Remember all those years ago when I said the whole 'woke this' and 'cancel culture that' were a waste of time because the press isn't running with the terminology? Well professional Catholic apologist Mark Shea demonstrated better than I can why those who would resist the Leftwing juggernaut would do well to find a different approach than running about yelling 'Woke!':
Yep. Jesus was woke don't you know. The ultimate woke. - the Resurrection! Therefore anything accused of being woke is Jesus? I know, it's borderline blaspheme from one who once said he used to confuse American Conservatism with Christianity. Glad he's learned his lesson.
Nonetheless, there is some truth to what he says. If I'm not mistaken, that's where the term came from. It was usually white liberals of sufficient means suddenly realizing that a wide array of their demographic identifiers were, in fact, of the Nazis. Whether it was liberal men realizing the inherent worthlessness and sexist evil of all men, or liberal whites realizing that the white race is a pox upon humanity, or white 'conservatives' seeing the light of the all saving gospel of liberalism, it meant they 'woke up' to the truth that really saves. That is, everyone else in their respective demographics are reprobates who simply aren't as righteous and holy as I am because they haven't realized how reprehensive their respective demographic really is.
Conservatives ran with that idea, using the word 'woke' the way that liberals use the word 'white' today - exclusively as a negative. The problem, again, is that the press isn't in on it. Somehow, after only a decade ago when many were planning funerals for the press due to the Internet and Social Media, the press is alive and well and wielding more power than ever before.
Therefore, if you want to speak of the great 2021 Asian Holocaust, you can and, more than that, you can influence society, silence dissension, and punish wrong-thinkers. If you want to scream #MeToo or White Privilege, you'll be heard from the Atlantic to the Pacific. It will become more sacred than the KJV to a Baptist fundamentalist. In a few months, you may have the international community and some popes I know jumping on board. It doesn't have to be true. The press is on your side, and that's what matters.
But if you yell Woke, or Cancel Culture, expect to have laughter and giggles at best. So just stop. Don't keep doing what isn't working. Instead, just say to someone on the leftwing something along the lines of 'I understand you believe your superior values should be legislated by the State in order mandate conformity and punish or ban all who offend your morals', or some such. That's all we're really saying when we say woke. We're saying yesterday's liberals are now today's frothing at the mouth fundamentalists. Sure, it's not a pithy little slogan that fits on a button. But when the ones who make the buttons say they won't play your game, you're forced to improvise.
Dave, I think you're missing a couple of things here that make you come off as scolding the cripple.
ReplyDeleteNamely, that "woke" is - as far as I can tell - originally invented by activists to refer to themselves. Wikipedia claims it began in 2014. Kind of like how the left likes to alternate between being called "progressive" vs "liberal" depending on which has the best social capital at the time.
Secondly, how much do you expect the right to do without the media helping them to coordinate messaging? For example, during at least Trump's tenure (and possibly even earlier) I've heard the terms "crybully" and "neo-puritans" used to describe those people. (SJW is another self-selected term) I know there's more I'm not remembering right now. From your post it's clear you haven't heard these terms before, despite being a few years old. Maybe think on why you haven't?
Otherwise it's like you're yelling at a team for getting penalties in a game where the refs are rigged.
Ah here we go. I remembered one example. BlueAnon was a term used there. (and note that is the leftwing newsweek I'm using as a source)
ReplyDeleteWhich urban dictionary took down. (at least for a time, it was apparently put back up) I've also seen twitter do this whenever a hashtag goes viral which they don't lie, it will suddenly vanish in favor of hashtags with far less tweet activity.
So you know. What are conservatives supposed to do when the literal system will work to suppress any term/meme/etc which might pose a serious challenge?
I get what you're saying, but I often grow tired of something or someone keeping on with an approach that clearly isn't working. I say just call them out for what they're doing: punishing or banning that which doesn't live up to their superior morals. That's what they're doing. I know the press won't run with it, but the press won't run with anything at this point. Pick something else that will work. This clearly isn't working. I don't think it's even that much of a rallying cry at this point. You can't say what it is - a movement dedicated to destroying America and the West. They'd just deny it. But they can't deny they are wanting to punish people who don't conform to their values. Well, they can. But at least now they know we know what they're doing.
DeleteYeah, but also I'm not sure that will be effective either as I've seen plenty of examples of sarcasm being lost on people. I literally saw someone tweet the other day, "First they came for [subject], and I said nothing because it's just a single person and they're a horrible person."
DeleteI certainly agree whatever is effective should be embraced - but then again whatever is effective gets buried and repressed as fast as possible.
The other difficulty, of course, is that in an actual war, you at least have death. Death is wonderfully binary and not up for debate - a person is either dead or not. So in war, there is a very simple and elegant method for determining whether something is "working" - are the more dead of the enemy than of ourselves?
But in a culture war? How do you define victory? How do you measure gains and loss? I admit, there's no easy answer.
I suppose we could simply return to the pejoratives of a century ago and refer to them as radical anarchists which is both descriptive of their objective of destruction and has an historically accurate meaning.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how anarchist they are. I think they have a definite purpose, and it isn't anarchy.
DeleteMaking the determination of success whether the press runs with something is a big big mistake. The press is an instrument of the enemy, so of course they will quash anything which would benefit us.
ReplyDeleteIf there's any mistake in terms of rhetoric, it's in not going far enough. The left is an anti-Christian death cult and should be called as such. This type of rhetoric will obviously never get picked up by the press, but it is tremendously helpful in getting people to realize what we are up against and what sort of actions are likely to work or fail. For example, asking large corporations to stop making blasphemous material because it costs them sales won't work; the point is to attack Christ and the west, not to make profit.
You're absolutely right. This is, in the end, a spiritual war. And the left is simply a word we have for those who have aligned against God.
DeleteWith that said, my point is that using these terms doesn't help nor does it work. They may get those faithful to gnaw their teeth and shake their fists, but it isn't translating into real, urgent action. Those aligned against the Church and the West, on the other hand, have decided to do the above: mock, dismiss, laugh.
I think it is time for the faithful remnants to admit what is happening and what has happened and call a spade a spade. None of which seems to work by using the terms that are now of now use to anyone.
That is super-cringe. It reminds me of all of evangelical mock-ups of popular culture with Jesus jammed into them--e.g., Jesus: He's The Real Thing.
ReplyDeleteOr, I kid you not, "Budwiseup: His Blood's for You."
Does ring a bell now that you mention it. And there were few bigger critics of such evangelical tricks than Mark.
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