk. These spaces remind us that disagreement isn’t betrayal—it’s how we grow stronger.
- Call Out Woke Right Tactics—Gently: When you see Woke Right behavior, like a pile-on or moral grandstanding, don’t stay silent. But don’t fight fire with fire. A gentle nudge can work wonders. For example, if an X post attacks a conservative as a “sellout,” reply with, “I get the frustration, but let’s focus on their voting record—how have they delivered?” Calling out bad tactics with respect keeps the conversation on track.
- Draw Clear Lines—Sharply: The Woke Right isn’t all just misguided. It is dangerous to the people it attacks, those it seduces, to conservatism, to MAGA, and to America and the world. The philosophies it considers unfairly “marginalized” by the “postwar consensus” (its systemic power dynamic) include not just conservative and “right-wing” ideas but Fascism, totalitarianism, theocracy, and a rejection of the American way of life. The behaviors they engage in—from racism to antisemitism and various forms of division and polarization—are toxic and deadly to both reputation and movement. A sharp line needs to be drawn between principled conservatism and Woke Right radicalism, and the sooner and sharper the better. If we wait too long, it won’t just get worse; we’ll find ourselves lost to radicalism and destruction like what Woke did to the Left.
But Wait! Doesn’t that Make Us Woke Right Too?
You might be thinking, “Wait! If we draw clear lines against the Woke Right and call them out, isn’t that sort of us being Woke Right too? Aren’t we doing identity politics by calling them ‘Woke Right’?” These are fair questions.
The answer to both questions is no, it does not make us Woke Right to reject the Woke Right, to label them “Woke Right,” or to call out bad behavior on “our own side” when we see it. Gatekeeping is a necessary function for any political project. Think about it. Would you knowingly let subversives into your movement if you knew their goal was to take you down? Of course you wouldn’t. They need to be gatekept.
As for it being a kind of “identity politics” or “cancel culture,” what identity group is the Woke Right? It’s not any identity group at all. It isn’t limited to one race, one sex, one nationality, or one religion. Even though Christian Nationalism is almost all led by Christians, most Christians aren’t in agreement with their radical movement or Woke tactics. Woke isn’t actually about identity. It’s about radical politics. Woke hides its radical politics behind identity like a shield so its harder to call out.
And it’s not cancellation to demand responsibility in doing your job. The Woke Left tried this deflection too! Several years ago when people started to stand up to them and as the fight to push DEI out of our institutions has gained momentum, they cried foul and said it was “cancel culture on the Right.” No it wasn’t! It’s actually a way to take responsibility to get radicals, revolutionaries, subversives, and grifters out of positions they abuse. And besides, it’s the Woke worldview and tactics we’re disagreeing with, not any particular people—unless we find out they’re deliberate plants or subversives.
A Vision for Victory
These steps—pausing, debating in good faith, promoting ideas, supporting unifying leaders, creating open spaces, drawing sharp lines, and gently redirecting outrage—aren’t just defensive. They’re a blueprint for a conservatism that wins.
The Left wants us divided, distracted by infighting while they push their agenda. They also benefit by the Right overreacting badly and adopting ugly postures. By rejecting the Woke Right’s tactics and Woke worldview, we can build a movement that’s smarter, stronger, and more persuasive. Imagine a conservatism where we debate policies like adults, rally around shared goals, and welcome allies instead of exiling them. That’s a conservatism that can attract new voters, win elections, shape culture, and protect what we love—freedom, family, faith, and tradition.
But Can It Work?
You still might be thinking, “This sounds nice, but the Left’s too aggressive—we can’t just play fair!” We hear you. The Left’s ruthlessness is real, and we need to fight hard with firmness and a resolute spirit. But hard doesn’t mean reckless.
The Woke Right’s tactics are like swinging a sledgehammer in a glass house—sure, it feels powerful, but it shatters our own foundation. We don’t need to mimic the Left to beat them. We need to outthink them and beat them with principle, which they have abandoned. Every time you choose reason (which is our Anglo-American tradition) over outrage (which is not), you’re helping conservatism stay true to itself, and you’re helping the good guys win.
So start small. Next time you’re on social media, pause before joining a pile-on. Reach out to a conservative you disagree with and have a real conversation. Share a policy idea instead of a tribal jab. Support a leader who builds bridges. Check yourself and draw meaningful lines based in solid principles, not the lust for power. These actions ripple outward, creating a conservatism that’s not just loud, but lasting. We can fight for our values without becoming what we oppose—and that’s how we’ll win.
