Mostly agree here, Will, but I think you miss one thing (that maybe you plan to get to in the next installment. I'm not the most woke guy around, having been born in the late 50s in the South, but I was called PC and ultra-sensitive when I criticized a neighbor on our local subdivision's Facebook group a few months ago who was using the following image as his avatar: https://www.ballisticink.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Ballistic_Ink_IV8888_Man_Can_2020_01_Mens_Tshirt_Black_CloseUp.jpg . I said it was rude and provocative. (This was well before Jan. 6.) You can imagine his reaction (an army vet and firefighter). The thing is, he was assuming it was fine to have that as his avatar, because everybody knew him, and he was a good guy, helpful to neighbors, etc. When I was growing up, in the 60s and 70s, those would have been the things that mattered to "everybody," because "everybody" was white, suburban, middle class, and if your neighbor was in the John Birch Society he probably kept it to himself. When you write, "our progress is measurably eroding and we’re getting measurably less free," someone my age who grew up Black on the other side of my hometown would probably disagree with you. The difference is, today he or she has somewhere to say it--social media--where they didn't fifty years ago. So today, when somebody uses an offensive avatar on Facebook, he gets called on it by people who would have clammed up in earlier decades. The freedom you speak of was not available to them, back then. Their voices are in the mix now, and attitudes that presume privilege get challenged. What the people who miss pre-woke culture really miss is the sense that they're talking to their tribe. It used to be that their tribe was the only one that got to talk. Not so now, and we all have to either adjust the way we speak in public in a way that is false to our true feelings, or we have to expand our idea of whose tribe we belong to.
That vintage illustration up top...does that lady have a monstrous prosthetic leg of some kind? Really creepy.
I think you're correct that humans are attuned to changes in social status, and one aspect of Weiss' column I appreciate is she tries to shift our self-perception so that there *isnt* a loss of status. She does this by comparing current Americans to both other cultures and past Americans. That part I think is helpful. Even the political unrest we're justly upset about is not without some kind of awful precedent, and I'd prefer Americans be a little less miserable.
Of course, she then goes on to use that to try to minimize people who care about different status-related issues and are willing to use social sanctions to achieve their goals. I'm less enthusiastic about that part of her critique, because social change is almost always going to be upsetting to someone.
This critique is a fun read, but it really brings home the fact that Bari Weiss' dismissal from the NYT, was far from being a matter of persecution by an unjustified angry mob, intolerant of diverse viewpoints and was more a question of an justifiably angry mob, intolerant of giving a global platform to this kind of disingenuous gobshite. The alternative explanation for Weiss' work is that she's making good-faith arguments as best she can, but surely that's an even harsher indictment.
Will, I heartily enjoyed this critique of Weiss--I see this piece as a portal to an investigation of the IDW which, appropriately enough, she famously profiled. Her invocation of the gulag is, I suspect, traceable to Jordan Peterson, who commonly draws the connection--in the spirit of Glenn Beck's old chalkboard diagrams--between legally mandated gender pronouns and the gulag. I'd also love to see you engage with Andrew Sullivan over the extent of the threat of Wokeism; Andrew strikes me as more intellectually and, ahem, deep and nuanced than the IDW, but I still think he is in the grip of the theory that possesses Weiss, too easily triggered, too hysterical about the long-term threats that that way of thinking poses to our political culture and institutions. I think correctly diagnosing this theory/ideology of the "anti-woke" is a really critical task right now--precisely because they mistakenly think that they are not in the grip of an ideology. I would go so far as to say that the use of the term "ideology" by the anti-woke brigade to describe their opponents is itself ideological, and can be explained not just by a commitment to classical liberalism, but psychological shadow dynamics of projective identification. Keep it coming!
Hope you'll forgive me for chiming in, but I think here "whataboutism" is when you answer a (valid) criticism of "A" with "Yes, but whatabout 'B'?" My favorite example of this was during the Abu Graib era when many critics of Bush Administration policy would ask if waterboarding and other forms of torture were aligned with US values, to which its defenders would point out that ISIS was beheading people. While, sure, that's true, I'm not sure "marginally better than the worst actors in the world" is really the bar we want to set for ourselves. Whataboutism!
I see Bari Weiss is still on the road of desperately trying to stay relevant. I have never been impressed with her thinking or her writing, in fact I can't remember anything other than that idiotic profile piece in the NYT of the IDW a couple years ago.
But having you parse her words and dissect her intent and meaning......oh yea, I am here for that. Will, you appear to be a very subtle comedic take down artist and I can't wait for part 2!
