IGF CultureWatch

Added: After sharing the linked stories below, I’ve come across discussions arguing there’s no such thing as “woke” and it’s all right-wing fear-mongering. That’s disingenuous in the extreme, so here’s my off-the-cuff definition:

“Woke” is a constellation of academic social justice theories put into practice, including the equity agenda of assigning outcomes based on identity group membership (DEI, or diversity, equity, inclusion); prioritizing climate change strategies in the management of business and retirement investments (ESG, or environment, social and governance issues); critical race theory (CRT) that characterizes U.S. and Western history as primarily driven by white racism; critical gender theory (CGT) that includes advocating medical transitioning for gender-nonconforming minors; and similar progressive nostrums embraced and promulgated by elite professionals and media.

Please don’t do this. Critical Social Justice (wokeness) must be able to be critiqued as an approach to addressing injustices/prejudices/imbalances in society in the same way that socialism and liberalism can. This is essential for several reasons. (cont) https://t.co/68f31OoxKD

— Helen Pluckrose (@HPluckrose) March 17, 2023

1) No political worldview or ethical framework for improving social equality is ever going to get everything right and most of them are going to get very many things wrong. Self-correction is impossible if all dissent is read as hatred of minorities.

— Helen Pluckrose (@HPluckrose) March 17, 2023

The evidence is now overwhelming that recent panics around climate, race, and sex — the mass desire to conform to a strict moral (Woke) code — stem from a) the acute need of liberal secular people for purpose, b) rising loneliness, and c) mass anxiety created by social media. pic.twitter.com/RnPEkVYHhH

— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) March 27, 2023

Added: More about the woke-left’s protests against the New York Times for daring to report there is debate among doctors over the speed at which gender nonconforming kids are being rushed into medicalized transitioning.

The key premise of the NYT letter is that coverage resources are misplaced because nothing important has changed in youth gender treatment. And that is demonstrably untrue. https://t.co/JPdDHZso9E

— Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) February 16, 2023

Read Jonathan Chait on the media mob that tried to silence this reporting in the NYT:https://t.co/ohRf3Fgi2f

— Wesley Yang (@wesyang) February 16, 2023

And this:

A @nytimes opinion columnist writes a defense of JK Rowling. You can agree or disagree with the piece, just as you can agree or disagree with JKR. But should “human rights” organizations really be in the business of demanding that ONLY perspectives they agree with be published? https://t.co/aevqI9UJyU

— Jacob Mchangama (@JMchangama) February 17, 2023

This is not only unprincipled but also self-defeating. Very likely a huge proportion of Americans have more conflicting views on trans and gender issues than @HRC. Only tolerance for differing views – not least those of minorities – permit trans-activist a prominent voice.

— Jacob Mchangama (@JMchangama) February 17, 2023

And Andrew Sullivan weighs in:

And yet the LGBTQ+ woke brigades care not about any of the evidence. Anyone who points out what’s actually happening, most often to gender-nonconforming gay and lesbian kids, is a “TERF” or a “homocon” or some other silly, dismissive insult lobbied by people who shut down their brains long ago to anything outside of the woke-progressive narrative that they parrot with a veracity that makes religious fundamentalists seem like pikers.