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PaperclipPerfector  3d ago (text post)   19783 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of January 20, 2025

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Although I don't really disagree with most of what's written here, I do think a lot of it comes from intuition rather than reliable empiricism. If you look at what studies actually find, Wokeness is the informal term used to describe people who favor antiracism and transgenderism.

If you don't mind independent research carried out by random posters on TheMotte, then I can also tell you the woke tend to agree on a cluster of issues that are:

  • Left of center, in a way that is,
  • Tender-minded or idealistic (rather than tough-minded, pragmatic, or realistic), and
  • Authoritarian or paternalistic (rather than libertarian)

But if I'm also allowed to speculate with everybody else, I'd say what makes the woke so terrifying is that they have an uncompromising moral vision that no one is really allowed to attack. "Fairness is good, racism is bad" is a blank check America has spent the last several decades writing the woke that allows them to drive civilization to complete bankruptcy. (Where "bankruptcy" here is a metaphor for whatever you think it is, including, heck, not having any money.)

I think this is a very insightful post. In particular, the research you conducted and the use of the Nolan Chart to define different political values and where they fall in the grid. If I am understanding you correctly, if one is left of center, tender minded/idealistic, but libertarian, in they would not be defined as woke, correct?

But if I'm also allowed to speculate with everybody else, I'd say what makes the woke so terrifying is that they have an uncompromising moral vision that no one is really allowed to attack. "Fairness is good, racism is bad" is a blank check America has spent the last several decades writing the woke that allows them to drive civilization to complete bankruptcy. (Where "bankruptcy" here is a metaphor for whatever you think it is, including, heck, not having any money.)

I would argue that the financial bankruptcy is thanks to modern monetary policy and the Triffin Dilemna, but I digress. We can agree that fairness is good and racism is bad, but the devil is in the details, no?

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