If you are subscribing to this religious fervor we are seeing in the streets, in academia, in the media, and in private industry, be warned. You are the frog in the pot.
The woke mob spares no one. Being a heretic to their religiosity with a relatively small voice, I am not much of a scalp. However, if you are Tucker Carlson, you must be canceled. He refuses to bend to the mob. If you are Drew Brees, you will be made to atone for the sin of respecting the American flag. Except no amount of atoning will actually work.
Sarah Attkisson at Just the News compiled a list of the stunning number of resignations, more appropriately characterized excommunications, that have occurred in a matter of days due to insufficient wokeness. See, the Left will tell you silence is violence. However, if you speak or allow someone else to speak that doesn’t conform to the current orthodoxy, you must pay.
The secular left has had this strategy for a while. It went by the name cancel culture. Occasionally it worked, such as with Alex Jones, Milo Yiannopoulos, and some others. Occasionally it backfired and their target exploded. This was the case with people like Dave Rubin, Jordan Peterson, and others.
Now that the far left has taken it over, it has been structured to fill the God-shaped hole in these people’s hearts as they are pursuing it with a zeal that is unnerving and a bit shocking. Some people are trying to preempt it such as the country trio Lady Antebellum. They have now changed the band name to Lady A. Because I guess we all won’t remember what the A stands for or something.
So how has this gone from mobbing to a legitimate secular religion? It now simply has all the features. For those of us who use the Old and New Testaments in our faith, we have the concept of original sin. In his speech to the nation, Barack Obama redefined this for white Americans, regardless of where you come from and when you got here. He explicitly said slavery is our collective original sin and where you exacted your white privilege.
That is a wild departure. Sin is normally an individual concept. You confess, atone or apologize for things you personally have done wrong. In the Church of Woke, you are responsible for the sins of your forefathers, associates, and family members. In the case of original sin, you are responsible for the sin of the nation at its founding. Heavy burden my friend.
There is also a set of incomprehensible teachings. We call them grievance studies, or the curriculum your children must take that teach them to hate America because it was discovered by and founded by really bad, awful, terrible, racist, misogynistic, men. Did you know Columbus didn’t have a single woman on his senior crew?
Because these are incomprehensible, mostly because they are poorly written, based on emotion and not facts and nearly devoid of any real data or verifiable history, we need interpreters. These are the people you see in online videos leading chants that may remind you of a catechism. The leader says something, and the crowd repeats it back.
Recently, the Church of Woke got ceremonies. This was new. You may have seen the videos of cops, guardsmen, and large groups of white people kneeling in front of black people to atone for the original sin of slavery and other things these people have probably never done. We have even had feet washing. Quite a spectacle really.
I am not sure because no interpreter has actually said this, but I think this is actually to symbolize the unjust treatment of Colin Kaepernick, a third-rate quarterback when he was benched, who then made a spectacle of himself. He also got $1M Nike contract, a chance to work out for the coaches to get another slot which he blew off, and now people are pushing to get him back in the NFL again. I hope he goes to the Patriots. That would be some sweet irony.
In this whole quagmire, if you stay silent, you will be bullied to speak up. This is dangerous because if you don’t say it exactly right or have a different point of view you will be forced to atone. This generally comes in the form of a public apology. More than once. And then pretty much every time it is demanded of you. There is no concept of forgiveness in the Church of Woke. Because your sin is collective, you can’t be forgiven as an individual. Ask Drew Brees and his wife.
If you don’t apologize, they will excommunicate you. Our corporate leaders and institutions are so afraid of the Church of Woke, they will almost immediately comply. The truth is all of these once stately organizations are now really run by the woke interns. It makes me so glad I was hit by a truck. Otherwise, I might still be working in corporate HR and would probably have an aneurysm.
If you refuse to apologize you get to be a heretic. I’ve been one for years and I can’t imagine being any other way. Especially now that staying silent is violence. Keeping my mouth shut used to be my go-to offense. Now that I would get creamed either way, I’ll just own it and enjoy my status as a heretic. Saves me going through all the performative garbage I’ve seen in the last few weeks just to say what I actually think at a later date and be branded anyway.
The bigger sins to my mind would be saying things I don’t believe or making performative gestures to garner favor. However the biggest failure of character would be standing by and doing nothing if the Church of Woke came for a good person in my life. For the sin of being white and inarticulate, insensitive, honest, or truthful.
If you are the frog in the pot, you will stand by and do nothing. Let’s just hope when the Church of Woke comes for you, and they will, the person next to you hasn’t jumped into the warm water yet.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member