How Woke Won: The Elitist Movement That Threatens Democracy, Tolerance and Reason: 1 (None)

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Perhaps the starkest illustration of how reducing everything to single frames of vision can distort understanding comes in the debate about antisemitism. In his new book Jews Don’t Count, David Baddiel shows how the view of Jews as “privileged” or “white” leads many progressives to ignore antisemitism, even collude with it. Baddiel seems more interested in ensuring that Jews can join the carnival of identities than in challenging identity politics; nevertheless, his central point about the failure of many to recognise antisemitism remains important. To say that Londoners deserve better than Sadiq Khan is a huge understatement. Rather than pontificating about American politics, Roe v Wade or his wishlist of free-speech restrictions, the mayor should focus on fixing the problems plaguing our capital. It was a remarkable rant, not least in the implication both that the “woke” are migrants who don’t truly belong, and that challenging historical narratives amounts to having “anti-British thoughts” that cannot be accommodated by “free speech” – or even in this country. Such is the reactionary end of reflexive unwokeness. Germany/Turkey 2007, 122 mins. Director Fatih Akin. Starring Nurgul Yesilcay, Baki Davrak Tuncel Kurtiz and Hanna Schygulla.

How Woke Won by Joanna Williams | Waterstones

Joanna’s writing has been published widely in the UK and the US including The Sun, The Daily Mail, The Telegraph, The Spectator, The Guardian, The New York Post and American Conservative. From schools that teach children to question their gender identity, to universities that provide students with ‘content warnings’ for classic works of literature; from local councils that remove statues of historical figures, to multinational corporations that sell virtue alongside their products; woke thinking has seeped into every aspect of our lives. For those who would broadly consider themselves woke, the word has been weaponised against them. But the Fox/Young brigade often claim the same. We aim to look at how, where and why individual and structural racism impacts people of colour from all walks of life.Since becoming a spiked columnist in 2021, Joel Kotkin has swiftly become one of our most popular writers. Joel writes incisively about so many issues, from class to environmentalism to the fate of American cities, but this piece stood out to me: his inspiring call-to-arms to defend Enlightenment values against Year Zero wokeness. The subversion of ‘woke’ is political and means the word can now be used to perpetuate the very injustices it sought to eradicate in the first place.

How Woke Won: The Elitist Movement That Threatens Democracy

How Woke Won, a new book by Joanna Williams, is a must read for anyone wanting to understand the illiberal and divisive ideas that dominate society today. Turning now to the war that is still raging on Europe’s eastern flank, the war that turned the world upside down this year, this long-read by spiked stalwart Frank Furedi – on how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine represents the ‘revenge of history’ – is essential reading, if somehow you missed it the first time around. As is Ella Whelan’s piece on the perils of Russophobia. You don’t need to be a psychologist to see that downplaying your own talents is a way of taking the pressure off, but it is not wholly an act. After winning the World Championship in 2012, O’Sullivan dropped off the tour, stopped playing snooker and went to work on a pig farm before returning to the Crucible in 2013 to win the tournament again. Up to a point, he really can take or leave it. He said it could be, in part, down to what is lost in transatlantic translation. In other words, this American word just doesn’t sit right with British mindsets. These are the questions at the core of Joanna Williams’ brilliant new book, How Woke Won. Joanna will be known to spiked readers as a prolific author and one of our longest-running and most cherished columnists. And we are delighted to announce that spiked is publishing How Woke Won, in partnership with John Wilkes Publishing.

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The twisted consequence of the unwoke perspective was highlighted last week in an opinion piece in the Yorkshire Post by GP Taylor headed “Don’t let ‘wokes’ rewrite history, let’s learn from the past” told those with “anti-British thoughts”: “If you do not like the history of the country that gives you shelter, protects, feeds you and allows you free speech, then get out. Go!” This word has power, and the people who use it as a weapon are all too aware of the underlying connotations of racial and social ideologies. It is used to undermine and disparage the voices committed to fighting for social justice and the rights of minorities – and to silence these views without engaging with them.