Woke and Weaponized Bureaucracy Pt. 3

The woke have redefined "Diversity" in order to weaponize bureaucracies and institutions

One of the things that makes Critical Social Justice (AKA “wokeness”) so difficult to get ahold of and push back against is the fact that it continually redefines key terminology. Woke academics, intellectuals, and activists consistently reformulate the concepts we use in everyday life by redefining terms by substituting the regular definition in favor of a definition that reflects the values and ideas of wokeness. Thus the woke worldview is never communicated clearly to us by woke activists; “this worldview is only ever communicated to us in reformulated perversions of our own concepts.” ¹

What this means is that key terms in woke ideology are very often terms that have two different meanings:  a perfectly acceptable everyday meaning, and a totally unacceptable woke meaning. This allows the woke the insert their woke ideology into policy, legislation, and standards by hiding their ideology behind everyday terms that look perfectly acceptable. So when the woke write, for example, a government policy the policy will look perfectly acceptable unless you know which terms have been redefined and how they have been redefined. As such, in order to decipher and decode woke ideology we need to understand how and why certain terms have been redefined by woke academics, intellectuals, and activists. This is of particular importance if we are to be able to fight back against the way woke activists weaponize government bureaucracy.

One term that woke academics, intellectuals, and academics have redefined in the service of advancing their ideology is the term “diversity.” So let’s take a look at how the woke have redefined and reformulated this concept in a way that allows them to advance wokeness.

Diversity, in the way people usually use the term, is used to talk about having a diversity of people withing a group, institution, or organization. The logic behind diversity is that you want to have a wide range of experiences, opinions, viewpoints, skills and expertise in order to avoid groupthink, and to ensure that you have “all your bases covered.” You want to make sure that you are not missing anything, and having people with a wide range of expertise and knowledge is a good way to do that.

Now, Diversity in the largest sense just refers to “he condition of having or being composed of differing elements.”² This is basic idea, applied to people, is what most people think when they say they want diversity. They want different and varying elements of expertise, knowledge, experience, and view points so when a problem arises, people can make sure that all angles of a problem are covered there is a wide range of knowledge from which to draw.

As such, when most people talk about diversity they are referring to hiring different people with a *diversity of opinion* or a *diversity of expertise and knowledge.* This is NOT what the woke mean when they talk about diversity. In order to understand what the woke mean when they talk about diversity we need to understand the woke doctrine of “positionality.” This will be key for us to unlock how the woke think about diversity, and how they use the term to advance woke ideology.

The woke see society as being stratified according to various “identities.” The identities at the top of the pyramid of society are straight, white, able-bodied, and male. The identities which are “oppressed” are any identity which is not one of those. For example Gay, Trans. Black, Grown, Asian, and disabled. The more of the privileged identites you have the higher on the pyramid you are. The more of the oppressed identities you have the lower on the pyramid you are.  This means that your relative position in the social pyramid is determined by which identities you have. That place in society is called your “positionality.”

According to woke ideology, your positionality is the social standpoint from which you are able to view society, and your perspective on society is colored b your social position. As such, your positionality is like a set of glasses that colors your view of society, allowing you to see somethings, but obscuring others. What this means is that the woke think that, for example, black people will have a particular perspective white people can’t have, gay people will have a particular perspective straight people won’t have, men will have a perspective women do not have, and so on. As such, what you can know, perceive, understand, and “see” about society is a product of  your position in society; your positionality.

Now, there is one other point we need to make clear before we continue. The woke believe it is possible for a person who is one identity to  be socialized by society to “internalize” the views, ideas, beliefs, concepts, and viewpoint of the dominant straight, white, male, culture. This means that a black person who, for example, agrees with conservative policies and ideas, would have what the woke call “internalized whiteness.” The woke think that a non-white person who has an “authentic voice of color,” and genuinely has the viewpoint of a non-white person will hold a particular view of society that is incompatible with typical American conservatism. To put it simply, and “authentic voice of color” is the perspective of a woke person who is not white. Why? Because a non-white person who is espousing the views of American conservatism is in reality just parroting views that come from the straight white male perspective. The woke would view, for example, a black person sharing conservative viewpoints as a white words and ideas coming out of the mouth of a non-white person..

To be blunt, when the woke want an authentically gay, trans, black, or otherwise “oppressed” viewpoint that view point they want is the view that comes from a gay, trans, black or “oppressed” person WHO IS WOKE.

With all that in mind the woke view of diversity begins to become clear.

When the woke say they want diversity, what they want is a people of many different identities, different races, colors, genders, abilities, and sexual orientations who are all woke. They are not looking for people who each have different values, ideas, beliefs, views, and thoughts about the world. The woke are looking for a group of woke people who all have various different positionalities.  As such, the woke are not looking for people who have different views from across the political spectrum. They are not looking for different areas of expertise. They are not looking for people with different values. They are looking for people who hold to the ideology of wokeness from the standpoint of various different oppressed identities. Or, rather, they think that authentically different perspectives can only emerge from people who have different identities because that is the only way to get people who have different "positionalities." Which is the thing the woke really care about.

Now, to be clear, it is not that they would reject people for having different areas of expertise. It is that the thing that they really care about when they talk about diversity is a diversity of “identities,” rather then a diversity of opinion. As such, when the woke say they want to bring “diversity” into an organization, what they mean is that they want to use diversity bring in people on the basis of their identity. They want to make identity one of the criteria for being selected for a position in an institution, organization, or group.

As such, “diversity” is not a way of ensuring that a variety of different ideas, views, perspectives, and opinions are represented. Rather the woke view of diversity seeks to ensure that the woke perspective from a variety of oppressed identities is represented. As such, when the woke see "diversity" they use that as an opportunity to use racial quotas and race,sex, and gender based hiring practices to begin to select people on the basis of their woke "identity" rather then on merit alone.

This is how the woke weaponize bureaucracy.

For this reason when you see someone talking about wanting  “diversity” you need to make sure that they are looking for diversity of opinion, experience, and expertise in the relevant field, rather then a diversity of woke “identities.” You must also make sure that hiring is done on the basis of merit for the position rather then on identity.

Thank you for reading.

Sincerely,

Wokal_distance.

1. (https://www.nas.org/academic-questions/33/3/decolonizing-the-curriculum)

2. (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/diversity)