The wokeness is at an end

Neue Zürcher Zeitung Germany The wokeness is at an end Article by Denise Bucher • 5 hours It is diversity, not uniformity, that characterizes an open society. But it should do without ideologies and dogmas. Today's reality leaves the Woken in need of explanation. The newly flared anti-Semitism and politically managed hatred since Hamas' attack on Israel is leading some representatives to betray what the term "woke" may once have stood for: being vigilant against discrimination. To stand up for respect, tolerance and diversity. Who pays attention to differentiated language now? On not hurting anyone with words? Instead, it is important to take a position. It is as if all that is left of the theories of identity politics is the drawing of boundaries, which is now tipping over into a dangerous dualistic worldview: you are either for Israel or Palestine. It is forgotten that Israel and Judaism, Hamas and Palestinians, Islam and Islamism are not the same. The fight for diversity seems to have given way to an irritating idea of purity. So-called “woke” concerns are now failing because of left-wing anti-Semitism, which was repressed but is now breaking out. The inability to label terrorism as terrorism, regardless of which group perpetrates it, is evidence of ideological blindness. At the same time, the brutality of the present exposes the panic about the Woken, which has been fomented by the other side, as a cheap means of making politics and generating clicks. “If the silent majority is no longer willing to accept the increasing demands of the woke community, there is a risk of civil war.” This is what Zana Ramadani and Peter Köpf write in their new book “Woke – How a moralizing minority threatens our democracy”. Threatening democracy by moralizing? Until the civil war? Because of a minority? You have to laugh at such apocalyptic murmurs. End of ceasefire - Israel resumes fight against Hamas The Hamas attack on Israel has now given the clamor for wokeness a reality check. And it turns out: both supporters and critics of the movement fail. Statements like those from Ramadani and Köpf sound like calculated fomenting of hysteria given the real dangers that democracy is exposed to - of which anti-Semitic violence is just one. Your book should sell as well as possible within the intended target group. Even if you want to agree with them on individual points, it is difficult to do so because their tone is so condescending and the argument is overly simplistic. The book describes what it does itself: ideologically motivated rift formation. But ideologies cannot be fought with ideologies. That is the opposite of progress. Such publications contribute nothing to an intelligent debate. Meanwhile, the Woken are falling into the trenches they have dug themselves over the last few years. What would happen if a musician with dreadlocks performed today and sang “Free Palestine!” shouted into the microphone? Would his hairstyle as an expression of cultural appropriation be an issue, as it was in the summer of 2022? It seems as if both the woke movement itself and the resistance to it have led to a collective loss of multi-perspective thinking. Wokeness is now just a fighting term, used either as an absolute credo or the ultimate swear word. But the more it is exaggerated and exaggerated, the more both sides undermine their own arguments: calling an unpleasant feeling a trauma devalues it. Rather, what victims of terror, acts of violence and oppression suffer is traumatic. Conversely, in Western societies there is no real ban on opinions; no one has to expect arrest by the Stasi for using the generic masculine or a deduction in the social credit system, as China uses to control its population. There may be a shitstorm, or you have to expect opposition where there was none before. But even presumptuous statements are covered by freedom of expression. This is a feature of a functioning democratic society. Since when do we no longer feel spurred on to discuss things or just annoyed by other opinions, but rather always threatened and in need of help? It's too easy to say that the woke people who wanted to ban something from the majority are to blame. Because this means that their opposition to prevailing norms is interpreted as a rule that one has to submit to. Instead of arguing against it, you style yourself as a victim.