Thank you, thank you, yet again Mr. Rufo, for your deep insight into the nature and intent of our adversaries, and your exceptional ability to expose their battle strategies!!
I have just emerged from a beautiful Easter weekend shared with friends. As usual, the experience was intensely bittersweet. I had not seen many of these friends since the spring of 2020 when the COVID lockdown was initiated. Most of them are practicing Catholics and we had started our Easter Sunday by going to Mass together. Portland has finally emerged from enforced COVID restrictions, so for some of us, it was the first time in three years that we had gathered in a large enclosed building with a couple hundred other people.
Nowadays when I reunite with friends I haven't seen in awhile, my pleasure is diluted with a felt need to steel myself against the reaction I expect to receive when I tell them what I have been up to recently. It feels like "coming out" as some kind of pariah to a disapproving family, while at the same time being unwilling to be silenced or intimidated. I of course did receive the predicted reactions, because that is pretty much all that ever happens in Portland. My friends responded with stark expressions of horror and revulsion to my disclosure that I was not as thrilled as they are by the indictment of Donald Trump, and that I am focused on a far more dangerous Enemy of Our Democracy.
They are at least as terrified of Gov. DeSantis as they are of Trump, and were aghast that I am supporting his work. We had to have a conversation about the "Don't Say Gay Bill," and when I explained that there is no such thing, I was immediately told that my friends "do not trust anything they are told by anybody anymore." I told them that I feel the same way, which is why I go to original sources, like the actual text of the Parental Rights bill.
The people at this gathering had absolutely no awareness that the Woke Cult exists. They have not been exposed to any significant media coverage of the Cult, even from a favorable perspective. They asked me, obviously perplexed, "but who are they and where are they?"
It is very difficult to answer that question when the Cult is hidden in open sight. Critical Theory is too esoteric and inaccessible for most normal people to read about, and the believers accept it as Truth, rather than one of many ideologies that can be deconstructed. This is of course typical of cults, which pretty much always have private languages and bizarre beliefs. The difference is that the previous cults that flourished in Oregon didn't mange to take over the state, so the population here didn't need to study their nonsense to protect themselves.
The takeaway from my most recent encounter with Democratic friends is that they are completely oblivious to the fact that there has been a successful takeover of our country by an authoritarian cult. The leftist media have achieved a near total lockout of any accurate information about it, and have managed to substitute the distraction of the Trump prosecution to keep their constituents entertained.
As I left the Easter dinner gathering, my primary feeling was one of gratitude to you and to the other activists on Substack for keeping me sane. A year ago I felt completely alone with my fear and anger as I live here behind enemy lines. "The Invasion of the Body Snatchers," (one of my lifetime favorite movies) often comes to mind. I make a point of calling the adversary The Woke Cult because that is precisely what they are.
I have the exact same experience with my Democrat friends and family … they simply have never been exposed to the same information you and I have. They have never even HEARD of Ivermectin!!! I live in a small blue city in SoCal. My adult children were marinated in left wing ideologies in college and grad school, and are absolutely insufferable. If I didn’t have Substack and you fellow commenters, I would have no one.
Ha! I have to laugh but I really do feel your pain. I also live in a small SoCal town that recently elected an unapologetic Marxist to be our mayor. For real. The Democrats along with a Brooklyn based bunch called the "Working Families Party" funneled about 150k to win this seat. The job pays $1,200 a month and only 3k voted out of a town with a 11k registered voters. The point is we're doomed but please don't give up on your kids yet. Even after the East coast college thing the move to Texas and marrying a straight up no-nonsense Texan my kid either had a lobotomy, just love or a dose of reality. Something wonderful happened as they don't know that I know they didn't vote for Beto. Keep the faith and gift them a year of Mr. Ruffo's substack.
I am so sorry to hear that your children are involved in this hateful movement! I know several other sets of parents that have been horribly treated by their young adult children. Usually the kids come back to the family, but they don't necessarily take responsibility for their behavior or offer any apologies.
That is one of the fundamental problems. The other one is the nervous, repetitive comment, “I don’t want to hurt anybody, I don’t want to offend anybody.”
I totally agree and have thought the same regarding “The Invasion of the Body Snatchers”. My own son asked me if I got my information from QAnon, along with a few other Democratic friends…sigh! I’d only heard vaguely of QAnon. But then I got to thinking, where were THEY getting information from, they all basically were chanting QAnon! QAnon! It was rather an uncanny experience and I can only think that QAnon was what the mainscream (Not a typo) media was feeding people at that time. I thank God every day for people like Rufo and Victor Davis Hanson and Thomas Sowell to name a few, who lay out the arguments against this madness so clearly. The last name in particular is inspirational since he has been a lone voice in the wilderness since the 1960’s. Thomas Sowell along with Walter Williams (another great conservative commentator) used to joke they should never fly in the same plane as the ideas they had were too valuable!