Conclusion: A Stronger Conservatism
We’ve traveled a lot of ground in this short booklet, from spotting the Woke Right’s tactics to understanding why they’re a problem and how we can push back.
The Woke Right—right-wingers (not conservatives) who adopt progressive-style shaming, tribalism, and purity tests to defend distorted conservative values—isn’t (just) a conspiracy or a betrayal. It’s a maliciously misguided response to a world that feels like it’s turning against us, and it’s trying to co-opt well-meaning conservatives to grab power for itself.
Progressives push harder every day, from rewriting history to silencing speech, and it’s natural to want to fight fire with fire. But as we’ve seen, mimicking their tactics doesn’t make us stronger—it divides us, undermines our principles, and hands certain victories to the Left. The good news? We can do better. We can build a conservatism that wins by staying true to who we are.
The Woke Right’s challenge is real. When we shame allies as “RINOs” or “sellouts” over minor disagreements, we shrink our coalition and look like fools. When we trade reasoned debate for moral grandstanding or cancel culture, we betray our commitment to free speech and individual liberty. When we prioritize ideological purity over practical wins, we lose elections and policies that could advance our cause. When we adopt ugly modes like racism, sexism, and antisemitism just to prove how not-Left we are, we become ugly ourselves—and people notice.
We’ve seen it all in action: right-wingers attacking conservatives on social media, crying foul and displacing blame for their divisive tactics, splitting voting coalitions, scaring off normal people and moderates, and costing us winnable seats in America and Britain and beyond. It’s a trap that feels righteous but leads to defeat.
But this isn’t a story of despair—it’s a call to action and a path to victory. Conservatism has always been about conserving what’s true, good and just: freedom, family, faith, tradition, country, and the rule of law. We don’t need to become what we oppose to protect these things. In fact, we can’t. We lose ourselves that way and won’t be conservatives any longer. We’ll become “traditionalist” progressives ourselves, which is the gateway to genuine Fascism and the loss of freedom forever.
Our strength lies in our principles—reason over outrage, truth over tribalism, unity over division. Think of the conservative giants who came before us. Ronald Reagan didn’t win by purging moderates; he built a coalition that persuaded millions. Margaret Thatcher didn’t shame dissenters; she argued her case with clarity and conviction. They fought hard, but they fought smart, and they won because they stayed true to what conservatism means. Trump has done the same.
The Woke Right wants to denigrate Reagan and co-opt Trump. Like all Wokes if they cannot win Trump to their intolerant side they’ll turn on him and try to destroy him. Trump, though, is not Woke Right and never will be. Unlike the Woke Right, he is actually based.
Final Words
You now have the tools to resist the Woke Right. Pause before joining an X pile-on. Debate in good faith, even with conservatives you disagree with. Promote policies, not tribal badges. Support leaders who unite us, create spaces for open dialogue, and gently call out divisive tactics. Draw sharp lines against bad behavior, abuse, and radicalism. Do not participate or condone such things. Support people the Woke Right attacks. These aren’t just ways to avoid a trap—they’re steps toward a conservatism that’s stronger, more persuasive, and more effective. Every time you choose principle over outrage and truth over tribe, you’re helping our movement grow.
The future is in our hands. Imagine a conservatism where we debate ideas like adults, not children throwing tantrums. Picture a movement that welcomes allies, from hardcore traditionalists to pragmatic moderates, because we know we’re stronger together. Envision a coalition that wins—not just by being louder, but by being better, with arguments that convince and policies that deliver. That’s the conservatism we can build, and it starts with you.
So let’s get to work. The left wants us fighting each other, distracted by purity tests while they reshape the world. We won’t let them. We’ll fight for our values—liberty, tradition, truth, justice—with the clarity and unity that have always defined us. The Woke Right is a detour, not our destination. It’s a pit, not a platform. Together, we can steer back to a conservatism that doesn’t just survive but thrives. Take pride in who we are, and let’s fight for what matters without losing ourselves. The stakes are high, but so is our resolve. Here’s to a stronger conservatism, a brighter future, and Making America Great Again!
12 comments
I didn’t understand what your many posts on X were getting at until I read this. You guys make great points, but this is ten times longer than it needs to be. You’ll reach a wider audience with a rewrite.
Hello, Dr. Lindsay. I’ve followed your works for a while and with regard with woke right I have a question for you. To what I understand, according to you, modern woke left trace back to Herbert Marcuse and the Frankfurt School. I was also wondering if we can trace back the woke right to Alain de Benoist and the French New Right.
@James Solbakken
So Whites created nuclear fission, which ends up being destructive (atomic & hydrogen bombs), biting their own rear end. This logic is tosh.
