One of most bizarre things about Wokeism (to me) was how absurd it got, and how quickly. My first personal experience of this goes back to the pre-Trump era. I am socially liberal, and back then I was also into Social Justice. An acquiantence stated it was racist for people who don’t come from an east-asian country to do Fung Shui. I thought this was a joke at first. I pointed out that we don’t believe in magic, and even if we did, it seems MORE racist to claim that “Racial Magic exists” than to say “all magic is available to all people.” This made me the racist.
This makes much more sense upon realization that Wokeism isn’t just a civil religion, it’s a Totalitarian Religion. It requires “a monopoly on belief and the total commitment from those who lived within them.” One of those beliefs is that the Wokes are fighting for the oppressed, and anyone who isn’t Woke is an oppressor. The way you identify if someone is Woke is by whether they recite Woke catechism. You can tell they are an Oppressor is they speak against a Woke catechism, like I had when saying Feng Shui isn’t racially-bound.
This leads to some really crazy contortions. Absurdities, one might say.
A transman, having transitioned and fought for transrights back when they were hated and persecuted, is considered transphobic for rejecting Woke dogma.
Asian students are reclassified as not “students of color” in Washington and Maryland school acheivement reports.
Black people who don’t support leftists are routinely dismissed as not really black. To the point that people who don’t support Biden aren’t black.
This Totalitarianism of Thought is much of what drove me away from religion back in my teens. I did not expect to be back in the Atheism Wars this many years later, but now fighting against a religion without a God. I thought the South Park episode were groups of future atheists are having religious wars with each other was stupid and absurd when it came out and uh…. man. Guess I was really, really wrong on that one.
Much like traditional religions, the aburdities turn out to be a feature, not a bug! Professing belief in absurdities binds you closer to a group. Believing true things has no cost, but believing false things does, so it is costly signalling your dedication to the group. The more absurd and/or costly a belief is, the more tightly it binds the true believers.
It’s unfortunate that non-traditional religions aren’t covered by the wall of seperation between church & state in America. Nonetheless, I think it’s usefull to keep drawing attention to the fact that Wokeism is a civil religion, and a dangerously totalitarian one at that. The enemy has adapted, but it’s the same old foe under a different mask. Let’s gird up again.