Hah! I try not to feel compelled to do anything that comes from external pressure. My own inner drive is pressure enough. I've been obsessing about Wokeism for so many years that I finally had to do something about it. I prepped for five weeks before starting this newsletter, vomiting idea after idea, and mapping it. I can't write fast enough to get it all out; I understand how lucky I am in that regard in terms of populating my newsletter with content that is different enough, while not being too weird.
The mission is to deconstruct Wokeism and explain it to my all-Liberal bubble so they at least have another point of view about what they're supporting rather blindly because it seems like the compassionate thing to do. Exploiting the good intentions of good people is one of the many nefarious things that Wokeism does.
I was overstating - external pressure has rarely compelled me to do anything (unfortunately, sometimes). But I've been thinking about getting ZeroUnzero started for eons, so I'm always rather hoping my own inner drive's steering will take me in that direction. We'll see!
Anyway, I hugely appreciate any mission to deconstruct Wokeism, whether from right or left, and even more so when it's coming from someone who's moved in my sorts of circles and has so many friends in that lib-bubble. I started going to Pride marches when I came out at 16 in 1979, went to pro-choice demos with my mom when abortion clinics were getting bombed in Toronto, got involved in issues of police accountability and civilian oversight, always vote straight-up left or centre-left until the last 2 elections, always worked in or adjacent to the arts, always moved in underground circles with the creative and the genderbent, from trans to who-knows-or-cares. "Woke" is a grotesque inversion of all that I've always cared about, a tissue of lies and half-truths irrationally but seductively woven together to facilitate power-grabbing by nihilistic ideologues and cynical careerists. Its shiny happy face is the perfect cover, the superficially diverse opposite of its misery and conformity.
The pushback to gender-queen/"trans" activists by the Gheys on Twitter is impressive. It's split the LGBT community into the various LGB Alliances and others, but it's half past time that happened. Our alliance with the Ts was always tenuous; sexuality and gender dysphoria aren't the same thing, which you and I know, but straights don't. I'm grateful to Dave Chappelle for schooling all of America on that with his deliriously homophobic car analogy, which I've flipped back on him in Part Two of 'The Comforting Addictiveness of Victimhood,' a piece that managed to rattle even my closest allies. It rattled me to write it, but it broke me out of a fear that was paralyzing me about talking about Black racism.
I consider the professional activists and scientists to be better debunkers than I am. I'm using this newsletter as a sort of, "Now that we've broken all that down, let's talk about the human condition in general, and why these movements happen." Best of all, I'm learning myself and working it out as I go along, vocalizing it with my therapist on Thursdays, then scribbling it out.
Love Linehan, love Loury, love your funny and ferocious take on "woke" and its ilk, and gurl, you can write. Glad I found your Substack.
Hahaha @ gurl. You've made my day. I so rarely get comments anywhere; you have no idea how valuble this is.
That makes me happy! And hearing back helps make my day, too. Thanks and best....
Uh-oh. I see you've subscribed to Zerounzero, which means I might actually feel compelled / inspired to post something there. Thanks a *lot* ...
Hah! I try not to feel compelled to do anything that comes from external pressure. My own inner drive is pressure enough. I've been obsessing about Wokeism for so many years that I finally had to do something about it. I prepped for five weeks before starting this newsletter, vomiting idea after idea, and mapping it. I can't write fast enough to get it all out; I understand how lucky I am in that regard in terms of populating my newsletter with content that is different enough, while not being too weird.
The mission is to deconstruct Wokeism and explain it to my all-Liberal bubble so they at least have another point of view about what they're supporting rather blindly because it seems like the compassionate thing to do. Exploiting the good intentions of good people is one of the many nefarious things that Wokeism does.
I was overstating - external pressure has rarely compelled me to do anything (unfortunately, sometimes). But I've been thinking about getting ZeroUnzero started for eons, so I'm always rather hoping my own inner drive's steering will take me in that direction. We'll see!
Anyway, I hugely appreciate any mission to deconstruct Wokeism, whether from right or left, and even more so when it's coming from someone who's moved in my sorts of circles and has so many friends in that lib-bubble. I started going to Pride marches when I came out at 16 in 1979, went to pro-choice demos with my mom when abortion clinics were getting bombed in Toronto, got involved in issues of police accountability and civilian oversight, always vote straight-up left or centre-left until the last 2 elections, always worked in or adjacent to the arts, always moved in underground circles with the creative and the genderbent, from trans to who-knows-or-cares. "Woke" is a grotesque inversion of all that I've always cared about, a tissue of lies and half-truths irrationally but seductively woven together to facilitate power-grabbing by nihilistic ideologues and cynical careerists. Its shiny happy face is the perfect cover, the superficially diverse opposite of its misery and conformity.
So, you go, gurl!
The pushback to gender-queen/"trans" activists by the Gheys on Twitter is impressive. It's split the LGBT community into the various LGB Alliances and others, but it's half past time that happened. Our alliance with the Ts was always tenuous; sexuality and gender dysphoria aren't the same thing, which you and I know, but straights don't. I'm grateful to Dave Chappelle for schooling all of America on that with his deliriously homophobic car analogy, which I've flipped back on him in Part Two of 'The Comforting Addictiveness of Victimhood,' a piece that managed to rattle even my closest allies. It rattled me to write it, but it broke me out of a fear that was paralyzing me about talking about Black racism.
I consider the professional activists and scientists to be better debunkers than I am. I'm using this newsletter as a sort of, "Now that we've broken all that down, let's talk about the human condition in general, and why these movements happen." Best of all, I'm learning myself and working it out as I go along, vocalizing it with my therapist on Thursdays, then scribbling it out.