My husband and I take it as a badge of honour when we don’t get invited back to dinner parties! We are never rude but stand our ground. I have lost many old friendships of thirty years or more because I just can’t go along to get along but I have made new friends too and for that I am thankful. Stay the course people! And get involved on the local level.
My friends interrogated me about whether I favor Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is equated with QAnon in the minds of the "mainscream media." (I love that!)
Thomas Sowell is one of the most brilliant men of our times. It is a pity that so many people have not been exposed to his thinking.
The Left has been moving the lexicon for decades. It’s a shell game. They were liberals until they were progressives until they were woke. Now that they have been nailed again, they want to bar that term.
Simply stated, the Left are the agents of chaos. They are ALL “AOC” now. Let’s just call them AOC. 😎
This is also a characteristic of cults. (The totalitarian nature of these groups may be the primary correlate of the manipulation of language, as you stated). Cults tend to appropriate common English words or technical terms from academic fields and assign them new meanings, so that they became cult jargon (e.g., the Scientologists use of the word "clear"). This enables the cult members to speak private languages without being obvious about it, and contributes to the formation of an exclusionary barrier around the group. The critical theory activists have become quite adept at switching meanings of words rapidly back and forth during conversations to confuse and defeat potential challengers (e.g., "gender"). We need to come up with rhetorical countermoves to this manipulation in particular. They will change their strategies in response, but at least we will be able to get rid of some of their favorites, like "Don't you believe in Systemic Racism?"
There are still too many that continue to play defense, letting the woke either define terms or imply ambiguity where there's concreteness. "Transphobe" has no definition that I know of, yet it's slung around to shut up debate, so I'll define it as I see it: one who doesn't believe adults should be allowed to cut parts off children, one who remembers the basic biology lessons from middle school, one who believes female sports should remain female, one who does not believe children are the property of the state or school system, and one who believes in bodily autonomy and privacy vis-a-vis the opposite sex. This makes me a transphobe and it's an honor to be called a transphobe.
That's right, these are schoolyard insults with political connotations. And, unfortunately, conservatives still need to figure out how these words work and how to defeat them.
Instead of asking others to define a word, start out by stating a definition and then if the woke (violent communists) disagree, then ask them why they are bigots.
Agreed! If they are going to continue changing the meaning of a word, or dictating who’s allowed to say it, the “anti-woke” should define them with our own words. Words with clear meaning that can’t be redefined, and most importantly used by anyone on either side of the issues. I’m going to suggest “the sleep” or “the delusional”. As a supporter of democracy and meritocracy, I encourage you all to share your ideas below or vote for a winner.
Just when I think the left can stoop no lower, a new atrocity surfaces.
Unfortunately, this one has FBI backing (surprise, surprise!) so anyone criticizing woke leftists and even complimenting fellow dissidents by calling them "Chads" or "based" or "red-pilled" is now considered by the FBI to be "promoting violent extremism." Beware, Michael Malice!
I'll tell you something: the more such actions are taken the more likely violent reactions will occur. I suspect the FBI is baiting the Right, deliberately trying to provoke angry, threatening email responses and dearly hoping for actual violent retaliation. Unlike the race riots of the past few years and the perpetual antifa insurrection, any action from the Right anywhere close to "violent" will be pounced upon by the Feds and their whores in the media as the next January 5th-style "insurrection," justifying even more imprisonment without bail and re-igniting their demands for a Ministry of Information.
The Right cannot, under any circumstances, take the bait. We have to show patience, resolve, seriousness, and self-restraint at all times. We have to occupy and hold the moral high ground. Let them provoke—then expose the provocation and control the reaction.
I completely agree! Your advice is not only necessary to hold the moral high ground, it is essential to winning wars. We are in fact defending our country against a kind of psy-op, and we need to cultivate the level of strategic thinking and discipline that military professionals exhibit.
I have had that sense as well, that we are being tested (like vaccines and mandates)to see how much encroachment of our liberties we will tolerate. The obsession by the left with drag queens and transgender push seems like another test. How willing are we to deny reality?
The left are looters and bullies. They appropriate language to manipulate. They appropriate our tax dollars for extreme green energy and diversity agendas. The term woke now has a negative connotation, so they cry foul. Too bad. They earned it.
