Many on the Right are so hell bent to “fight like the Left” that they’ve adopted the Left’s way of thinking. Some have termed them the “Woke Right”; others object to that term because they don’t share the same utopian endpoint. But substantively, are they more similar than they may seem superficially? Logan Lancing certainly argues as such.
I’ve seen various content claiming that “Woke Right” is a stupid name because “Woke” just means “awakened to and forwarding critiques of social power."
Woke is much more than that. I can't tell if they still don't know that, or they're aware…
Let's define "Woke" again.
🧵
— Logan Lancing (@LoganLancing) December 17, 2024
“Critical Constructivism” is the technical term for Woke. “Critical” for the Critical Theory of the Frankfurt school and offshoots (there’s a million “critical theories” now, Critical Race Theory and Queer Theory being the ones people are most familiar with).
— Logan Lancing (@LoganLancing) December 17, 2024
To quote Woke educator Joe Kincheloe, "Critical constructivism is grounded on the Frankfurt School's formulation of critical theory."
So why Critical Theory?
— Logan Lancing (@LoganLancing) December 17, 2024
I think we all know where this is going…
Again, to borrow from Kincheloe, "Critical theory is concerned with extending a human's consciousness of himself or herself as a social being in light of the way dominant power operates to manage knowledge."
— Logan Lancing (@LoganLancing) December 17, 2024
"Critical constructivism thus promotes reflection on the production of self."
So, critical theories extend an individual's consciousness. They help individuals "awaken" to the fact that they are "social beings" produced by dominant power through knowledge.
— Logan Lancing (@LoganLancing) December 17, 2024
What does this mean? It means that critical theories critique systems of power and seek to demonstrate how systems and structures of power CREATE YOU as a product. How "systemic power" alienates you from your true self (in the same way Marx would argue it).
— Logan Lancing (@LoganLancing) December 17, 2024
Critical theories "awaken" you to the fact that what passes as "neutrality" or "objectivity" or "common sense" are really just value-laden ideologies and "approved knowledge" that brainwashes you into accepting an unjust and oppressive status-quo.
— Logan Lancing (@LoganLancing) December 17, 2024
Critical theories "awaken" you to the idea that you've been "atomized" and separated from your true social(ist) and collectivist nature by being convinced that their is a "Truth" out there.
— Logan Lancing (@LoganLancing) December 17, 2024
For them, there is no "Truth" out there. What passes as truth is only what the dominant regime has decided is true through manufacturing knowledge and "regimes of truth" that support their claims and suppress others. It's Michel Foucault's "power knowledge," for those familiar.
— Logan Lancing (@LoganLancing) December 17, 2024
To return to Kincheloe, "critical theory…is always concerned with the ways power operates and the way various institutions deploy power in the effort to survive, shape behavior and gain dominance over others."
— Logan Lancing (@LoganLancing) December 17, 2024
Critical theories "awaken" you, granting you an "emancipatory source of authority" because you see how the world really works; you see what those in power have suppressed and hidden from you.
— Logan Lancing (@LoganLancing) December 17, 2024
Marx Horkheimer, the guy who created Critical Theory, said Critical Theory is chiefly concerned with "emancipat[ing] human beings." Emancipating them from their "dogmatic slumber," as Kant put it.
Critical Theory is the "red pill" in the movie The Matrix.
— Logan Lancing (@LoganLancing) December 17, 2024
Critical Theory isn't just critique. It's also normative, but in a backwards way. Horkheimer said that the ideal society (communist) couldn't be described from within the confines of the current society – the current society's terms make it impossible to envision alternatives.
— Logan Lancing (@LoganLancing) December 17, 2024
But, he said, we can critique those aspects of society we wish to change. We can critique them endlessly as unjust and oppressive. We can tear away endlessly and eventually we'll reach our ideal society through subtraction.
— Logan Lancing (@LoganLancing) December 17, 2024
So, the Woke have "awakened" to "the truth" about how the world really works and, guided by their "emancipatory source of authority" they critique everything as parts of unjust and oppressive "structures" and "systems" of power.
— Logan Lancing (@LoganLancing) December 17, 2024
Now the constructivism comes in. It's too much to get into here, but people like Piaget and Vygotsky are clearly important.
— Logan Lancing (@LoganLancing) December 17, 2024
Returning to Kincheloe, he says "Constructivism asserts that nothing represents a neutral perspective–nothing exists before consciousness shapes it into something perceptible."
This is a fundamental building block of the entire WOKE worldview. What does it mean?
— Logan Lancing (@LoganLancing) December 17, 2024
It means that there is no objective way of viewing the world. None. It means that, as Kincheloe states, “No truly objective way of seeing exists…what appears as objective reality is merely what our mind constructs.”
— Logan Lancing (@LoganLancing) December 17, 2024
So, whatever "reality" is, it's a construct of humans. Humans construct the world in our minds, but some humans enforce their constructs and values on the rest of us unjustly, hiding the power dynamics in things like "facts" and "truth."
— Logan Lancing (@LoganLancing) December 17, 2024
Awakened to this, the Woke say what Kincheloe does: "Critical constructivism is a theoretically grounded form of world making."
— Logan Lancing (@LoganLancing) December 17, 2024
"As critical constructivists remake and rename their world, they are constantly guided by their critical theoretical system of meaning, their emancipatory source of authority.”
— Logan Lancing (@LoganLancing) December 17, 2024
So, Woke isn't just "critiquing things" or "noticing things." It's an entire "weltanschauung, a worldview that creates meaning on the nature of human existence."
— Logan Lancing (@LoganLancing) December 17, 2024
So, to be Woke is to have "awakened" to "the truth" about how the world really works and, guided by an "emancipatory source of authority," leveling critiques against all that exists as parts of unjust and oppressive "structures" and "systems" of power.
— Logan Lancing (@LoganLancing) December 17, 2024
To be Woke is to have "awakened" to "the truth" that you are a "world builder" that can "rename" and "remake" your world as a "social being" in solidarity with those that share your grievances.
— Logan Lancing (@LoganLancing) December 17, 2024
It's not just "critiquing social power."
It's an entire worldview with an accompanying metaphysics, epistemology, politics, and ethics.
— Logan Lancing (@LoganLancing) December 17, 2024
Real oppression exists. There are legitimate grievances. Critiques can be legitimate. But the Woke count on you thinking that's what's going on when in reality they are denying reality itself in favor of mysticism and magic.
— Logan Lancing (@LoganLancing) December 17, 2024
Different eschaton; same immanentization?
