Alberta premier Danielle Smith's recent policies reinstating parental rights regarding transgender kids in schools and the decision not to provide puberty blockers etc to those under 16 is to be applauded in this environment. The fact that Trudeau is going out of his way to denigrate her and this common sense approach says it all.
Thanks to the recent actions of the State of Florida, that passed a law prohibiting state or federal funds to be used for DEI, there is hope that such an approach might gain ground in more states and even Canada. We need to be optimistic that this social heresy and afront to reason and common sense will end.
Good piece. However I am going to again push back against your view that woke is a brand of Marxism. While that’s a popular argument, the details show they have vague commonality only (a critique of power structures) but they are not only not identical but “wokeism” emerged in conflict with Marxism. I’m not defending Marxism here (pity I need to write that; I shouldn’t have to.) A significant section of the Left, important critics of “the woke” phenomenon, (what some call “traditional left-liberal”) such as Frances Widdowson (a historical materialist) and Yasha Mounk, a liberal/social-democrat (and I’ll include myself) see a clear difference and schism between postmodern wokeism and Marxism. Mounk who was brought up in a communist family has probably made the most serious academic contribution to the study of what he calls The Identity Trap. There are others, including Norman Finkelstein, Susan Neiman, and others you probably know or have read about.
Even Cynical Theories, which you mention, (Pluckrose and Lindsay) doesn’t connect Marxism per se to the woke movement. I suspect this is because Pluckrose wrote that chapter, (given James Lindsay now argues elsewhere that it’s all about Marxism.)
M-Ls (at least the ones I knew) see identity divisions as a conspiracy of the ruling class to divide the masses, and as the opposite to a solidarity movement. They see the critical divide in society as class, not race, gender or sexual orientation. Foucault who was a Marxist for a period — came out against Marxism when he advanced his postmodern theories.
Why does it matter whether woke = Marxism or not? It’s primarily about precision in analysis but there’s also a political goal obvious among some of the Right who wish to make inroads by painting the Left as woke obsessed. It’s true that many on the Left have been swallowed by the identity contagion, but horseshoe politics being what it is, identitarians can be found at both ends of the political axis. It’s ideology. Conservatives and progressives all need to reject the disease. 2/3 of the population already does.
Robin, you can't name a Critical Social Justice scholar who isn't a Neo-Marxist, or who doesn't incorporate Marxian analysis into their scholarship. I doubt you can produce a paper written by a Critical Social Justice scholar that doesn't repeatedly refer to Marx. Further, the lions share of anti-woke intellectuals (including virtually all from the right, but most from the left too) have identified that Critical Social Justice is a version of Neo-Marxism. They have learned this directly from the horses mouth.
Isaac Gottesman is a well known Critical Theorist who wrote a volume called The Critical Turn in Education which traces the modern history of Critical Theory - the Critical Turn. He refers to Critical Theory as Critical Marxism and says it is synonymous with Neo-Marxism.
The original name for the Frankfurt school had the word "Marxism" in it. That school of thinkers, developed Critical Theory through decades of capital "T" Theorizing, in which, in their view, they adapted class based vulgar Marxism, into cultural Marxism.
James Lindsay's speech, which I covered in this essay - https://wokewatchcanada.substack.com/p/wokeism-is-marxism-adapted-for-the - explains how through this Theorizing, for example, whiteness is conceived as property. The bourgeois become those with access to whiteness, the proletariat are those who do not have access.
I absolutely disagree with their analysis. It is bat-shit crazy. However, this IS their analysis. How many papers and books do they have to write where they scream at us what blatant and deliberate Marxists they are? How many talks do they have to give? How many woke protestors calling for communist and Marxist revolution do you need to see, before you are convinced that they are telling the truth when they relentlessly broadcast at full volume that they are Marxists?
