Written with contribution from Sheriff David Clarke
You may have noticed that while the loud, hysterical progressive left behaves as though they have the daring, minority opinion for how to achieve true justice and equality in the United States, they are enthusiastically and unquestioningly supported by much of mainstream culture.
Corporate America is backing the agenda of the radical left, and this is something we definitely need to pay attention to.
James McElroy of New York recently authored an article for American Mind.org wherein he raises alarming concerns for the “woke capitalists” of America, and the consumer’s gross underestimation of what that means, especially for big tech companies.
To start off, McElroy points out the obvious: The marketing strategies of big tech companies are deeply intertwined with “woke culture.”
“This summer, corporate America cheered on BLM and Antifa as they burned our cities,” he says. “ We all know Twitter suspends conservative voices at will, and that Google blocks conservative sites. Other tech companies like PayPal, Patreon, and Facebook censor anyone they deem unacceptable.”
“The phrase ‘woke capitalism’ often refers to the way multinational corporations ensure their advertisements reflect the latest woke pieties,” he explains.
However, he takes his definition a step further, which, as we will see, is integral to the ideas he asserts about “woke culture,” clarifying that “It should be defined more broadly as the institutionalization of Left social doctrine by America’s top corporations—and the purge of any American who refuses to submit.”
He goes on to assert that, to focus primarily on de-platforming is a “mistake.”
“Woke Capitalism goes much further than this,” he states.
“The increase in militant woke thought is intimately tied to the structure of multinational corporations.”
McElroy argues that older conservatives and leftists often fail to see this reality, dismissing the marketing ploys of big-tech companies as “insincere posturing,” i.e. virtue signaling for the sake of simply keeping their footing in the ever-shifting sands of woke culture.
“The people who work at these companies do, in fact, hate you,” he says. “Their sincerity or depth of principle is irrelevant. Those who fret about the inconsistency or inauthenticity of today’s neo-totalitarians have spiritually surrendered, saying, in effect, “that KGB agent who dragged me to the Gulag and stomped on my face was so cynical. Probably hasn’t even read Marx’s Capital.” Conservatives who unreflectively champion “pro-business” policies without reference to their holistic impact on American life and culture simply work to fund people who hate them.”
The solution? According to McElroy, the only way to keep the totalitarian regime of “woke America” at bay is, “The Labor Union”.
“Behind every crazy woke idea is an implicit call to consolidate power within the managerial class, proving that there is never a clear distinction between the economic and cultural spheres.”
McElroy seems to believe that the deeper evil of identity politics in woke culture, is more than a simple money- grab by Leftist corporations. He argues the point with a familiar metaphor:
“Left-wing and populist critics of identity politics often argue that it is a tool of capital used to divide the working class. There is much truth to this, but it is important to remember that it’s a metaphor. A cigar-chomping Monopoly man didn’t cook up “white fragility” in order to bust a union. Many members of the elite earnestly believe the most radical tenets of woke thought. They have nothing but contempt for conservatives.”
To further his point, McElroy reflects on the old tricks of the Nazis, of “replacing class with race.” He goes on to say that “today’s managerial class serves the function of the professional revolutionary because they perform a practical economic role and consider that role the source of almost Gnostic knowledge that allows them to see ‘through’ any objection to their will.”
He continues by acknowledging that this is a dramatic example, but has direct ties back to the “pedestrian aspects of corporate America.”
“The “managerial class” is simply the people who run our large bureaucracies….The managerial class confers benefits upon itself in the same manner as priests, and this shapes their worldview.”
He makes the connection that, with larger organizations, managerial duties exist in even narrower fields of work. As a result, the managerial class is often left to “think” for those under their umbrella of authority.
“The ‘sales representative’ has to stick to a pre-written script, the ‘server’ has to use corporate-approved greetings, and the Amazon warehouse worker must comply with efficiency guidelines.”
Through an extensive line of reasoning, he makes the statement that this same way of thinking and doing business translates heavily into the culture, by means of “woke culture” practices.
“It’s not just “be nice online,” it’s “hire disinformation specialists.” It’s not just “use the proper pronouns,” but “hire these diversity managers.” Not just “abolish the police,” but “hire these social workers.”
“Racism is now defined as a metaphysical state of being that permeates everything, and so we must fork over piles of cash to the gnostic priests who understand the secret forms of bigotry hidden in your heart.”
It is at this point that McElroy makes the connection back to his original statement, about a solution to this problem. Accusing conservative leaders of feeding into this endless cycle of “woke culture”, he makes a declarative assertion.
“Conservatives should spend more time thinking about what it would mean to build effective 21st-century labor unions or guilds. Republican leaders often defect because woke concerns function as a way to signal class status. Conservatives need to find ways to nurture a new leadership class that isn’t crippled by status anxiety,” he states.
“The largest businesses in this country are run by a Leninist suicide cult that grows from our economic arrangements, and it’s going to be difficult to fight one without a meaningful change in the other. Republicans must stop funding people who hate them, and instead build political infrastructure that actually helps their voters,” he says.
McElroy concludes his narrative with a grim, yet poignant statement: “Wokeness is the radioactive mutation: a suicide cult whose self-loathing dogmatism negates everything a people need to rule themselves.”
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