Creating and signifying identities (Jews) is what the woke Left revels at.
I have not seen Kirk or Johnson want to use fascistic/authoritarian methods to combat the Left. Have you?
I don’t believe that “woke-Right,” unlike woke-Left, connotes a cultural category – rather a political category.
Thank you for this interesting article. I note that you have avoided using the word “religion” which is what wokeism is and which would have put this political philosophy in a better analytic context. Probably in deference to Christians. You may want to use the word “quasi-religion” or “pseudo-religion”.
Frankly I don’t understand the backlash this article has received from some on the Right.
Also you have avoided the word “liberal” due to the confusion it creates. So may I suggest “classic liberal”, or non-left liberal, or even liberal democrat which logically implies capitalism. “Moderate” or “centrist” does not convey the same meaning as non-left liberal, IMO.
“The way to combat anti-semitism is to first understand it. I believe it’s a spiritual deception first, but also a problem created by Jews because they, in their cleverness, have created things like Islam, and Communism, and Liberalism, which end up being destructive and also biting the Jews themselves in their own rear end.”
Funny how much your idea of “how to combat anti-semitism” sounds like anti-Semitism. But that’s probably just my Jewish cleverness speaking as I contribute to your international conspiracy to create Islam, Communism, and Liberalism and destroy Christianity.
I quibble a little about exactly who is in the woke right as I like Charles Haywood and Darryl Cooper and think they are helpful in expanding empathy for certain groups and they also have metaphysical grounding that prevents them from spiraling off completely into wokeness.
But I agree with you 100% about the Groypers as I’ve had people from that circle try to influence me (and others pile on when I resist). They’re particularly trying to dig their way into Catholic circles even as they frequently practice the opposite of what they preach and seem to always have a habit of destroying effectual conservatism through their toxicity: https://grainofwheat.substack.com/p/the-nick-fuentes-question?r=1mcpmt
I wrote an article semi-criticial of you last winter when I first encountered this debate but I’ve become far more cognizant of the Groyper threat since and while I still disagree with you on things like the St. Michael prayer, etc, I’m glad that you are pointing out the intellectual risks. Your interview with Bret Weinstein really helped clarify a lot recently.
@James Solbakken
“The way to combat anti-semitism is to first understand it. I believe it’s a spiritual deception first, but also a problem created by Jews because they, in their cleverness, have created things like Islam, and Communism, and Liberalism, which end up being destructive and also biting the Jews themselves in their own rear end“
Congratulations for your DARVO, sir. Too bad this is also the same “logic” the woke left use against whites. “Don’t you think minorities hate whites because they invented racism, colonialism, imperialism , etc…”
If you asked what woke right means you can just look into a mirror
The problem with so-called “Conservatives,” which I used to think I was, is that they seem to not appreciate importance of things like borders, language, and culture. If you don’t conserve the basic elements of a society, you’re not “conserving” anything. What you call the “woke right” is not something you can dismiss by creating a straw man and knocking it down. The way to combat anti-semitism is to first understand it. I believe it’s a spiritual deception first, but also a problem created by Jews because they, in their cleverness, have created things like Islam, and Communism, and Liberalism, which end up being destructive and also biting the Jews themselves in their own rear end. The Jews hated Christianity because they sincerely believed that it was a terrible heresy against their religion. They thought they were doing God service trying to eliminate it. They thought is was their duty to do so. I don’t blame them for that, but they need to learn what Gamaliel meant when he said that they should be careful about presuming such things. There’s just a lot of deception going on, the only solution is lots of sun light. I’m the kind of “conservative” who believes that the essence of liberty is the limitation of government. There’s no room for communism or big government liberalism in my preferred world view. I’m all for Lockean tolerance, but “anything goes” is clearly evil and wicked and would destroy everything I care about.
@William Vojtech
Have to agree. I suspect this is mainly a problem with the laziness of resorting to AI.
As written, this is sort of hypocritical. It criticizes a group for it’s habit of purity spirals and gatekeeping, while being guilty of the same. The whole thing is rather vague, since it outlines a perceived problem, then can’t arse itself to bother with anything concrete.
I suspect it’s giving more weight to Twitter idiocy than is warranted – a symptom of the perpetually online.
James-
I read a bit, then skimmed, looking for a list. I need a list. I don’t have time to read/listen to everyone and determine if they’re woke, I want a list of politicians and pundits who are woke right and of those who are not. Include statements they’ve made that back up the claim.
Excellent article.
Have you considered taking the next responsible step and naming some of woke right polemicists like Charlie Kirk, Benny Johnson and Laura Loomer so we know who you are talking about?