What is woke ideology and why is it so vicious?

The Lowdown Ep 14: Yascha Mounk on the new dogma

Greetings,

You can listen to the Lowdown on Apple podcasts (below)

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I hope this newsletter, like my journalism for the Observer, has never consisted solely of knee-jerk left-wing reactions. Anyone with any knowledge of 20^th century history knows that the left can inflict misery just as easily and viciously as the right.

For this reason, I was delighted to welcome Yascha Mounk to the Lowdon podcast. His latest book The Identity Trap  is an important political intervention. It explains the origins of woke ideology, and why the identitarian emphasis on difference and the refusal to allow free argument will make genuine equality harder to achieve

Please listen to the whole thing. It is one of the most important interviews we have arranged.

Below is a long read from me on strange intellectual backstory of the new ideology.

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All the best, Nick

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The roots of wokeness

Where it is from and why it will fail

There are two dishonest conversations about wokeness, or identity politics if you prefer the less contentious term. The first from conservatives is wearily familiar.  For some on the right “woke” is now a synonym for “anything I can’t abide”.  Overuse has made the insult meaningless.

On the left, the dishonesty lies in the denial that a new ideology even exists. Nothing has changed, we are told. To be what Conservatives sneeringly call “woke” is simply to be a decent person who cares about the rights of others as progressives have always done.