Full disclosure. I’ll define wokism as a state having a kind of asymptote- no final end-state has been identified. One can always increase their wokism in this description. With this in mind, I’ll confess to being partially woke according to the Merriam-Webster definition–

“aware of and actively attentive to important facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice)“

Wokism has become a very popular straw man in conservative circles. In contemporary rhetorical usage, to be woke is to have an allegiance to left-leaning ideals. As usual, words relating to the left are pejorative and meant to suggest a character or moral flaw. This is to aid in rendering a philosophical or policy stance null and void, often with a twist of humiliation. It is meant to delegitimize and cancel a left-leaning group or individual. Wikipedia defines cancel culture as-

“Cancel culture or call-out culture is a phrase contemporary to the late 2010s and early 2020s used to refer to a form of ostracism in which someone is thrust out of social or professional circles – whether it be online, on social media, or in person. Those subject to this ostracism are said to have been “cancelled”. The expression “cancel culture” has mostly negative connotations and is used in debates on free speech and censorship”.

It is interesting how those who make accusations of wokism are themselves guilty of the kind of cancel culture that they whine about so strenuously. Is the irony lost on them? I do believe it is.

Most of the public accusations of wokeness I’ve seen are in the context of a speaker desperately trying to be captured on video as having made the accusation in the most emphatic way possible as a sign of loyalty to doctrine.

A common big boogie man of wokeness are those aligning with the loosely organized groups like Antifa. Naturally, Antifa activists and everyone else left of center are smeared into one large group. Remember this if you ever decide to become a fascist dictator, you must have a maligned group at home to pile on blame for the woes of society. Hitler had the Jews and Lenin had the capitalists. In the USA, the boogie man today are those who may be liberal on immigration, enthused with the good that can be done with government, feel sympathy for the plight racial minorities and of LGBTQ+, concerned about the erosion of women’s rights and those who generally want to help the disadvantaged. All of these things can be heaped into a pile called “kindness”.