It took me nearly 10 years - and several deep dives into gifted thinkers - to understand what it is I encounter every time I speak with someone "situated in ideologically woke" terrain*.
For the longest time, I believed we were having a conversation. Even though much of it - quite visibly - wasn't with them, but with their manual. The book they'd all read containing "The Right Answers" - what one must think if one is A Good Person™.
I presented arguments. Again and again.
I spoke of ideas, values, culture, consequences.
But I only understood it recently -
I discuss.
They diagnose.
Let me give a few examples -
You say - "I support immigration and assimilation - but it must be legal and responsible and on our terms. We need borders and reform."
They hear - "You are xenophobic."
You say - "Culture matters. It's entirely obvious when you observe how different the world is. Mass immigration from cultures with vastly different values can challenge social cohesion."
They hear - "You are racist."
You say - "Let's take an example. If you come from a country, culture and faith where women are prosecuted for showing their hair in public, where homosexuals are stoned to death and human rights don't exist - then it can create serious problems in a free society like ours."
They hear - "You are Islamophobic."
You give a concrete example.
They give you a psychiatric label.
And that's when it struck me -
They're not trying to understand me.
They're trying to explain me away.
Because identity fills everything in that worldview.
Because if, in their self-understanding, they can make me into a "-phobic" case, psychologically deviant or similar - then they escape having to confront that I might be right.
But it doesn't (unfortunately) stop there.
This mechanism also reveals how they conduct inner dialogue with themselves…
They haven't learned to think - "Is it true?"
They've learned to think - "What does that say about me?"
Their world isn't built around ideas and truth - but around feelings and identity.
They feel, therefore they're right.
They're offended, therefore you must be wrong.
They sense discomfort - and diagnose you as the source.
That's why conversation is impossible.
Because while you're searching for clarity and understanding.
They're searching for guilt.
And the guilt is always placed on you.
Because their manual - the cultural Marxist holy book - it's perfect and always has the right answer.
…
When I say "woke", I'm not talking about ordinary centre-/left-leaning people. I'm talking about those who subscribe to the modern creed, where -
- Gender is a social construction
- Speech is violence
- Silence is hate
- Feelings trump facts
- Victim status is moral authority
- Identity determines truth
- The West is systemically oppressive
- Whites are privileged regardless of behaviour
- Blacks, women and minorities are oppressed regardless of freedom
- Critical questions are microaggressions
- Dissenting views are trauma tools for the wrong people
It's the ideological culture where everything is read as a sign of hidden evil - and where conversation isn't about finding truth, but about finding sinners.
Now you also know how to recognise them.
