Woke's Dead, Unless You Fear It
The people are asking: Is woke1 finally dead? My initial answer is an evident yes. Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter was the first major blow, and Trump’s recent election victory felt like the knockout. The moment it first dawned on me that woke was on its way out was when I saw this video earlier in the year:
If then-UFC champion Sean Strickland had shared his opinion on transgenderism during the peak of the woke years (2019–2020), the internet would have seemed to erupt in an uproar. It could have led to an attempted boycott of the UFC, with efforts to force them to fire Strickland. Now, in 2024, there were a few mainstream articles weakly criticizing it, but that was all. The cultural power of the wokescolding reporters is gone, and they are now simply ridiculed.
Another sign was when corporations began moving away from “woke capitalism” during last year’s Pride, showing their reluctance to pander to one side of the culture war only to face the wrath of the other:
More evidence: Culture war pundit Matt Walsh’s new film, Am I Racist?, an anti-antiracism documentary, was shown in local theaters here in Toronto this summer. During peak woke, theaters showing such a film would likely have faced boycotts. Lastly, and perhaps marking woke’s symbolic end, AOC removed her pronouns from her X bio, reportedly after Trump’s election. This claim was “fact-checked” by AOC herself, who revealed that the removal occurred earlier and was, according to her, a casualty of X's word limit constraints. Nonetheless, she did remove them.
I am biased in believing in woke’s demise, as my livelihood is independent of large institutions, where the woke infection tends to set in. I know people who work in universities, and they still fear it—woke is still very much alive for them. Hence, to modify my answer: woke is dead, unless you fear it.
My wife had a good analogy for this. She referenced the It movie, where the nightmarish “entity” clown grows in proportion to the fear it evokes, preying on people’s bespoke fears. Spoiler alert: the less they feared it, the more it shrank, revealing what it truly was. The big clown world monster was ultimately exposed as an incredibly fearful little being.
In my recent explorations of discarnate entities, including “egregores” (a kind of groupthink that seemingly becomes an autonomous entity), the practical advice across various perspectives is that if you do not fear them, they have no power over you. The more you fear them, the more attention you give them, and the more they grow. They thrive in proportion to your fear, feeding off it.
The Culture War Left is often synonymous with woke; however, many actual leftists (Democratic Socialists and Marxists) have been trying to extract the woke egregore from their ranks for years. This effort dates back to the late anti-capitalist philosopher Mark Fisher, who captured the vampiric quality of this egregore in his 2013 essay Exiting the Vampire Castle. Instead of focusing on collective solidarity, leftist circles are stalked by a parasitic moralism, which has neutered their organizational potential.
I do think woke culture is declining, as more people like myself have stopped fearing it. However, those still situated within a Vampire Castle—whether in the workplace, school, or communal gatherings—may feel they cannot speak their truth without facing social repercussions. In such environments, expressing support for Trump, saying "it’s okay to be white," admitting to not being vaccinated, asserting a belief in two genders, or even suggesting that gender is a silly construct, can make the room go cold.
The icy silence is usually broken by someone in the group wielding the wokescolding confidence of a Karen, using their privilege to check yours with just the right amount of passive aggressiveness to make things thoroughly awkward. The tension is palpable, the prospect of an actual argument is deeply uncomfortable, and the worst-case scenario—the threat of publically being labeled some kind of “-ist”—lingers in the air. It’s often easier to just shut up, nod along, and pretend to agree.
No. You cannot do that. Not anymore, because woke is dead—unless you fear it. The open secret has always been that the truth will set you free. If you fear, courage is needed to speak through the fear. If you do that, you’ll eventually stop fearing, and what you fear will shrink and will no longer have power over you. So, speak the truth, or at least convey it. If that is too difficult, you must not convey anything contrary to the truth, as doing so comes with soul-costs.
Sure, you can wait out woke’s death and avoid exercising your courage, but you have a soul-opportunity in front of you now. Besides, it’s not just about you—it’s also about those possessed by this egregore. Telling the truth not only brings internal integrity but also invites integrity in others. One of my favorite philosophy books is Abuse of Language—Abuse of Power by Catholic philosopher Josef Pieper. In it, he argues that failing to speak the truth to another is to deny them a slice of reality.
Whoever speaks to another person—not simply, we presume, in spontaneous conversation but using well-considered words, and whoever in so doing is explicitly not committed to the truth—whoever, in other words, is in this guided by something other than the truth—such a person, from that moment on, no longer considers the other as a partner, as equal. In fact, he no longer respects the other as a human person. From that moment on, to be precise, all conversation ceases; all dialogue and all communication come to and end.
To rehumanize each other and foster real dialogue, speaking truthfully and allowing the spirit of truth to flow through is essential. The challenge is that not everyone is equally verbally fluent or has their arguments neatly lined up. Additionally, facing what’s known as a “high conflict person” can be daunting. However, you don’t need to take the conversational bait; you just need to make your position clear.
For some reason, those with woke proclivities, especially when in a Vampire Castle, often speak as if everyone automatically agrees with their views, creating uncomfortable situations for those who don’t. The art here is not to seek out an argument or feel pressured to defend yourself but simply to state your position. For example, if someone with Trump Derangement Syndrome starts spewing hatred toward the man and you like him, you can simply say: "I like Trump."
That’s it. You’ll have to live with the awkwardness, the shocked silence, and the performative horror. If they ask why or jump to wokescolding you, just respond: "I don’t want to talk about it." That’s it. State your position, then assert that you don’t want to discuss it further. Sometimes, stating your position isn’t appropriate due to the context. But whatever you do, don’t nod along as if you agree with something you don’t. Never. Ever. Do this.
This rule not only applies to those afraid of nightmare clown-vampiric egregores but also to whichever polarity of the culture war you find yourself in. There are fools on both sides, and you don’t have to agree with them, nor do you have to argue with them. However, it’s important for you to overcome your fear, and let them feel the truth upon which you stand.
If you have any questions, insights, feedback, or criticism on this entry or more generally, message me below (I read and respond on Saturdays) …
People put "woke" in quotation marks to signal doubt that the word has a clear meaning or that its definition is ambiguous. I’m going to stop doing this because I want to clearly state my definition of it: “A reality-denying egregore that feeds off fear, superficially adopts progressive politics, and scapegoats "privileged" demographics for the world’s ills.”