Mostly agree here, Will, but I think you miss one thing (that maybe you plan to get to in the next installment. I'm not the most woke guy around, having been born in the late 50s in the South, but I was called PC and ultra-sensitive when I criticized a neighbor on our local subdivision's Facebook group a few months ago who was using the following image as his avatar: https://www.ballisticink.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Ballistic_Ink_IV8888_Man_Can_2020_01_Mens_Tshirt_Black_CloseUp.jpg . I said it was rude and provocative. (This was well before Jan. 6.) You can imagine his reaction (an army vet and firefighter). The thing is, he was assuming it was fine to have that as his avatar, because everybody knew him, and he was a good guy, helpful to neighbors, etc. When I was growing up, in the 60s and 70s, those would have been the things that mattered to "everybody," because "everybody" was white, suburban, middle class, and if your neighbor was in the John Birch Society he probably kept it to himself. When you write, "our progress is measurably eroding and we’re getting measurably less free," someone my age who grew up Black on the other side of my hometown would probably disagree with you. The difference is, today he or she has somewhere to say it--social media--where they didn't fifty years ago. So today, when somebody uses an offensive avatar on Facebook, he gets called on it by people who would have clammed up in earlier decades. The freedom you speak of was not available to them, back then. Their voices are in the mix now, and attitudes that presume privilege get challenged. What the people who miss pre-woke culture really miss is the sense that they're talking to their tribe. It used to be that their tribe was the only one that got to talk. Not so now, and we all have to either adjust the way we speak in public in a way that is false to our true feelings, or we have to expand our idea of whose tribe we belong to.
That vintage illustration up top...does that lady have a monstrous prosthetic leg of some kind? Really creepy.
I think you're correct that humans are attuned to changes in social status, and one aspect of Weiss' column I appreciate is she tries to shift our self-perception so that there *isnt* a loss of status. She does this by comparing current Americans to both other cultures and past Americans. That part I think is helpful. Even the political unrest we're justly upset about is not without some kind of awful precedent, and I'd prefer Americans be a little less miserable.
Of course, she then goes on to use that to try to minimize people who care about different status-related issues and are willing to use social sanctions to achieve their goals. I'm less enthusiastic about that part of her critique, because social change is almost always going to be upsetting to someone.
This critique is a fun read, but it really brings home the fact that Bari Weiss' dismissal from the NYT, was far from being a matter of persecution by an unjustified angry mob, intolerant of diverse viewpoints and was more a question of an justifiably angry mob, intolerant of giving a global platform to this kind of disingenuous gobshite. The alternative explanation for Weiss' work is that she's making good-faith arguments as best she can, but surely that's an even harsher indictment.
My understanding is that she voluntarily resigned over Cottongate. Am I wrong there?
Will, I heartily enjoyed this critique of Weiss--I see this piece as a portal to an investigation of the IDW which, appropriately enough, she famously profiled. Her invocation of the gulag is, I suspect, traceable to Jordan Peterson, who commonly draws the connection--in the spirit of Glenn Beck's old chalkboard diagrams--between legally mandated gender pronouns and the gulag. I'd also love to see you engage with Andrew Sullivan over the extent of the threat of Wokeism; Andrew strikes me as more intellectually and, ahem, deep and nuanced than the IDW, but I still think he is in the grip of the theory that possesses Weiss, too easily triggered, too hysterical about the long-term threats that that way of thinking poses to our political culture and institutions. I think correctly diagnosing this theory/ideology of the "anti-woke" is a really critical task right now--precisely because they mistakenly think that they are not in the grip of an ideology. I would go so far as to say that the use of the term "ideology" by the anti-woke brigade to describe their opponents is itself ideological, and can be explained not just by a commitment to classical liberalism, but psychological shadow dynamics of projective identification. Keep it coming!
I don’t quite understand “whataboutism.” Is that the point where I read an article by Weiss and think, “I don’t get it. WTF is she talking about?”
Great article, Will! Your mind makes me so happy, and I’m so glad I can support you directly and not have to root around for your work
Hope you'll forgive me for chiming in, but I think here "whataboutism" is when you answer a (valid) criticism of "A" with "Yes, but whatabout 'B'?" My favorite example of this was during the Abu Graib era when many critics of Bush Administration policy would ask if waterboarding and other forms of torture were aligned with US values, to which its defenders would point out that ISIS was beheading people. While, sure, that's true, I'm not sure "marginally better than the worst actors in the world" is really the bar we want to set for ourselves. Whataboutism!
I admit I was making a joke when I wrote that, but actually, your description of whataboutism clarified its meaning for me. Thanks!
I see Bari Weiss is still on the road of desperately trying to stay relevant. I have never been impressed with her thinking or her writing, in fact I can't remember anything other than that idiotic profile piece in the NYT of the IDW a couple years ago.
But having you parse her words and dissect her intent and meaning......oh yea, I am here for that. Will, you appear to be a very subtle comedic take down artist and I can't wait for part 2!
'mailing her message to a vacant lot'... Stealing this. Thanks
Will did you just imply New Zealand is the greatest country on earth?
I'm confused, honestly I think your counterargument to Bari Weiss is making her argument more credible to me than when I read her original article.
It never occurred to me that I could enjoy a close reading of a Bari Weiss column, but I really did! Thought-provoking and hilarious.
A few typos you may want to clean up:
“everything she’s said _ far”
“The only possible explanation for what she _ as excessive negativity”
“more Americans than _ entire population of Iceland”
“but we get a grisly a fuck-ton of whatever killings.”
"we’ll either get to the bottom of everything of the bottom of Bari Weiss’ column"