I vaguely remember years ago when some rapper started using the n word in songs etc. there was some debate for a while whether that was appropriate. At first it was startling, but then it became common. I think it was important for blacks to take away the power of the slur for them. It worked. My son recently said to me that being called a racist holds the same slur connotations to white people. I had already given up that fear when I realized that I could be called a racist merely for my existence by any stranger who hurled it at me. So I agree we know what woke means and I for one am not afraid to use it.
The word "racist" is designed as a conversation-stopper. It exits the realm of logical and rational argumentation, by design. The idea is to mobilize guilt, shame, and fear.
Writer Jonathan Kay, one of the reasons Quillette lost its mojo (The other Claire Lehman's COVID decent into madness) just published an article entitled "Defining ‘Woke’ (a Word We Should Probably All Stop Using)". Chris is correct in that we all know it when we see or hear it. Just like porn. But if we have to pick a side, we should have an expectation that the political or conservative elite class we are told to rely on relative to any hope of legislation to confront it should be able to explain it with confidence. Not a dissertation on CRT but a short concise elevator speech will do. With the acceptation of Gov DeSantis and POTUS candidate Vivek Ramaswamy who understand it and speak to it with confidence, way too many make a mess of it, and we all know what the social media fallout looks like. That's why conservatives have lost control of abortion conversation and it will hurt in 2024 unless we understand that language matters and consistency across all of us is crucial.
Excellent expose using the semantics of sign / meaning in a linguistics semiotician’s vocabulary and pointing out the value of signifier/signified in relation to the passage of time that allows for redefinition of a hot-potato ( old childhood game) issue.
That your analysis advances the thesis “ point/counterpoint “ can no longer stand since the point maker now has signaled policy must be made due to the need for a taboo or “ submission” to the victorious “ point” without the danger of “the hydrogen bomb” of opposition obliterating all positive qualities in life! Bam!
My doctoral professor was writing about one single poem by the Russian poet Ivanov and directing his attention to the shifting of semantics when the signifier was not in flux ... he meticulously presented a book length analysis only available to the initiated. I say this to point out that language itself (in dualities of speech/writing) has contextual aggregates few are willing to assess in depth. I heartily approve of your tracking how in a particularly political/ culture-wars manner the left is at work foraging a network of censorship unheard of before the post modern era.
You are cutting through to challenge them on their own grounds which IS the proper way to make an intellectually detailed defense of free speech. So thank you.
I want to go a step deeper based not on what I learned from my doctoral professor - a linguist - but on my reading these last few years. I asked myself how we ( the United States) managed to create, drop, and improve a nuclear arsenal and what affect - if any - it has produced in culture.
To do this I have researched Oppenheimer, Heisenberg, Los Alamos, ( the major discoveries and the European physicists who achieved each) as well as the mind and thrust of Neil’s Bohr, the political world of President Franklin Roosevelt, and Henry Agile Wallace ( among others) and still working through many more players.
Here’s what my takeaway seems to be: culture has neither signifier or semantics related to the state of the world as we are experiencing it, in fact, the very split between word and meaning is itself highly related to our complete relationship with the chaos of our latest evolution into nuclear man - are we wave and particle ? Is that even possible for a creature who faces the essence that “ is” ? Einstein says NO! Heisenberg, YES, and Heisenberg refused to bring nuclear secrets to fruition in Germany! He self-censured and being the leader, engendered that censure among German physicists. Bohr followed by the atom splitting followers that came to our shores were adamant. We did it.
There’s something here in our latest linguistics phenomenon which points better than your idea of Totemism to the exact state of affairs of a creature facing the ultimate in guilt from all sides ( because let’s face it - Germany would have (like Russia soon did) unlocked bomb specifics.
I believe Rufo if you move beyond totem and beyond ( or through) the split of individual words into linguistic semantics and the doubling of seeing oppositional realities at one time according to who is using the word ( woke) for example you will have hit on the fractured nature of our own doppelgänger and how in spite of the split - it’s really a Singularity in the process of being NAMED.
Go back to your mention of the hydrogen bomb in your analysis and see if you can find the opening the gap where the matter becomes the light. Does this matter? Why, yes! It’s how the Western Tradition goes through chaos into maturity, a true aboriginal ceremony of initiation into truth. ( I’m not bothering to edit this or fix errors - it’s insight from me to you) 🌻🌟🌻
Thanks for the comment, Dale. Yes, we could spend a whole book analyzing the shifting and complex connotations of a very small set of words. Think about abstract nouns like "justice," which has been debated at length in print since ancient Greece.
I'm hoping to do more analysis of modern political language over this year. I'm sure you enjoyed doing your doctoral studies on the use of language. Fascinating!
