Fascism Is Bad But So Is Wokeism! Worse, Actually! by Matt Bai

[Celerity]

Last edited Tue Feb 22, 2022, 12:46 PM - Edit history (1)

The Washington Post's Matt Bai wants you to know that fascism is bad, but have you heard about this identity politics thing?

https://thebanter.substack.com/p/fascism-is-bad-but-so-is-wokeism



The title of the opinion piece told me everything: “I reject both parties’ ideas of Americanism. And I’m not the only one.” I didn’t even know who wrote it but I made several immediate assumptions before clicking the link and to my eternal lack of surprise, almost all of them were right. It was written by a man (likely). He was white (very likely). He was “above the fray” (all but guaranteed).

There would be complaints about identity politics (take it to the bank). That last one was the one I was, by far, most sure about. When anyone sits down to pen a screed about how both sides are to blame, this is almost inevitably where they go. The entire piece, written by Matt Bai, is an absolute mountain of hot garbage. It is hard to describe the sheer amount of privilege one must ooze in order to equate being woke/sjw/whatever you’d like to call it to being a white nationalist fascist but I am going to give it a try anyway.

I’m an independent!

Matt Bai really wants you to know that he’s an independent voter. Oh, he used to be a Democrat but he left that party years ago because he is above such petty tribalism. Why, he has even supported Republicans! And third-party candidates! He is a true free thinker, unshackled by “old orthodoxies.” Bai makes sure to let us know he is no fan of the Republican Party because he has liberal sensibilities, of course. He is quite aware that the GOP is no longer a political party in any recognizable sense. Bai is also quite aware that Republicans would very much like to end democracy. We know this because he says it:



snip

[blogslug]

1. This should really be cut back to 4 paragraphs

But yeah. Matt Bai's take is super crappy.

[BannonsLiver]

5. Agreed. It's quite a cut and paste job.

[Celerity]

8. done

[blogslug]

10. Thank you

[StClone]

2. Wokeism is a word I don't want to see or see used anytime anywhere.

The stupid made-up crap term added to the manure hauler to fertilize the already fetid minds of the anti-humanists.

[Johnny2X2X]

4. Agree

Wokism is their word for what people used to call just being a considerate person and a courteous citizen. It's just basic common decency that Republicans are fighting against.

[jmowreader]

12. You just don't understand

The Right used to like this charming phrase “n-word lover” to describe liberals.

You can’t call people that anymore without yourself being attacked, so they’ve come up with all sorts of new phrases in hopes no one will notice they’re calling people that. “Woke” is just the latest one.

[PatSeg]

7. Yeah, I agree

I'm getting tired of these awkward made-up words that just invite ridicule. Meanwhile, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the English language has 171,476 words in current use, try using one of those.

[Bobstandard]

3. Excellent critique

I’m only sorry OP didn’t continue with their trenchant analysis. Great points make great reading.

Thx!

[Stargleamer]

6. He's been writing crap as bad as this for years. . .

To add insult to injury, he gets paid a lot for writing such bs. He could be even worse than David Brooks.

[orwell]

9. This feeds into a theory I have been espousing along with others...

...that what we are witnessing globally is the death throes of patriarchy.

The first shots were fired in the 20th century with the suffragette movement, the second shots in the 60's with the rise of feminism and women taking back their reproductive freedom. We are now in the integration phase which may last decades while the transfer of power starts to really take hold.

This isn't really about race, ethnicity, or class, although they all are subcomponents of the struggle. This is about male dominance, patriarchy, and hierarchical power structures that have existed for 10's of thousands of years.

God - Big Daddy
Religion - Big Daddy
Roman Empire - Big Daddy
European Empires - Big Daddy
Putin - Big Daddy
Trump - Big Daddy
Tories - Big Daddy
RePukeLieCons - Big Daddy

This power structure knows that it is failing because it has always been built on a false premise - might makes right.

This is the predominant reason why we are facing climate collapse, the failure to understand that top down control by elite entitled MEN inevitably leads to disaster. You can not nullify the talents of the majority of the world's population, uniquely qualified for consensus building, problem solving, networking, and social intelligence, and expect anything other than the cluster fuck we now find ourselves in.

They problem is, will the immature men of this world accept this obvious reality and get out of the way, or destroy our biosphere in an enraged two year old's hissy fit.

Unfortunately, it is not looking good for reality...

[WHITT]

11. He Would Have Been

writing glowing pieces about Mussolini and Hitler, for their anti-wokeness.