As Trump fascism, and the system of capitalism-imperialism that spawned it, threaten humanity's future, this truth must be confronted:
As Trump fascism, and the system of capitalism-imperialism that spawned it, threaten humanity's future, this truth must be confronted:
“WOKE” IS A DESTRUCTIVE FORCE
in the political, intellectual, artistic and ethical life of society
Updated
Identity politics... relativism... standpoint epistemology... “Woke”... call it what you will. All these outlooks deny the possibility of knowing reality as it objectively exists, doing great harm!
“Woke” once meant righteous awareness of racial oppression. It has long since morphed into lunatic and vicious mob mentality. A bloodlust to target and tear into individuals, while cowardly ducking, and often, actively obstructing the needed fight against the system of capitalism-imperialism and its overthrow through an actual revolution!
See Bob Avakian's writings on:
Opposing “Woke” Distractions and Obstructions
Watch: Bob Avakian—Woke is a Joke, a Bad Joke
Woke Lunacy and Trump/MAGA fascism are in a deadly dance, mutually opposing, while fueling the other. Fascism is the far greater danger. But the brittle bravado of “woke” doesn't merely collapse in the face of fascism, it strengthens it.
At a time of unprecedented change—as the “powers that be” clash and as cohering norms of the U.S. are ripping—there is a much greater chance to bring this whole oppressive system down and bring forward truly liberating future. We must seize this chance and rise to this responsibility.
Out of love for humanity and the planet, out of a profound respect for truth and science, and out of revolutionary determination for the emancipation of all of humanity, we will defend and debate the following, in the public square and in public discourse:
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1 Woke Lunacy: Insisting there is no objective reality; each person “owns” their “truth”
Woke Lunacy denies an objective reality, while at the same time brutishly dictating which parts of reality people of different “identities” are allowed to speak or act on. If objective reality were just a “white European” or “masculinist” construct (as Wokesters often claim), try crossing the interstate at rush hour without getting hit by the reality of speeding cars.
Truth is not a composite of “narratives.” Truth is what corresponds to objective reality. This can be determined through scientific, evidence-based methods. Direct lived experiences can contribute to this process, but science, and the scientific method, is decisive for determining what is true—and acting on that basis to radically change the world.
2 Woke Lunacy: An obliterating obsession with changing words—and an ugly erasure of women
Woke Lunacy does not differentiate between malicious, neutral, or benign intent. Ritual humiliations of well-meaning people for using “wrong” words are the petty power plays of schoolyard bullies. Word changing is no substitute for WORLD changing.
Take the erasure of woman, which reached its fanatical height right as the Supreme Court was overturning women's fundamental right to abortion. Wokesters attacked anyone who used the word “woman” as “transphobic.” They insisted, instead, on dehumanizing phrases like “people with uteruses” and “chest feeders.” No! Attacks on trans people must be fought, but the fight over abortion has always been a fight over women's liberation or enslavement. Muddying this, as the Woke Establishment did, demobilized resistance and strengthened the Christian fascist crusade against both women and trans people!
3 Woke Lunacy: “Me, Me, Me”—cocooned in an American Empire that savages the world
The one privilege Wokesters rarely call out is American privilege. Many want all they can get of that privilege.
The woke mob posts their accusations of “privilege” and “colonization” from phones brought to them by the blood and tears of child slaves in Congo who mine the cobalt these phones require. Those whose horizons don't extend beyond “inclusion” and “equality” within the most blood-soaked empire in history embody these bitterly ironic lyrics from Bob Dylan: “We looted and we plundered on distant shores. Why is my share not equal to yours?”
4 Woke Lunacy: Hiding from reality with “trigger warnings,” “safe spaces,” and “trauma culture”
Everyone needs to confront the barbaric history of slavery and ongoing white supremacy, as well as other forms of oppression.Exposing this is not “trauma porn.”
Acting as if oppressed people are fragile beings who will fall apart at a “triggering” phenomenon is a hallmark of condescending saviors. Trauma from this system is real, but needs to fuel fighting the source of oppression and injustice.
The best things to happen in college are intellectual challenges, debate and critical thinking, learning about the world… standing up for a great cause even at the risk of one’s safety, and radically changing the world with revolutionary joy.
5 Woke Lunacy: Firestorms of woke-mob “cancel culture” to tear down individuals
Instead of exposing and transforming oppressive institutions, woke culture unleashes cruel witch hunts to destroy the reputations, careers, and lives of individuals. Revenge is not justice. Woke Lunacy reduces people to a single mistake, or even a mere accusation, rather than evaluating the arc of their lives. Imagine if this criterion were applied to all of you!
Woke Lunacy mirrors the Red Queen of Alice in Wonderland, “Sentence first—verdict afterwards.” Rule of law, presumption of innocence, and evidence out the window. With regard to rampant sexual assault, we need an atmosphere where women can come forward, be taken seriously, and where there is due process, all as part of getting to a radically different world – not the blanket and damaging standard of “Believe All Women.”
6 Woke Lunacy: Accusations of “appropriation” censoring artistic expression
Identity hustlers have turned censoring art into an art form of its own. Cancelling authors, blacklisting fiction, covering murals, censoring art because the creator is of the “wrong” identity—or because it's not “their” story to tell. Woke Lunacy treats the diverse fluorescence of cultures and struggles of our planet as property to be owned and commodified, miserly guarded against “appropriation.” If art and fiction were restricted to direct experience alone, would there be any left?
7 Woke Lunacy: Insisting on “BIPOC leadership”—when there is no such thing!
Who is “BIPOC leadership,” pray tell? AOC? Kamala Harris? Candace Owens? Clarence Thomas? When children in Yemen, Pakistan and Afghanistan were afraid to look at a clear blue sky because of Obama’s drones raining down bombs and terror, do you think they gave a fuck that he was the first Black president?
Leaders should be evaluated not based on “identity,” but on whether they are correctly identifying the source of the problem, pointing the pathways to getting humanity free, and bringing forward others who can do the same.
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In the words of Bob Avakian, revolutionary leader and author of the New Communism:
Instead of “staying in your lane,” and “going for self,” while this system is moving to even more decisively crush any hope for a world worth living in, people need to be looking at the bigger picture, focusing on the greater interests of humanity and the possibility for a far better world—and acting to make this a reality....
Instead of snarking and sniping at each other, and being divided by “identities,” people should be working to unite everyone, from every part of society, who can be united in the fight against oppression and injustice, with the goal of putting an end to this system that is the source of this oppression and injustice.