We could go over this ground again. I’m not sure exactly where we disagree. People call themselves many things and believe many other things. Do most people who think they are liberal or conservative or progressive actually practice or believe those principles? I do think we have to agree on what Marxist premises are, and then assess whether postmodernists adhere or not. Believe me, I am fully aware that most woke crazies think they’re radical progressives.
Robin this is not simply a case of simpletons who are mis-labelling something. I'm surprised anyone could come to that conclusion. Leftist theorists have written voluminously and generated cannons of sophisticated and highly complex theory (also bat shit crazy though). They are not making any sort of labeling error. They are, of course, re-defining terms. And they are adapting Marxism to modern cultural conditions. There is another synonym for neo-Marxism, "adapted Marxism."
There is a logic and a coherence to what they are doing. What they are doing is a thing. And that thing is called Neo-Marxism. To describe all of the working machinery and processes of Neo-Marxism would take a lot of words. But future essays will be going deep into it.
However, I think you are making a mistake in calling wokeism, postmodernism. I think that is what you are doing? Postmodernism, Antiracism, and Critical Marxism are all separate academic strains that share similarities and a common anti-West mission. But Wokeism is a blend of these things, it is incorrect to say it is postmodernism alone, or that it is a reactionary right-wing movement, as Frances claims.
You should be asking what Neo-Marxism/Cultural Marxism is. What the "long march through the institutions is. And don't look to leftist for the answers. You've done that already. Look to what conservative intellectuals say. Look at Roger Scruton and Thomas Sowell first. Both are former Marxists - Sowell wrote a great book on Marxism. Leftist scholars who are using any form of Marxism what-so-ever have a huge blind spot until they take in the best of conservate thought (Scruton/Sowell). Take it from someone who has read both. Isn't that a more scholarly process? Otherwise ones thinking comes across like they have spent the last thirty years high on their own supply, sipping exlcusively from that narrow band of leftist scholarship.
Yes, postmodernism and identity politics are being used by the modern day woke left, but ultimately woke is a reconfigured modern day communist provocation with the exact same goal of destroying the West by replacing its means of societal reproduction, as when it was first unleashed as International Communism at the beginning of the cold war (refer to George Kennan's The Long Telegram https://wokewatchcanada.substack.com/p/the-long-telegram ).
Here’s a standard dictionary definition of Marxism. How much sounds like woke to you?
Marxism
noun
Marx·ism ˈmärk-ˌsi-zəm
Synonyms of Marxism
: the political, economic, and social principles and policies advocated by Marx
especially : a theory and practice of socialism (see SOCIALISM sense 3) including the labor theory of value, dialectical materialism, the class struggle, and dictatorship of the proletariat until the establishment of a classless society. …Just to start, postmodernism rejects the idea of a metanarrative such as described above.
This is a definition of classical Marxism, or vulgar Marxism. This is the Marxism of Marx's time. The Frankfurt school, and others, evolved the original premise of Marxism, into what we call neo-Marxism. I've said this already. Yet you've gone and retrieved a definition of "Marxism," when you should have retrieved a definition of "neo-Marxism." I think it's you who are confused with labels.
You will need to define neo, and whether it is a variant or a divergence. We would be getting into the weeds… Like neoconservativism and neoliberalism. Do they have histories in the same root (like Islam and Christianity do) or do they advocate something different. There’s a point where the two diverge and take different paths at which time it adds nothing to concentrate on the similarities.
I think it would be fair to call it divergent. One big divergence is in who the bourgeois are, and who the proletariat are. There was a transference of these stations to different actors. There was a process of proletarianization whereby visible minorities, and sex and gender minority identities where cobbled together into a new proletariat. This proletariat, while still interested in capital and economic class, where primarily concerned with overcoming cultural oppression through a revolutionary struggle that would seize the means of cultural reproduction. If we go through it in detail, every single aspect of classical Marxism has its counterpart aspect in cultural Marxism. It would be a big essay, and a worthwhile exercise, and absolutely should be done.
