Never too Woke
The demand for purity of virtue in the workplace is paralyzing progressive nonfrofits
Over at National Review Online, Jim Geraghty has a piece about the implosion of Washington-based progressive organizations. The problem, it seems, is the prevalence of Woke progressive staffers, mostly young, who bring with them to the workplace a toxic amalgam of narcissism and ideological fanaticism. Geraghty cites an article in The Intercept, “The Elephant in the Room,” that describes this crisis of competence at length. It makes for fascinating—and hilarious—reading.
In January 2021, progressive hopes were riding high. The Ogre Trump had been vanquished; the Democrats controlled the White House and Capitol Hill. Perhaps the unexpected flip of two Senate seats in Georgia, which gave Democrats the narrowest of majorities in that body, raised unreasonable expectations on the Left. And as America has since discovered to its dismay, Joe Biden is no FDR. But still, the prospects for a progressive agenda seemed bright.
To move that agenda forward, the participation of outside progressive advocacy groups like the Guttmacher Institute (abortion), the Sierra Club (climate and environment), the American Civil Liberties Union (social justice) was vital. Such groups were expected to provide the research, data, outside advocacy, etc., that Democrats needed to keep their agenda on track. But when the crunch came, they were missing in action. As The Intercept observes:
Instead of fueling a groundswell of public support to reinvigorate the party’s ambitious agenda, most of the foundation-backed organizations that make up the backbone of the party’s ideological infrastructure were still spending their time locked in virtual retreats, Slack wars, and healing sessions, grappling with tensions over hierarchy, patriarchy, race, gender, and power.
“So much energy has been devoted to the internal strife and internal bullshit that it’s had a real impact on the ability for groups to deliver,” said one organization leader who departed his position. “It’s been huge, particularly over the last year and a half or so, the ability for groups to focus on their mission, whether it’s reproductive justice, or jobs, or fighting climate change.”
Very often, that “internal strife and internal bullshit” emanated from young staffers who instead of focusing on their organization's mission, devoted their energies to criticism, often virulent, of its alleged racism, sexism, disregard of “marginalized communities, etc. and so forth. How, for example, could the ACLU advocate for social justice while defending the free speech rights of heinous right-wingers? As far as its young staffers were concerned it couldn’t, and so the ACLU abandoned its long-held position on the sanctity of the First Amendment. Suddenly free speech was…problematical.
These shenanigans are reminiscent of Red China’s Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and as The Intercept notes, they confront progressive organizations with a troubling conundrum: What to do about cancel culture now that it’s come home to roost? From time to time cancel culture does come for non-Wokesters—just ask Joe Rogan—but the majority of its victims are the Woke themselves. The Intercept tries to look on the sunny side, suggesting that however damaging these upheavals and purges may be in the short term, they’ll have beneficial long-term effects. But you can never be too Woke, can you? No indeed, and that’s the problem.
It’s difficult to accept the proposition that that the Woke commissar type exemplified by Felicia Sonmez, formerly of the Washington Post, will do good in the end. Sonmez, who was finally sacked by the paper after launching a social-media jihad against a colleague, seemed committed to making things as miserable as possible for her employer and coworkers—all in the name of sensitivity, inclusion, and goodthink, of course! And though she’s gone, the WaPo is still saddled with the equally odious Taylor Lorenz.
In the business world, there does seem to be a bit of a pushback underway against hyper-Woke employees who place their ideological obsessions ahead of their job responsibilities. In the universe of progressive nonprofits, however, the problem is getting worse, not better. It’s not hard to see why. First, where are such organizations to find the staff they need, if not among the ranks of progressive young people? Second, where will they find top-notch executives and managers willing to fight an endless round of internal battles over the puerile concerns of their own smug, virtue-signaling Woke employees?
As for why this is happening, in recent years the answer has gradually come into focus: For young progressives, being is more important than doing. Progressivism is a lifestyle whose markers are codes of thought and behavior signifying virtue. Given this quasi-religious sensibility, it’s only natural for young Woke progressives to demand comparable purity of virtue in the workplace. The most urgent question for them is not whether the organization is doing good in the world, but whether it’s good enough for young Woke progressives.
Joe Biden and the hapless mediocrities surrounding him need no help screwing up everything they try to do. Even if progressive nonprofits were not distracted by out-of-control Wokeness, the Biden Administration and the Democratic Party would probably still be a hot mess. But as J.V. Stalin put it, in the long run cadres decide everything. So if the Democratic Party’s support system remains in a state of Woke paralysis, that’s bad news for the Dems—now and for years to come.