Excellent article. The left has used language very effectively to manipulate people. Trying to turn the word "woke" into a pejorative is genius. I hope those of us who can still think don't fall for it.
The cultural and political manifestations of Derrida and Foucault. Blech.
The power then lies in their ability to classify the truth and reality as "hate speech." A very dangerous road for the US to go down.
However, since the other option besides the Left is the Right, and Trump operates in a post-truth manner, then the Right has the inability to reclaim truth, reality, and objective fact. Whoops.
Derrida, absolutely. My friend who goes by the pseudonym Wokal Distance on Twitter tuned me on to Derrida and opened my eyes to his semiotic analysis. It influenced this video essay.
Ah, yes- I follow that person on twitter! And I shared an essay of theirs with my friend who’s steeped in the outer layer of the SJ cult rhetoric but, like many, knows very little if anything of the deeper philosophical roots or theories. Not sure she appreciates my attempts to de-program her tho, lol.
I was mentored well by my Russian transplant 😆 The program at Emory was called Interdisciplinary Liberal Arts which in the early 80’s - thank God MEANT the canon ! Thus I covered Euripides under his translator Arrowsmith ( The Bacchae speaks to warn “ the hysterical sex - 🤪 - of the dangers of usurping a son’s rights ); I studied James Joyce under his American Biographer Richard Ellmann; I studied “ The Russians” Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy under the Russian who created the Yale Russian Chorus; and Dante (winter quarter in Hell/Spring in Paradise - Purgatory “ in between”) ; I studied Anthropology under a Department Chair who was the musician writing the songs for a Broadway production as well as having studied with Tibetan monks! In brief, it was a stellar education in the best of all traditions: Western Culture !
I cannot imagine a limit to what New College can become were it to track forward as an honors college. I lucked into such a place obviously in that special program at Emory in Atlanta! Please connect me with anyone at NCF who wants to envision an institute for undergraduates born of, proud of, and intellectually challenged to further The Western Tradition!
Honors College SHOULD inspire like Niel Bohr’s Institute did worldwide in physics … I’m so glad a person of your insights sees this clearly. Remove DEI - YES; Replace - Definitely.
My Welsh pappy, who once ran a funeral home ad “ We will be the last to let you down,” also invented his own Greeting card mocking Hallmark. His watermark read ( in satire of their motto “ it’s good to send the very best”) with his “ the best is none to good.”
In Western Culture I’ll agree with Bohr - nothings good about the bomb : and yes my father, “ The best is none too good. To go pappy ( 1910 - 2009) one better: “ but the rest is an atrocious, insidious, ugly, bitter bastard” 🌟
I placed this above comment incorrectly into the threads here. It answers Rufo’s reply to me. ( I wanted to clarify that my studies were more broadly related to Western Culture than to semiotics 🤪)
... sorry to “ misplace” this Reply, Mr. Rufo ...with Western Culture under worldwide attack, I wanted an important and original thinker like you to know how proud I am to be well acquainted with the depth, power and reach of the most magnificent of our human achievements : The Western Tradition. Luckily it was not under attack when I was meeting it as a graduate student. It’s hardly recognizable now!
Much respect, sir, as you protect our heritage from this shameless spit of carnal preeminence parading as “ the naked truth.” Some child invited to look on - behaving as in the original tale - will state aloud what’s obvious, for all to hear. There Queen’s Regalia, The King’s missing.
I wonder if evolving word definitions can be linked to (Leftist) street culture? How many gangster rap lyrics have the latest "cool" phrases and word choices that also act as a shibboleth?
Shibboleth was a Bible word in a story where checkpoint soldiers demanded to hear all travelers say the word, to listen for the personal accent pronunciation, because outsiders could not correctly pronounce the word shibboleth.
So outsiders in your gangster neighborhood do not know the latest street code phrases of choice, or they still use outdated words and phrases that are no longer approved of on the street.
This also seems to act as a badge of honor, to be up-to-date with all the latest terminology, as a replacement for actual knowledge, this means you are cool.
Thank you, thank you, yet again Mr. Rufo, for your deep insight into the nature and intent of our adversaries, and your exceptional ability to expose their battle strategies!!
I have just emerged from a beautiful Easter weekend shared with friends. As usual, the experience was intensely bittersweet. I had not seen many of these friends since the spring of 2020 when the COVID lockdown was initiated. Most of them are practicing Catholics and we had started our Easter Sunday by going to Mass together. Portland has finally emerged from enforced COVID restrictions, so for some of us, it was the first time in three years that we had gathered in a large enclosed building with a couple hundred other people.
