There are some things about people who call themselves “conservative” that I find really interesting. To be clear, I think conservatism, as advocated by Schlesinger, Niebuhr, Oakeshott, and various other theorists is an important view that we need in our political deliberations. I don’t agree with it or them—I think they’re wrong. But I think that political deliberation (or, to be honest, any policy deliberation) is better if there are people arguing from various premises (which, as I’ve said in many places, is not a binary or continuum of left v. right). We should have a public sphere of discourse in which there are people arguing vehemently for a social safety net, an unconstrained market, a market that is constrained in such a way to promote fair competition, isolationism, protective trade, free trade, a foreign policy that promotes our economic interests, a foreign policy that promotes democracy, a foreign policy, the government taking on issues of long-term concerns ignored by the market, and so many other positions.
And, if you think that range of positions is usefully represented by left v. right, then I would like to interest you in some shares in the Brooklyn Bridge. Just think about what you could make with the tolls.
The media is demagogic to keep referring to sources or figures as “conservative” who simply aren’t. Fox News isn’t conservative—it’s pro-GOP. And the GOP is rarely conservative.
Conservatism is skepticism about social change, grounded in skepticism about human nature (so “prosperity gospel” is completely incompatible with conservatism). In fact, people who call themselves “conservative” are far closer to “neo-liberal” than “conservative,” at least insofar as what they claim to have as principles. Neo-liberals (such as Reagan) endorse “a policy model that encompasses both politics and economics and seeks to transfer the control of economic factors from the public sector to the private sector. Many neoliberalism policies enhance the workings of free market capitalism and attempt to place limits on government spending, government regulation, and public ownership.”
The GOP is and has long been intermittently neo-liberal; they’re neo-liberal in terms of the principles they claim to have, but not in terms of policy agenda, as various sources have noted. The one position on which the GOP has been consistent since 1968 is racism—sometimes dog whistle, and sometimes trumpeted. When it comes to neo-Jim Crow policies (that is, laws that make it harder for non-whites to vote) they reject the notion that a free market will lead to the right outcomes. And they long have–the Georgia race-based voter suppression “is the sort of policy Republicans used to enact quietly, with little protest, back before everybody detested them.”
So, in the GOP ideological world, saying that someone is “woke” is an insult. What does it mean to be “woke”?
I have to say that I haven’t heard a leftist use the term “woke” in anything other than an ironic way in years, but a google search suggests that some people are still using it in the old way, which was “being awake to social injustices , especially those created by racist institutions.”
What’s incredibly weird about how the pro-GOP media and supporters use the term is that’s what they mean too. They believe that being “woke” means calling attention to racist injustice.
They think it’s a joke because because they believe that there is no racism. Because they’re racist.
Although they admit that non-whites have higher rates of getting arrested, convicted, and killed, have a harder time getting jobs or apartments, and are generally treated worse, they think that’s because non-whites deserve the treatment they get—a very racist belief. Pro-GOP are sad puppies because racist books don’t win prizes, publishers decide not to publish racist books, scholars who do shitty research that supports racism have trouble getting published, people who say racist things get criticized, racists get fired, companies and advertisers don’t want to be associated with racists. They’re victims because they can’t advocate racism without getting called racist.
So, people who claim to be the party that advocates personal responsibility feel sorry for themselves if people hold them responsible for their statements and actions. If you’re bragging that you aren’t “woke,” you’re bragging that you’re racist, and you’re bragging that you’re a whiner who doesn’t like to be called racist.