Alberta premier Danielle Smith's recent policies reinstating parental rights regarding transgender kids in schools and the decision not to provide puberty blockers etc to those under 16 is to be applauded in this environment. The fact that Trudeau is going out of his way to denigrate her and this common sense approach says it all.
Keep up the great work!
CRT = Marxist nonsense rebranded for the 21st century.
Excellent. Love Melanie's work, this is a very important effort.
Thanks to the recent actions of the State of Florida, that passed a law prohibiting state or federal funds to be used for DEI, there is hope that such an approach might gain ground in more states and even Canada. We need to be optimistic that this social heresy and afront to reason and common sense will end.
Good piece. However I am going to again push back against your view that woke is a brand of Marxism. While that’s a popular argument, the details show they have vague commonality only (a critique of power structures) but they are not only not identical but “wokeism” emerged in conflict with Marxism. I’m not defending Marxism here (pity I need to write that; I shouldn’t have to.) A significant section of the Left, important critics of “the woke” phenomenon, (what some call “traditional left-liberal”) such as Frances Widdowson (a historical materialist) and Yasha Mounk, a liberal/social-democrat (and I’ll include myself) see a clear difference and schism between postmodern wokeism and Marxism. Mounk who was brought up in a communist family has probably made the most serious academic contribution to the study of what he calls The Identity Trap. There are others, including Norman Finkelstein, Susan Neiman, and others you probably know or have read about.
Even Cynical Theories, which you mention, (Pluckrose and Lindsay) doesn’t connect Marxism per se to the woke movement. I suspect this is because Pluckrose wrote that chapter, (given James Lindsay now argues elsewhere that it’s all about Marxism.)
M-Ls (at least the ones I knew) see identity divisions as a conspiracy of the ruling class to divide the masses, and as the opposite to a solidarity movement. They see the critical divide in society as class, not race, gender or sexual orientation. Foucault who was a Marxist for a period — came out against Marxism when he advanced his postmodern theories.
Why does it matter whether woke = Marxism or not? It’s primarily about precision in analysis but there’s also a political goal obvious among some of the Right who wish to make inroads by painting the Left as woke obsessed. It’s true that many on the Left have been swallowed by the identity contagion, but horseshoe politics being what it is, identitarians can be found at both ends of the political axis. It’s ideology. Conservatives and progressives all need to reject the disease. 2/3 of the population already does.
Robin, you can't name a Critical Social Justice scholar who isn't a Neo-Marxist, or who doesn't incorporate Marxian analysis into their scholarship. I doubt you can produce a paper written by a Critical Social Justice scholar that doesn't repeatedly refer to Marx. Further, the lions share of anti-woke intellectuals (including virtually all from the right, but most from the left too) have identified that Critical Social Justice is a version of Neo-Marxism. They have learned this directly from the horses mouth.
Isaac Gottesman is a well known Critical Theorist who wrote a volume called The Critical Turn in Education which traces the modern history of Critical Theory - the Critical Turn. He refers to Critical Theory as Critical Marxism and says it is synonymous with Neo-Marxism.
The original name for the Frankfurt school had the word "Marxism" in it. That school of thinkers, developed Critical Theory through decades of capital "T" Theorizing, in which, in their view, they adapted class based vulgar Marxism, into cultural Marxism.
James Lindsay's speech, which I covered in this essay - https://wokewatchcanada.substack.com/p/wokeism-is-marxism-adapted-for-the - explains how through this Theorizing, for example, whiteness is conceived as property. The bourgeois become those with access to whiteness, the proletariat are those who do not have access.
I absolutely disagree with their analysis. It is bat-shit crazy. However, this IS their analysis. How many papers and books do they have to write where they scream at us what blatant and deliberate Marxists they are? How many talks do they have to give? How many woke protestors calling for communist and Marxist revolution do you need to see, before you are convinced that they are telling the truth when they relentlessly broadcast at full volume that they are Marxists?