Nowadays when I reunite with friends I haven't seen in awhile, my pleasure is diluted with a felt need to steel myself against the reaction I expect to receive when I tell them what I have been up to recently. It feels like "coming out" as some kind of pariah to a disapproving family, while at the same time being unwilling to be silenced or intimidated. I of course did receive the predicted reactions, because that is pretty much all that ever happens in Portland. My friends responded with stark expressions of horror and revulsion to my disclosure that I was not as thrilled as they are by the indictment of Donald Trump, and that I am focused on a far more dangerous Enemy of Our Democracy.
They are at least as terrified of Gov. DeSantis as they are of Trump, and were aghast that I am supporting his work. We had to have a conversation about the "Don't Say Gay Bill," and when I explained that there is no such thing, I was immediately told that my friends "do not trust anything they are told by anybody anymore." I told them that I feel the same way, which is why I go to original sources, like the actual text of the Parental Rights bill.
The people at this gathering had absolutely no awareness that the Woke Cult exists. They have not been exposed to any significant media coverage of the Cult, even from a favorable perspective. They asked me, obviously perplexed, "but who are they and where are they?"
It is very difficult to answer that question when the Cult is hidden in open sight. Critical Theory is too esoteric and inaccessible for most normal people to read about, and the believers accept it as Truth, rather than one of many ideologies that can be deconstructed. This is of course typical of cults, which pretty much always have private languages and bizarre beliefs. The difference is that the previous cults that flourished in Oregon didn't mange to take over the state, so the population here didn't need to study their nonsense to protect themselves.
The takeaway from my most recent encounter with Democratic friends is that they are completely oblivious to the fact that there has been a successful takeover of our country by an authoritarian cult. The leftist media have achieved a near total lockout of any accurate information about it, and have managed to substitute the distraction of the Trump prosecution to keep their constituents entertained.
As I left the Easter dinner gathering, my primary feeling was one of gratitude to you and to the other activists on Substack for keeping me sane. A year ago I felt completely alone with my fear and anger as I live here behind enemy lines. "The Invasion of the Body Snatchers," (one of my lifetime favorite movies) often comes to mind. I make a point of calling the adversary The Woke Cult because that is precisely what they are.
I have the exact same experience with my Democrat friends and family … they simply have never been exposed to the same information you and I have. They have never even HEARD of Ivermectin!!! I live in a small blue city in SoCal. My adult children were marinated in left wing ideologies in college and grad school, and are absolutely insufferable. If I didn’t have Substack and you fellow commenters, I would have no one.
Ha! I have to laugh but I really do feel your pain. I also live in a small SoCal town that recently elected an unapologetic Marxist to be our mayor. For real. The Democrats along with a Brooklyn based bunch called the "Working Families Party" funneled about 150k to win this seat. The job pays $1,200 a month and only 3k voted out of a town with a 11k registered voters. The point is we're doomed but please don't give up on your kids yet. Even after the East coast college thing the move to Texas and marrying a straight up no-nonsense Texan my kid either had a lobotomy, just love or a dose of reality. Something wonderful happened as they don't know that I know they didn't vote for Beto. Keep the faith and gift them a year of Mr. Ruffo's substack.
I am so sorry to hear that your children are involved in this hateful movement! I know several other sets of parents that have been horribly treated by their young adult children. Usually the kids come back to the family, but they don't necessarily take responsibility for their behavior or offer any apologies.
I can't talk to anyone in Portland. They're so out of touch with reality it's just not possible.
same in Palm Springs! Cheers!
That is one of the fundamental problems. The other one is the nervous, repetitive comment, “I don’t want to hurt anybody, I don’t want to offend anybody.”
To Sandra Pinches - "The Invasion of the Body Snatchers," ...often comes to mind." For me, it's "On the Beach."
Mine is The Faculty” because it all happened in school.
I totally agree and have thought the same regarding “The Invasion of the Body Snatchers”. My own son asked me if I got my information from QAnon, along with a few other Democratic friends…sigh! I’d only heard vaguely of QAnon. But then I got to thinking, where were THEY getting information from, they all basically were chanting QAnon! QAnon! It was rather an uncanny experience and I can only think that QAnon was what the mainscream (Not a typo) media was feeding people at that time. I thank God every day for people like Rufo and Victor Davis Hanson and Thomas Sowell to name a few, who lay out the arguments against this madness so clearly. The last name in particular is inspirational since he has been a lone voice in the wilderness since the 1960’s. Thomas Sowell along with Walter Williams (another great conservative commentator) used to joke they should never fly in the same plane as the ideas they had were too valuable!
