Long gone are the days when right-wing conservatism represented modesty, truth, or respect (if it ever truly did); when a sex scandal or an offensive remark could end a right-wing politician’s career. With the Trump and Brexit campaign, there was a rise in controversial characters, misinformation, and blatant airing of the most prejudiced opinions, but more interestingly it saw the right position itself as something it had never been before; countercultural. Right-wing movements and influencers began referring to themselves as “truthtellers”, those who saw through the lies of the media and the mainstream cultural apparatus and who could “save us” and by “us” that only applies to those who are predominately white, christian, hetero males. With this, there has been a rise in a new common enemy referenced by the right wing, a domineering all-powerful enemy – “the woke left” or “the woke mob”. This new nemesis was more powerful than those who came before it, unlike communists or satanists “the woke mob” embodied absolutely everything wrong and evil in society, it became the ultimate boogeyman.
Traditionally, the term “woke” referred to a recognition of distinct privileges one may be granted due to their circumstance (race, gender, sexuality, etc). On the right, however, who the woke left represents, depends on what day of the week it is and what controversy they need to capitalise on. As society began to posthumously and very slowly self-correct its ignorance of the past, many on the right claimed society was “going woke”. As more women and minorities began to take positions of power, as big companies started to see the financial benefit of celebrating pride, conservative media began to insist they had become “counter-cultural” and so coined the term “woke” for themselves. This would become particularly prevalent through the emergence of modern leftist movements. Through the course of massive social movements such as Black Lives Matter, Me Too or Repeal the Eighth, conservatives would use the term woke to identify members of the movement and the tangible effects they would have on society. They used the term through a new framework that implied an indoctrination towards a new, morally corrupt way of life. Being “woke” wasn’t about recognising privileges, it was about morally corrupting youth with sights of “pedophilic drag queens”, allowing illegal immigrants to take jobs. In fact the term “woke” began to mean just about anything you wanted it to mean. The mainstream media had gone woke and couldn’t be trusted, Disney films had gone woke and weren’t safe for kids and worst of all your favourite actor had just come out of the closet as “woke”. As soon as conservatives got their hands on the word it lost all meaning, it became the perfect, all-embodying term.
Why the notion of wokeness as an enemy has had such sticking power is twofold. Primarily it serves as the perfect “get out of jail free card”. Previous enemies of conservatism were limited in that regard. If you lost your job for inappropriate conduct it couldn’t be blamed on communists or satan-loving teens, but it can be blamed on the woke agenda. It equips everyday folk with a worldview that places responsibility for everything wrong with their life on one singular concept. It also serves as a secondary tool to conservatism as a means of recruitment and retention to the movement. Positioning wokeism as the status quo of mainstream media and governance places conservatism as the alternative option, the countercultural forces in society are all on the right (however inaccurate this may actually be). Any young person who finds themselves rebelling against the system, as many young people do, can be persuaded that the system is woke and being anti-woke is the way to rebel against the system. They are then held to the movement and any divergence from conservative views is “going woke”. This allows conservative movements to maintain a strong vision for what it means to be conservative and wrap it all up in an attractive countercultural package. You can be the same as everyone else or you can be an “anti-woke soldier”, forever a prisoner to the conservative way of life.
What is so troubling in “wokeism” as the right’s new boogeyman is exactly that, it is a boogeyman. There is little consensus, even amongst leftists, as to what “wokeism” really is or should be. On the right, it can be anything from the girl in your class who calls you racist to the presidential candidate who has to be a diversity hire and surely slept her way to the top. The anti-woke nature of modern-day conservatism not only provides them with the tools to chip away at decades of social progress in inclusion, but also to become the ultimate voice of counterculture. This is what becomes really concerning; that right-wing talking points will be seen as rebellious or disruptive to the status quo. Conservatives are by their nature conserving a traditional society, a way of life that never consulted women, minorities or the working class in its making. Right-wing commentators will never be counter-cultural figures; they have a grip on society, one we may never see loosened . But, when right wing commentators insist they are anti-system, cultural rebels in their own right, it makes them attractive, it makes them louder and it makes them far more dangerous.
