Sometimes at Twitchy, writing from a conservative perspective and speaking generally to conservatives, it can be easy to lose sight of whether or not those conservative ideas are reaching others. Not active leftists per se (we know many of them are unreachable), but people who might consider themselves traditionally liberal but can't help noticing what is going on in the world and in America today.
Enter James Lindsay, known by his Twitter handle @ConceptualJames. Lindsay is an accomplished author and cultural critic, but on Twitter/X, he is perhaps best known for being permanently banned for his repeated use of the phrase 'OK, Groomer' in response to people promoting gender ideology and queer theory to children. Lindsay also is known for upsetting people both on the left and the right, so that's someone this writer at least believes is worth listening to more often than not.
On Nov. 29, Lindsay decided to test the idea of whether or not former liberals were waking up to the insanity of the left with a simple tweet and hashtag: #WokeUp.
A "Walk Away" campaign not just about the Democratic Party, but yes about the Democratic Party too, about waking up out of the Woke cult called #WokeUp. Tell your story and tag it with "I #WokeUp." When?
— James Lindsay, against magic (@ConceptualJames) November 29, 2023
The hashtag didn't exactly go viral, but it still prompted plenty of responses from people who have seen the light into what 'woke' actually means ... and want nothing at all to do with it.
I #WokeUp when an academic colleague was showing off (unironically) a gift she put together for another colleague... which was a doll of Hugo Chávez and a Che Guevara shirt (awake).
— River over troubled bridges (@JulietRedbird) November 29, 2023
Then, years later, Evergreen confirmed my concerns.
Recommended
'Evergreen,' of course, is Evergreen College, where professor Bret Weinstein was forced out for questioning 'racial equity' in 2017.
I #WokeUp right after George Floyd happened. I saw a rally called Black Trans Lives Matters in Vancouver and I was WTF this has to do with trans people? Went into the rabbit hole and realized it’s all a game.
— Bijan Daei (@bdaei) November 29, 2023
BLM was always a scam, from Day One.
I transitioned long before the concept of "woke" existed. I was liberal into my thirties, but a lifelong interest in firearms led me to examine the 2A and from there, the Constitution. Bottom line: liberty involves risk. This was at the core of the success of the USA.
— Tyrone Slothrop🇮🇱 (@JLimebrook) November 29, 2023
As the old saying goes, 'If you are not a liberal before you're 30, you have no heart. If you're still a liberal after you're 30, you have no brain.'
I #wokeup in 2013, gamergate, when I saw the concerted effort to control the narrative and speech of others, not just among video game journalists but also their friends in the mainstream media.
— The Nooticer (@TheNooticer) November 29, 2023
Of course it wasnt so much me waking up as it was them moving away from their…
Sometimes, we forget about Gamergate, but it really was a huge red flag for really bad things to come and should have rang more alarm bells outside the gaming community.
my DEI trainer tried to bust me for sexual harassment, while bragging she was under investigation for false Sexual harassment charges#WokeUp
— UGH ugh (@Uugher7) November 29, 2023
The fact that there's even a job called 'DEI trainer' is a sign of how bad things are. And that's another scam, as this user attests.
My "I #WokeUp" journey was overall gradual but the most jarring loss of faith in institutions was when reading the various "theory" textbooks taught to undergrads. It became clear that philosophy and ontology within the humanities had abandoned reality and narrowed to an extreme.
— James Harris (@InHumaneShape) November 29, 2023
During the George Floyd riots. My work did a diversity training and made all of the white people articulate out loud by their racist. I found the entire thing. Silly and disgusting. I was starting to wake up and covid put me over the edge.
— Rickie Dickie (@d3pr3ss3dBUF716) November 29, 2023
Both George Floyd and COVID were VERY popular answers.
I #wokeup during COVID when I stopped hanging out with my liberal friends. Suddenly I wasn't surrounded by talk of injustice, guilt, and negativity all the time and I was happy for the first time in years.
— Stormurgyðja 🌿 (@Itcomestonaught) November 29, 2023
I #wokeup gradually starting in about 2015. It was the trans stuff initially. During Covid and the riots I realized that my empathy was being used as a weapon. Still voted for the “moderate choice” in 2020. Learned about communism. I’ll never vote Democrat again.
— Billiam 🪨 🇺🇸 & 🦅 (@BilliamThaGr8) November 30, 2023
I was a liberal in 2016 - a Bernie supporter.
— warhol (@warholwildcard) November 29, 2023
I started to walk away after they ousted Bernie and essentially gave Hillary the primaries
Then COVID
Then BLM
Then the vaccines
Then Twitterfiles
The reasons to walk away keep mounting. #wokeup
Summer of '20 when everyone was putting black squares in their profile. I was about to post one then just stopped cold to ask myself why? I think the lunacy of riots during a "pandemic" woke me up, and I could see the mental gymnastics people did to make sense of things. #WokeUp
— Quentin Compson (@QuentinComp21) November 29, 2023
At home for months, I started reading Mises, Rand, Sowell, and Locke and I realized how deeply Marxism had penetrated into our society. I’ll never look at the world the same way I did before. #wokeup
— Debbie (@Debbie72301806) November 29, 2023
Reading will always help destroy the woke mind virus. Well ... some reading, anyway.
I #WokeUp when my son’s prestigious private school invited Ibram X Kendi to speak to parents and encouraged us to read “How to Be an Antiracist.” I read it. It’s the only book I’ve ever thrown in the trash can.
— JK (@JaniePerrone) November 29, 2023
That's OK. You found the best place in the world for that book, and for Kendi in general.
I #WokeUp when my friends all said they were voting for "the cool black guy" and it "was racist to vote for Hillary Clinton."
— Lo El Cunado (@1stWorldParent) November 29, 2023
- then I got to watch these same people say it was "racist to NOT vote for her" a few years later.
If there's one thing that woke does really well, it's moving those goalposts, constantly.
I, at the time a Bernie supporter, #WokeUp in 2018 when an Oakland high school teacher I never spoke with handed me a flyer to not be such a racist white person. She did it in my favorite cafe. pic.twitter.com/hotPmAloqi
— Andreas (@asabjoern) November 29, 2023
Shocking, yet not at all surprising. Even Coca-Cola is telling its employees and customers to 'be less white.'
I #wokeup when I realized there are more pedophiles in DC, Wall Street, Hollywood and media than in prison.
— Sledge (@TheTexasA55hole) November 29, 2023
That is truly scary ... and probably accurate, if we ever get to see Ghislaine Maxwell's little black book.
I #WokeUp when my kind, empathetic White son came home saying that he was guilty because he's White.
— Mel's Thoughts (@MelsThoughts__) November 29, 2023
Wow. There are many more testimonials, but this might be the saddest one of all. The most evil act of the woke mind virus proponents is their targeting of children. With critical race theory, gender theory, and queer theory, they are attempting to destroy the next generation.
But more and more people each day are becoming #WokeUp, and that alone is enough to encourage us to keep fighting.
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