My husband and I take it as a badge of honour when we don’t get invited back to dinner parties! We are never rude but stand our ground. I have lost many old friendships of thirty years or more because I just can’t go along to get along but I have made new friends too and for that I am thankful. Stay the course people! And get involved on the local level.
My friends interrogated me about whether I favor Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is equated with QAnon in the minds of the "mainscream media." (I love that!)
Thomas Sowell is one of the most brilliant men of our times. It is a pity that so many people have not been exposed to his thinking.
The Left has been moving the lexicon for decades. It’s a shell game. They were liberals until they were progressives until they were woke. Now that they have been nailed again, they want to bar that term.
Simply stated, the Left are the agents of chaos. They are ALL “AOC” now. Let’s just call them AOC. 😎
"They are all AOC now." Quite true. She is very effective at what she does.
Also, they come with a ready-made team mascot...
When people start changing the meaning of words, the deep totalitarian impulse is showing itself. Historians have seen this for ages.
This is also a characteristic of cults. (The totalitarian nature of these groups may be the primary correlate of the manipulation of language, as you stated). Cults tend to appropriate common English words or technical terms from academic fields and assign them new meanings, so that they became cult jargon (e.g., the Scientologists use of the word "clear"). This enables the cult members to speak private languages without being obvious about it, and contributes to the formation of an exclusionary barrier around the group. The critical theory activists have become quite adept at switching meanings of words rapidly back and forth during conversations to confuse and defeat potential challengers (e.g., "gender"). We need to come up with rhetorical countermoves to this manipulation in particular. They will change their strategies in response, but at least we will be able to get rid of some of their favorites, like "Don't you believe in Systemic Racism?"
There are still too many that continue to play defense, letting the woke either define terms or imply ambiguity where there's concreteness. "Transphobe" has no definition that I know of, yet it's slung around to shut up debate, so I'll define it as I see it: one who doesn't believe adults should be allowed to cut parts off children, one who remembers the basic biology lessons from middle school, one who believes female sports should remain female, one who does not believe children are the property of the state or school system, and one who believes in bodily autonomy and privacy vis-a-vis the opposite sex. This makes me a transphobe and it's an honor to be called a transphobe.
That's right, these are schoolyard insults with political connotations. And, unfortunately, conservatives still need to figure out how these words work and how to defeat them.
Instead of asking others to define a word, start out by stating a definition and then if the woke (violent communists) disagree, then ask them why they are bigots.
It seems like the entire Left operates at the maturity level of high school delinquents, where cool is king, not factual knowledge.
Agreed! If they are going to continue changing the meaning of a word, or dictating who’s allowed to say it, the “anti-woke” should define them with our own words. Words with clear meaning that can’t be redefined, and most importantly used by anyone on either side of the issues. I’m going to suggest “the sleep” or “the delusional”. As a supporter of democracy and meritocracy, I encourage you all to share your ideas below or vote for a winner.
Just when I think the left can stoop no lower, a new atrocity surfaces.
Unfortunately, this one has FBI backing (surprise, surprise!) so anyone criticizing woke leftists and even complimenting fellow dissidents by calling them "Chads" or "based" or "red-pilled" is now considered by the FBI to be "promoting violent extremism." Beware, Michael Malice!
I'll tell you something: the more such actions are taken the more likely violent reactions will occur. I suspect the FBI is baiting the Right, deliberately trying to provoke angry, threatening email responses and dearly hoping for actual violent retaliation. Unlike the race riots of the past few years and the perpetual antifa insurrection, any action from the Right anywhere close to "violent" will be pounced upon by the Feds and their whores in the media as the next January 5th-style "insurrection," justifying even more imprisonment without bail and re-igniting their demands for a Ministry of Information.
Edited for idiom
The Right cannot, under any circumstances, take the bait. We have to show patience, resolve, seriousness, and self-restraint at all times. We have to occupy and hold the moral high ground. Let them provoke—then expose the provocation and control the reaction.
I completely agree! Your advice is not only necessary to hold the moral high ground, it is essential to winning wars. We are in fact defending our country against a kind of psy-op, and we need to cultivate the level of strategic thinking and discipline that military professionals exhibit.
So, we’re not in Solzhenitsyn’s Soviet Union yet? Only “Gulags” of our speech and minds so far?
I have had that sense as well, that we are being tested (like vaccines and mandates)to see how much encroachment of our liberties we will tolerate. The obsession by the left with drag queens and transgender push seems like another test. How willing are we to deny reality?
