Hi Di,

Thanks for responding. I'm fascinated by your background and your course of study.

I appreciate you being real with me, too, about what you identify in today's society.

I think the issue is a complex one. When people use the phrase "the woke mob," for example, I assume they are using a wolf whistle to evoke the racist history of the U.S. and the fear white people often experience that Black people might use their power and freedom to harm those who have oppressed them. Much of the criticism of "wokeness" is rooted in a backwards, patriarchal, white supremacist politic that wants to assert that power in this country functions according to meritocratic ideals and therefore does not need to be redistributed. That is nonsense.

However, I do think that progressive ideals are sometimes weaponized against marginalized people, especially if we happen to gain even a modicum of power or financial security, let alone adopt positions of leadership. Words like "accountability" and "boundaries" get thrown around to justify people's unethical actions or indefensible stances. I do not think this is a product of wokeness, however. This is a pattern that has always occurred. What is different now is the spreading of the idea that powerful people should be held accountable when they used to be totally spared from accountability.

I think it is helpful to recognize that the impulse to target and scapegoat is not a product of progressive politics. It is a product of a stressful environment and the breaking of social ties.

Any language or framework can be imbued with a morality it has not earned, and used to cause harm.

I think the more we can see this kind of behavior as what it is, which is fascism by any other name, the better off we will be.