We could go over this ground again. I’m not sure exactly where we disagree. People call themselves many things and believe many other things. Do most people who think they are liberal or conservative or progressive actually practice or believe those principles? I do think we have to agree on what Marxist premises are, and then assess whether postmodernists adhere or not. Believe me, I am fully aware that most woke crazies think they’re radical progressives.
Robin this is not simply a case of simpletons who are mis-labelling something. I'm surprised anyone could come to that conclusion. Leftist theorists have written voluminously and generated cannons of sophisticated and highly complex theory (also bat shit crazy though). They are not making any sort of labeling error. They are, of course, re-defining terms. And they are adapting Marxism to modern cultural conditions. There is another synonym for neo-Marxism, "adapted Marxism."
There is a logic and a coherence to what they are doing. What they are doing is a thing. And that thing is called Neo-Marxism. To describe all of the working machinery and processes of Neo-Marxism would take a lot of words. But future essays will be going deep into it.
However, I think you are making a mistake in calling wokeism, postmodernism. I think that is what you are doing? Postmodernism, Antiracism, and Critical Marxism are all separate academic strains that share similarities and a common anti-West mission. But Wokeism is a blend of these things, it is incorrect to say it is postmodernism alone, or that it is a reactionary right-wing movement, as Frances claims.
You should be asking what Neo-Marxism/Cultural Marxism is. What the "long march through the institutions is. And don't look to leftist for the answers. You've done that already. Look to what conservative intellectuals say. Look at Roger Scruton and Thomas Sowell first. Both are former Marxists - Sowell wrote a great book on Marxism. Leftist scholars who are using any form of Marxism what-so-ever have a huge blind spot until they take in the best of conservate thought (Scruton/Sowell). Take it from someone who has read both. Isn't that a more scholarly process? Otherwise ones thinking comes across like they have spent the last thirty years high on their own supply, sipping exlcusively from that narrow band of leftist scholarship.
Yes, postmodernism and identity politics are being used by the modern day woke left, but ultimately woke is a reconfigured modern day communist provocation with the exact same goal of destroying the West by replacing its means of societal reproduction, as when it was first unleashed as International Communism at the beginning of the cold war (refer to George Kennan's The Long Telegram https://wokewatchcanada.substack.com/p/the-long-telegram ).
We are all fortunate for disagreements that lead to clarity on Marxism and Woke.
Here’s a standard dictionary definition of Marxism. How much sounds like woke to you?
Marxism
noun
Marx·ism ˈmärk-ˌsi-zəm
Synonyms of Marxism
: the political, economic, and social principles and policies advocated by Marx
especially : a theory and practice of socialism (see SOCIALISM sense 3) including the labor theory of value, dialectical materialism, the class struggle, and dictatorship of the proletariat until the establishment of a classless society. …Just to start, postmodernism rejects the idea of a metanarrative such as described above.
This is a definition of classical Marxism, or vulgar Marxism. This is the Marxism of Marx's time. The Frankfurt school, and others, evolved the original premise of Marxism, into what we call neo-Marxism. I've said this already. Yet you've gone and retrieved a definition of "Marxism," when you should have retrieved a definition of "neo-Marxism." I think it's you who are confused with labels.
You will need to define neo, and whether it is a variant or a divergence. We would be getting into the weeds… Like neoconservativism and neoliberalism. Do they have histories in the same root (like Islam and Christianity do) or do they advocate something different. There’s a point where the two diverge and take different paths at which time it adds nothing to concentrate on the similarities.
I think it would be fair to call it divergent. One big divergence is in who the bourgeois are, and who the proletariat are. There was a transference of these stations to different actors. There was a process of proletarianization whereby visible minorities, and sex and gender minority identities where cobbled together into a new proletariat. This proletariat, while still interested in capital and economic class, where primarily concerned with overcoming cultural oppression through a revolutionary struggle that would seize the means of cultural reproduction. If we go through it in detail, every single aspect of classical Marxism has its counterpart aspect in cultural Marxism. It would be a big essay, and a worthwhile exercise, and absolutely should be done.