The left are looters and bullies. They appropriate language to manipulate. They appropriate our tax dollars for extreme green energy and diversity agendas. The term woke now has a negative connotation, so they cry foul. Too bad. They earned it.
I vaguely remember years ago when some rapper started using the n word in songs etc. there was some debate for a while whether that was appropriate. At first it was startling, but then it became common. I think it was important for blacks to take away the power of the slur for them. It worked. My son recently said to me that being called a racist holds the same slur connotations to white people. I had already given up that fear when I realized that I could be called a racist merely for my existence by any stranger who hurled it at me. So I agree we know what woke means and I for one am not afraid to use it.
The word "racist" is designed as a conversation-stopper. It exits the realm of logical and rational argumentation, by design. The idea is to mobilize guilt, shame, and fear.
Writer Jonathan Kay, one of the reasons Quillette lost its mojo (The other Claire Lehman's COVID decent into madness) just published an article entitled "Defining ‘Woke’ (a Word We Should Probably All Stop Using)". Chris is correct in that we all know it when we see or hear it. Just like porn. But if we have to pick a side, we should have an expectation that the political or conservative elite class we are told to rely on relative to any hope of legislation to confront it should be able to explain it with confidence. Not a dissertation on CRT but a short concise elevator speech will do. With the acceptation of Gov DeSantis and POTUS candidate Vivek Ramaswamy who understand it and speak to it with confidence, way too many make a mess of it, and we all know what the social media fallout looks like. That's why conservatives have lost control of abortion conversation and it will hurt in 2024 unless we understand that language matters and consistency across all of us is crucial.
I disagree with Jonathan. It's a very useful word, has an accurate meaning, and works as a political weapon. Why on Earth would we abandon it?
Agree.
No fucking way. I’m not allowing them to police my language anymore. It’s over.
Excellent expose using the semantics of sign / meaning in a linguistics semiotician’s vocabulary and pointing out the value of signifier/signified in relation to the passage of time that allows for redefinition of a hot-potato ( old childhood game) issue.
That your analysis advances the thesis “ point/counterpoint “ can no longer stand since the point maker now has signaled policy must be made due to the need for a taboo or “ submission” to the victorious “ point” without the danger of “the hydrogen bomb” of opposition obliterating all positive qualities in life! Bam!
My doctoral professor was writing about one single poem by the Russian poet Ivanov and directing his attention to the shifting of semantics when the signifier was not in flux ... he meticulously presented a book length analysis only available to the initiated. I say this to point out that language itself (in dualities of speech/writing) has contextual aggregates few are willing to assess in depth. I heartily approve of your tracking how in a particularly political/ culture-wars manner the left is at work foraging a network of censorship unheard of before the post modern era.
You are cutting through to challenge them on their own grounds which IS the proper way to make an intellectually detailed defense of free speech. So thank you.
I want to go a step deeper based not on what I learned from my doctoral professor - a linguist - but on my reading these last few years. I asked myself how we ( the United States) managed to create, drop, and improve a nuclear arsenal and what affect - if any - it has produced in culture.
To do this I have researched Oppenheimer, Heisenberg, Los Alamos, ( the major discoveries and the European physicists who achieved each) as well as the mind and thrust of Neil’s Bohr, the political world of President Franklin Roosevelt, and Henry Agile Wallace ( among others) and still working through many more players.
Here’s what my takeaway seems to be: culture has neither signifier or semantics related to the state of the world as we are experiencing it, in fact, the very split between word and meaning is itself highly related to our complete relationship with the chaos of our latest evolution into nuclear man - are we wave and particle ? Is that even possible for a creature who faces the essence that “ is” ? Einstein says NO! Heisenberg, YES, and Heisenberg refused to bring nuclear secrets to fruition in Germany! He self-censured and being the leader, engendered that censure among German physicists. Bohr followed by the atom splitting followers that came to our shores were adamant. We did it.
There’s something here in our latest linguistics phenomenon which points better than your idea of Totemism to the exact state of affairs of a creature facing the ultimate in guilt from all sides ( because let’s face it - Germany would have (like Russia soon did) unlocked bomb specifics.
I believe Rufo if you move beyond totem and beyond ( or through) the split of individual words into linguistic semantics and the doubling of seeing oppositional realities at one time according to who is using the word ( woke) for example you will have hit on the fractured nature of our own doppelgänger and how in spite of the split - it’s really a Singularity in the process of being NAMED.
