Great article in the Guardian about wokeism

[inkognitha]

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2025/jun/10/how-does-woke-start-winning-again

Good morning everyone.
Today, even the Guardian admits woke isn’t working.

« Yet Progressive Activists’ fatal flaw, the report argues, is that they’re further from mainstream public opinion on cultural issues than they realise. They’re the only group where a majority thinks that immigration should be as high or higher than it is now, and that protecting people from hate speech matters more than defending free speech (a key rationale behind “no debate” – the idea that trans identities aren’t up for discussion – and “no platforming”). They’re also the group most likely to think social change sometimes requires breaking the law, whereas two-thirds of Britons disapprove of protesters blocking roads or gluing themselves to things.
Tryl stresses that being outliers doesn’t invariably make Progressive Activists wrong – perhaps they’re just ahead of the curve, as the suffragettes once were – but it has important tactical implications. His polling shows that Progressive Activists overestimate by a factor of two to three how much others agree with their core beliefs, from abolishing the monarchy to letting children change gender. Consequently they tend to invest too little time on persuasion, focusing instead on mobilising the masses they wrongly imagine are on board. “If you’re reaching out to people, then you’re watering down,” is how Tryl describes this mindset.
While successful campaigns usually build the broadest base possible, Progressive Activists also tend to be purists, rejecting supporters who don’t endorse a complete worldview. (More than a quarter wouldn’t campaign alongside someone who believes – as a majority of Britons do – in Israel’s right to exist, for example.) Their yearning for grand systemic change means they can sound dismissive of other people’s small but well-meaning efforts, and they’re also unusually keen on correcting other people’s “mistakes” on diversity issues, something other groups consider likely to cause embarrassment. »

I hope some of the keyboard warriors/bullies roaming this board and the blue-haired, nose-pierced authoritarians will have a read, and at last, a think on how they do more harm than good.

That's his aim, but I think his angling for the Tory party. It won't happen, of course but posters, who think along the it's only 5 seats lines, really are in for a rude awakening. So yes, I agree with you.

Not to mention the bunnies in Wales!!!

It's an interesting article and obviously written by someone who considers themselves 'progressive' and therefore right in their own mind. I particularly like the bit where the writer was startled that 50% of people thought you shouldn't be able to change your sex marker on tour birth certificate and passport

and this bit:

The journalist Ash Sarkar, who rose to prominence as a Corbynite activist, describes in her new book Minority Rule hosting an event in 2023 with Extinction Rebellion co-founder Roger Hallam, where he was asked what the left was getting wrong. When he responded that it was because “you’re all being fucking cunts”, Sarkar writes, uproar ensued. One activist declared herself terrified by “the ‘white anger’ in the room”, while another said Hallam had “brought violence” into the space and “everyone had been harmed”. Sarkar was left wondering how people who couldn’t cope with a sweary climate campaigner envisaged leading a revolution.

😂😂😂

I can't believe people actually talk like that in all seriousness. I love to meet one to see what they're like. I assume most of them must be at uni because my 2 uni age children often refer to something (like not emptying the dishwasher, being late when picking them up etc etc) as 'being literal violence' in a jokey mocking tone.

I can't stand the woman.

If you hold a woke world view then everything you don't agree with is bigoted.

If the UK was a generally bigoted nation then a party like the BNP would have received far more support than they did.

What has changed to cause people to start rejecting the two main political parties in favour of a party like Reform? And why aren't you thinking more deeply about that instead of assuming it's because the country has transformed into a bigoted hell hole?

Advocate for luxury communism. Cleary there are gaps in her history education or perhaps she's arrogant enough to think if she ruled the world we'd have a better version of communism.

I wasn't aware she was a communist. You're not making things up are you?

I don’t think there’s any danger of Reform getting in. The vote will be split, enabling exactly who people didn’t vote for to be elected.

Returning to “woke” I am dismayed that the ideology has penetrated so many institutions and businesses. The WASTE of money on all sorts of training schemes and bloated HR departments makes my blood boil. I was sent a dedicated form through the post from a health trust about my sexuality in response to an enquiry about an admin matter. A) irrelevant and none of their business and B) the options!! Polyamorous! Uniamorous!

🙄

Touché!

I think that’s a joke, in which case I’m warming to you a little 😄.

I won't do your research again, stop being lazy. Ash is very open about her communist leanings and has been for years. The fact that you don't know this tells me you have little to say that should be taken seriously by anyone.

https://youtube.com/shorts/egQpRNTyPHk?si=xLYL7CW6rPFNTxE6

I was talking about the author of the article.

Luxury communism: an oxymoron if ever I saw one.

Maybe some people have been put off by some behaviours that you attribute to wokeness and lean towards Reform as a reaction to that. It can also be true that Reform getting into power would go the way of MAGA and everything right now indicates that it's not a regime that promotes human rights. That makes me think Reform in power would promote bigotry. It's an observable phenomenon in other countries and Reform's no different.
For me it really boils down to not wanting to be ruled by fascists.

😄

Fascists 😆 🤣

You are thinking about what Reform would be like in government rather than what is creating the shift in people's political affiliation now.

I could write an essay on why I'd be concerned about Reform as the governing party but that is not my point.

Exactly! People are free to believe the Earth is flat or balanced on the back of a giant turtle but they are demonstrably completely wrong.

people are free to believe transwomen are women and not men who are LARPing as women but they are also demonstrably wrong

and you can call us TERFS all day long but if doesn’t change facts

I have no idea if I dislike “woke” as I have zero idea what it means.

Seems to mean anything conservatives dislike.

Perhaps you should read the post being responded to again.

Full house on the bingo card. Anyway OP, interesting piece from the Guardian, which is telling us Reform have got the two political big boys on the run. Thanks again, for sharing.

You have the definition wrong.

To me it means group-based progressivism, usually (?always) derived from critical social justice foundations, and often authoritarian.

So, plenty for conservatives to dislike (the progressivism, the critical social justice lens), and plenty for liberals to dislike too (the authoritarianism, and depending on the flavour of liberal, the critical social justice lens too).

That’s my point. I have no idea what it means because it seems to just be a catch-all phrase
for anything conservatives dislike.