ON THE GENEALOGY OF WOKENESS

Most people misunderstand the origins of contemporary "woke" ideology

It was not produced by academia, but by teenagers on Tumblr. The internet, and fragile, impressionable young people birthed something so viral it captured American politics

In the 2010s young people were both finally very online, and the platforms advanced enough to promote high speed interactions at scale. A far cry from Myspace and even Facebook that promote interactions with people you *know*.

The feed, and the ability to scroll were recently invented, and teenagers had no defense against it. This takes place right after the victory of Obama, and surging optimism to put the racial divide behind us

Tumblr surges to popularity specifically among young girls. It was a place for girls to participants in "Fandoms". A fandom is where fans of a particular type of media (Harry Potter, Twilight) gather to share their love of this content. It also became interested in social justice.

These interactions began to take over the lives of a segment of young women who were more active online than in real life

While they came to the website to fantasize about Edward and Jacob from Twilight, they became constantly bombarded with social justice messaging in the dawn of the endless scroll

Now where did these ideas come from? The concepts they were exploring came from early Marxist academics from the 60s and 70s who were part of the "long march through the institutions". I use Marxist literally, not rhetorically, they were literally Marxists

It's crucial to recognize that while Marxist philosophy influenced these ideas, the express form of wokeness we have dealt with is not academic or even marxist in origin.

It is fundamentally *teenage* in origin. It is a teenage philosophy, and even a female philosophy. I say this with care, not to provoke gendered resentment.

But one cannot understand wokeness without understanding teenage girls. This is not of the mind of a teenage boy.

To be a teenage girl is many things, and many more I cannot understand, but one thing is to be socially permeable. Teenage girls are not designed to sense social demands and pressures and *then reject them in place of their own well formed ideals*. They are fundamentally susceptible to social pressure in a profound way.

And so what you observe on Tumblr is a type of chain reaction. A Lord of the Flies Island where an ideological virus is allowed to incubate into its most viral form.

When this ideology finally spreads to American society, is when these Tumblr girls attend college. This is why people commonly associated wokeness with academia

But they have the direction of causality inverted. The teachers did not indoctrinate the students. The students infected and terrified the teachers. Now, some of those teachers were all too happy to go along with it, but still it was these young people who brought it to academia.

From this point the rate of spread rapidly increased, and it starts to influence the real world. Academics have influence and students graduate.

In 2013 this ideology was raging inside colleges, I was there!

By 2016 it was raging inside politics at a national stage. 

The Democratic party became profoundly infected. And this has continued to this day, although it started weakening post COVID.

Cancellations became prominent in even corporations. Again, a cancellation is a fundamentally female method of social organization. Men do not cancel other men for saying an idea which is outside the norm.

They either argue, or fight.

Cancellation is yet another example of how, respectfully from my part, we are dealing with a feminine ethic from Tumblr. Girls cancel other girls. Look at any middle or high school. It isnt hard to see.

Why is it important to recognize the origins of wokeness?

Because the Left must fundamentally understand they have been led by teenagers. And they must turn to adults yet again if they seek a future in American politics