Bad ‘Woke Traits’ in the World and in the Church

One of the best cultural critics I know has once again done what great cultural analysis does best: Expose the little man behind the curtain (Wizard of Oz) pulling all the strings and presenting a certain reality (fake news) that many people absorb and assume to be the norm. What follows is a masterclass from my friend, who remains anonymous at this point because the Woke Militia are really a terrible bunch of virtue-signalers and it is my duty and joy to protect him and share it here.

“Part of the woke problem is premature self-ascription of prophetic authority by people who suppress the true prophets. I think we are allowed to point that out.”

Yes we are. And we must. Whether in the Church or in the World, a kind of prophetic mantle is presumed and then acted upon with all sorts of illegitimate authority, by the religious and the non-religious. Woke culture displays classic religious traits of cultic and cultural authoritarianism on a par with Nazism and Communism: Left and Right in an inter-play of 1984 meets the Gulag Archipelago. Any non-echo chamber YouTube search will plentifully prove my point.

Buckle up: Here are some bad woke traits:

(a) the “sovereign citizen” trait – an absolutist belief in oneself as a centre of authority that should not be challenged;

(b) the “masquerading as an angel of light” trait – a projected image of “deeds before men” designed to assert that one is ‘the helper’, presupposing the drama triangle of ‘rescuers, victims, and persecutors’;

(c) the ‘poor victim’ trait – a projected image of being the one who has suffered injustice and who should as a result receive attention and respect;

(d) the ‘sophist-obscurantist’ trait – using convoluted quasi-academic language that only the initiated can understand in order to justify self-ascription of elitist superiority relative to the ‘red necks’ who don’t get it – though when true academics unpack the language it turns out to obscure a few faulty premises and a bunch of trivia that avoid the issue; e.g. will mis-apply post-structuralist thought, but not understand it or how it is flawed;

(e) the “political duplicity” trait of saying the placating thing in one’s presence, but then of defamatory misrepresentation of the same person when their back is turned – all for the sake of self-advancement;

(f) the “misrepresentation-literalistic” trait of taking a word or clause used by an opponent and taking it out of context and attributing literalistic meaning to it other than that intended by the speaker in order to justify mislabelling the speaker as having a trait or view they do not have;

(g) the “binary-ethic in-or-out” trait – saying you’re either with us (non-sexist, non-racist, non-homophobic, non-trans-phobic, non-Islamophobic, non-bigoted) or against us (sexist, racist, homophobic, trans-phobic, Islamaphobic, bigoted) – as though in the history of ideas there were only two options to choose from;

(h) the “de-platforming, shouting over, interruption” trait that by any means necessary silences the voices of those with opposing views;

(i) the “narrative-control, censorship, language-control, book-burning” trait – attempting to prevent any language or speech from any source from coming into being that might highlight truths uncomfortable for the self-appointed elite;

(j) the “collectivist cultural Marxist” trait – defining people by which group they belong to, rather than according to their individual identities;

(k) the “impenetrability to all critique” trait – the fact that no amount of reason can get through to these people, since it is at depth a spiritual stronghold created by a deceiving spirit sent by God to entrap into judgment;

(l) the “escalation-tantrum-violence” trait – when met by superior force or argument, emotional manipulation is applied through escalating the stakes by emotive means such as loud outbursts, shouting, even physical attacks.

(m) the ‘shape-shifter’ trait: projecting that one is trans-cultural, all things to all men, through insincere cultural appropriation, for example, of traditional dress; or, for example, of rap music, in order to placate a group perceived to be on the ascendancy and in future able to confer power on oneself;  

(n) the ‘oppression, clique-dynamics and double standards’ trait: counterfeit intimacy (fake community) predicated on shared negatives about excluded outsiders, who are then subject to different rules at the level of enforcement;

(o) the ‘lawless-anarchy-to-totalitarianism modality-shift’ trait: when not in power using and funding anarchic, lawless and riotous violent behaviour to topple existing systems undemocratically; but then introducing ever-more Draconian police-state totalitarian ‘system’ when in power

(p) the ‘hierarchy-infiltration-and-corruption’ trait: being very good at getting into positions of power through mastering of selection processes and criteria at the level of image-projection, but then doing nothing but image-projection management when in power, dissolving the effectiveness of the organisation.

(q) the ‘all-three-temptations-succumbed-to’ trait: combining financial gain and materialist self-indulgent greed (first temptation), with masquerading as angels of light for the purposes of self-advancement in the social realm (second temptation), with flirtation with sin-of-Moses authority self-ascription in the context of Bible-suppressing false religion additionally occultizing spirituality to gain the supposed assistance of fallen angels presented as ‘the Holy Spirit’ (third temptation)

(r) the ‘forceful domination of every conversational exchange’ trait: the precognitive reflex-assumption of subconscious conditioning being mistaken for epistemological certainty introjected into self-ascriptions of unconditional self-righteousness and the ‘self-evident rightness’ of one’s own perspectives – as basis for assuming a teacher role in relation to the assumed-to-be-dumb other, who should just shut up and listen.

(s) the ‘crusty new monasticism I’m-a-living-sacrament piety-prophet’ trait: a form of simple cardigan-wearing, tea-cosy-knitting (cf Elijah’s garb), veganism-propagating, monk’s-haircut-and-beard-sporting, new-peddle-powered-or-electric-personal-mode-of-transport-but-still-designer-flashing, ‘the Goodlife Updated retro-appropriating’, vacantly self-absorbed but secretly wanting others to envy ‘naturalized’ eco-on-display living-by-example-evangelizing – coupled with quiet contemplation of one’s own sacramental superiority as part of a new priestly class of a usurping new religion.

(t) The ‘IADA (inappropriate assumption of directive authority)’ trait, giving commands to others that assume an inappropriate role-assumption on behalf of the one giving the commands.

(u) The ‘steer things away from incisive content and interrogative criticism and towards flash sloganeering and a propaganda of positivity’ trait. This trait oppresses and silences those who do bring incisive content and interrogative criticism.

(v) The ‘hold overly-dramatic seminar series regarding ‘key new spiritual insights from the Spirit’ that turn out to be vacuous amorphisms with serious embedded errors from demons that lead the church astray’ trait.