Go back to your mention of the hydrogen bomb in your analysis and see if you can find the opening the gap where the matter becomes the light. Does this matter? Why, yes! It’s how the Western Tradition goes through chaos into maturity, a true aboriginal ceremony of initiation into truth. ( I’m not bothering to edit this or fix errors - it’s insight from me to you) 🌻🌟🌻
Thanks for the comment, Dale. Yes, we could spend a whole book analyzing the shifting and complex connotations of a very small set of words. Think about abstract nouns like "justice," which has been debated at length in print since ancient Greece.
I'm hoping to do more analysis of modern political language over this year. I'm sure you enjoyed doing your doctoral studies on the use of language. Fascinating!
Excellent article. The left has used language very effectively to manipulate people. Trying to turn the word "woke" into a pejorative is genius. I hope those of us who can still think don't fall for it.
The cultural and political manifestations of Derrida and Foucault. Blech.
The power then lies in their ability to classify the truth and reality as "hate speech." A very dangerous road for the US to go down.
However, since the other option besides the Left is the Right, and Trump operates in a post-truth manner, then the Right has the inability to reclaim truth, reality, and objective fact. Whoops.
Derrida, absolutely. My friend who goes by the pseudonym Wokal Distance on Twitter tuned me on to Derrida and opened my eyes to his semiotic analysis. It influenced this video essay.
Ah, yes- I follow that person on twitter! And I shared an essay of theirs with my friend who’s steeped in the outer layer of the SJ cult rhetoric but, like many, knows very little if anything of the deeper philosophical roots or theories. Not sure she appreciates my attempts to de-program her tho, lol.
Video keeps stopping on this app
I was mentored well by my Russian transplant 😆 The program at Emory was called Interdisciplinary Liberal Arts which in the early 80’s - thank God MEANT the canon ! Thus I covered Euripides under his translator Arrowsmith ( The Bacchae speaks to warn “ the hysterical sex - 🤪 - of the dangers of usurping a son’s rights ); I studied James Joyce under his American Biographer Richard Ellmann; I studied “ The Russians” Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy under the Russian who created the Yale Russian Chorus; and Dante (winter quarter in Hell/Spring in Paradise - Purgatory “ in between”) ; I studied Anthropology under a Department Chair who was the musician writing the songs for a Broadway production as well as having studied with Tibetan monks! In brief, it was a stellar education in the best of all traditions: Western Culture !
I cannot imagine a limit to what New College can become were it to track forward as an honors college. I lucked into such a place obviously in that special program at Emory in Atlanta! Please connect me with anyone at NCF who wants to envision an institute for undergraduates born of, proud of, and intellectually challenged to further The Western Tradition!
Honors College SHOULD inspire like Niel Bohr’s Institute did worldwide in physics … I’m so glad a person of your insights sees this clearly. Remove DEI - YES; Replace - Definitely.
My Welsh pappy, who once ran a funeral home ad “ We will be the last to let you down,” also invented his own Greeting card mocking Hallmark. His watermark read ( in satire of their motto “ it’s good to send the very best”) with his “ the best is none to good.”
In Western Culture I’ll agree with Bohr - nothings good about the bomb : and yes my father, “ The best is none too good. To go pappy ( 1910 - 2009) one better: “ but the rest is an atrocious, insidious, ugly, bitter bastard” 🌟
I placed this above comment incorrectly into the threads here. It answers Rufo’s reply to me. ( I wanted to clarify that my studies were more broadly related to Western Culture than to semiotics 🤪)
... sorry to “ misplace” this Reply, Mr. Rufo ...with Western Culture under worldwide attack, I wanted an important and original thinker like you to know how proud I am to be well acquainted with the depth, power and reach of the most magnificent of our human achievements : The Western Tradition. Luckily it was not under attack when I was meeting it as a graduate student. It’s hardly recognizable now!
Much respect, sir, as you protect our heritage from this shameless spit of carnal preeminence parading as “ the naked truth.” Some child invited to look on - behaving as in the original tale - will state aloud what’s obvious, for all to hear. There Queen’s Regalia, The King’s missing.
I wonder if evolving word definitions can be linked to (Leftist) street culture? How many gangster rap lyrics have the latest "cool" phrases and word choices that also act as a shibboleth?
Shibboleth was a Bible word in a story where checkpoint soldiers demanded to hear all travelers say the word, to listen for the personal accent pronunciation, because outsiders could not correctly pronounce the word shibboleth.
So outsiders in your gangster neighborhood do not know the latest street code phrases of choice, or they still use outdated words and phrases that are no longer approved of on the street.
This also seems to act as a badge of honor, to be up-to-date with all the latest terminology, as a replacement for actual knowledge, this means you are cool.
Cool is a Fonzie word. Golly. Ironic.
No, it's a nasty, awful word and it should be permanently retired to historical studies.