The Psychology of Woke - Part II

Unpoisoning the Well - Sam Ray © 2023 - Counter-Narcissist Intelligence

As noted in Part I, powerful and nefarious forces have pushed anti-wokeism into every political bubble to blame-shift their refusal to grow-up, be fair, honest and just to all the people who have been forced to grow up asking for fairness, honesty and justice for themselves, their loved ones or their people, when they should not have to.

What a surprise selfish, racist, misogynist, bigoted, powerful and power-hungry people would insecurely see “woke” as an existential threat to their current or historical dominance and systemic advantages, and are doing anything and everything in their power to poison the well of wokeism. To keep the well as safe as possible, the woke must know and understand how the toxins used against us work.

As is standard procedure with such psychological operations, made-up realities, half-truths, propaganda and massively exaggerated “woke” extremism are some of the manipulative tools being used to gaslight, scare and ultimately groom America into fearfully reacting to reasonable equality requests with racism, bigotry, misogyny and narcissism.

There is no doubt anti-woke Republicans are having success with their primary voter-base of “non-college educated white men” by playing on their self-proclaimed “Alpha male” insecurities, but what makes anti-wokism so dangerous to democracy is these insecurities have also found openings in socially moderate circles by making them feel under threat from wokeness. So it would be wise for activists to make greater use of psychology to better relieve, manage and limit gaslit fears. I am certainly not saying hold back from justice. I am just saying we must not forget the less people fear wokeism, the faster progress and justice can be achieved for those who deserve it.

Politically, the truly woke must recognize there are always a lot of decent men, women and older folks who unlike younger people get confused by change and progress, so can be easily led astray from right towards wrong. 

For most, it seems they have no positive frame of reference for those who wish to announce or alter their pronouns, experience gender dysphoria, or are trans girls wanting to compete in sports, or many other far more mainstream pioneering aspects of wokeism, because if it does not affect them personally, they just don’t get it. Here in Wokeville, when it comes to almost all of it, if it does not really negatively affect others, we believe in “live and let live” and letting people be who they want to be. America is still a free country, right?

However, as a person who is always honest about the facts even when they do not fit my beliefs or instincts to be honorable, I must admit that if I had a daughter in sports, I would think it unfair to have a trans girl dominate my girl’s sport due to male physical advantages, and thus reduce my daughter’s chances at experiencing winning or starring in a sport she loves. It seems unwoke not to understand how many girls and their parents would at least subconsciously resent trans girls, their families and wokeism for stealing their potential individual or family glory. Indeed trans girls should get to be girls and compete in sports, but even for this fair-minded woke person, the solution to this moral paradox is a tough one.

This is an example of where there is sometimes truth in what those questioning wokeism are saying and more dangerously, this is where the wokeism well is most vulnerable to being poisoned with propaganda and then dismissed by the general population as being unjust to the vast majority, right or wrong.

This example also shows why being “woke” must include being aware and to care about when new rights for some creates an injustice for others, not only because it is the right thing to do, but unfairly dismissing these types of woke-justice paradoxes puts the entire enterprise of progressing human rights in jeopardy. Woke “wedge issues” are now the molehills that are made into “right-wing outrage” mountains, and thus can sway many reasonable people into seeing injustice in justice.

These types of paradoxes, the most extreme versions of wokeism and every scary definition are being sold by global grifting machines via old and new tricks to hit everyone’s microtargeted triggers. That’s what Republican, Russian and other authoritarian analytics operations can do to manipulate anyone now. Evermore powerful “Artificial Intelligence” programs are analyzing everyone’s personal data, personality type and life situation, and then relentlessly spitting out which issues will outrage and gaslight each of us enough to react with fear and hate against wokeism, or anything else. 

Do you remember fun personal question surveys on Facebook such as “Which movie star are you most like?” Remember how that kind of “private” information was then sold to predatory political psychology operations such as Steve Bannon’s partners at Cambridge Analytica, who got caught on video bragging about using sex workers and former spies to get dirt on politicians and using people’s personal information to swing elections via “behavioral microtargeting,” usually on behalf of primarily dishonest conservative and authoritarian clients around the globe?

Just imagine how effective like-minded mercenary and sinister forces are today at weaponizing our own psychological and private-life profiles against us. If that is not a systemic danger to be woke about and to use counter-narcissist intelligence against, I don’t know what is.

The first step is we must all stay aware that anyone could be armed with our internet psychological profile and personal issues, and could be microtargeting us with made up realities, half-truths, deep-fakes and extreme versions of anything that will outrage or trigger us the most. 

In other words, to be fully awake or woke, you need to be very aware that almost anyone can now be tricked by lies and disinformation, and should always independently triple-check the facts you base your beliefs on, to be sure you are not just receiving facts that fit what you want or need to believe, as the anti-woke, cults, conspiracy theorists and narcissists tend to do, but I repeat myself.

Generally, the most anti-woke cannot hear other viewpoints because they have few honorable facts to stand on. They mostly have dated or self-serving beliefs and theories they are trying to fit the facts to, so with truth usually being on the side of the woke, we must honor and follow the facts in our theories of wokeness. One such key fact is societies usually do not change until the people are ready to change, so it seems the most pragmatic thing to do would be to keep laying positive groundwork for that noble endeavor of progressing all forward-thinking forms of human rights.

However, it is completely understandable there is also a lot of righteous impatience, pain and anger on the side of the woke because of all the injustice in the world, so it is so important to take heart in these tough times of how far racial, gender, LGBTQ+, freedom of religion and human rights have come over the centuries, built on foundations laid on the blood, sweat and tears of the brave and the bold who came before us.

Sadly, wokeness informs us human history is littered with examples of progress in human and civil rights being followed by a traditionalist backlash, usually incited by those who previously held greater power, in an attempt to regain their lost dominance and “glory days.” 

It is this greedy, fearful and narcissistic mindset of “if I am not winning I’m losing,” that we must eternally and strategically counter to unpoison the well of human progress, because these traits are the persistent base elements of negative and primal human psychology compulsively and eternally driving us towards new dark ages where “Alpha males” can rule us all through hate and fear once again.

The Psychology of Woke - Part III - How and When Boys and Men Got Left Behind.

Parts IV & V covering “The Psychological Lens” out soon.

If you found The Psychology of Woke - Parts I & II useful, please be sure to like, share and comment. It will be a little while before the deeper and much more revealing Parts IV and V are published, so also be sure you are at least subscribed to receive notice of what will be an epic profile that will filter “woke” through an incredibly illuminating psychological lens.

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