The weakening of leftist authoritarianism: a side benefit of Trump being gone
One very good, but very underdiscussed, benefit of not having Trump around is that it should take a lot of the air out of the woke crowd and cancel culture on the left. I have written before about my distaste for that group. While those phenomena existed before Trump, both have become immensely worse during his presidency. Those are not unrelated as both Trump and the woke crowd and cancel culture feed off each other and give each other a reason to exist. It is important to emphasize that the desire to cancel something or someone and to avoid hearing anything not 100% to one’s liking is every bit as prevalent on the right as it is the left. Because it is the latter where I think getting rid of Trump will have the most effect, that is what I am focusing on here.
It is important to clarify what is meant by “woke,” as that term has been way overused as to have lost all meaning. When I use the term woke, here is what I have in mind: an obsession with identity (race, gender, sexual orientation, etc.) and reducing everyone to just that, a belief that anything or anyone that says or does anything not 100% consistent with that should be silenced, promoting “safety” from uncomfortable things above all else (including free speech and thought), a belief that racism/sexism explains every last thing and disagreeing with that is inherently racist/sexist.
This mindset has permeated media organizations, some college campuses and highly educated liberal circles, including organizations like the ACLU and the New York Times opinion pages. I suspect, and certainly hope, that the increasing wokeness of the last four years was in large part a reaction to Trump. Certainly, Trump was a great foil for that crowd. One could even be forgiven for thinking their worldview has some merit when looking at how awful Trump is.
My hope is that college administrators, employers and others in a position of power start to grow a spine and fight back. I cannot prove it, but I suspect many of those people were hesitant to push back out of fear of being seen as being pro-Trump. If that is true, then by virtue of not having Trump as a foil, the woke crowd will be significantly weakened. Biden is also someone who can credibly push back against them, just as Obama has.
Regarding cancel culture, that phrase also needs to be clarified. When I use that phrase, here is what I mean: the idea that someone should lose their job, membership, status or any title or position or not get it in the first place, because they said or did something that was even the tiniest bit insensitive towards a “marginalized” or “disadvantaged” group, even if what they said or did happened years or decades ago. This phenomenon, like wokeness, has undoubtedly been enabled by Trump. To be fair, Trump has viciously gone after many groups and the desire to defend them from him is perfectly fine. The problem is that cancelling everyone over the slightest infraction is no way to change minds and a great way to needlessly alienate many people and even drive them towards Trump.
Let me be clear that when I denounce cancel culture (a good summary of my thoughts are in this letter), I am not talking about the many sexual predators who have been exposed since 2017, most notably Harvey Weinstein. By all means, cancel them and throw in jail if possible. That goes for anyone in a position of power who has abused it by taking advantage of people at their mercy. They should be fired and cancelled and should never be in a position of power again. Unfortunately, the desire to silence and cancel people has gone much further than this.
What worries me most about wokeness and cancel culture is that they both stem from the same kind of authoritarian mindset that attracts so many people to Trump. It is part of a desire for simplicity, black and white answers, aversion to nuance and critical thinking and a desire to believe one side has all the answers while the other is evil. Seeing those beliefs spring up among some on the left, and by extension the Democratic Party, is very worrisome. The most damaging aspect of the Trump presidency has been his assault on our institutions and values, everything from hostility to free speech and a free press to a complete disregard for the rule of law and truth. This was justified in the eyes of many of his supporters by the belief that the other side is evil and therefore anything he did to fight them was right. It is awful enough that that mindset has taken over the Republican Party. It does not need to take over the Democratic Party, too.
To be clear, wokeness and cancel culture are hardly the most important issues happening right now nor will they be anytime soon, if ever. Still, of all the worries I have about the Democratic Party, that is high on my list for two reasons. First, authoritarianism has been on the rise in other countries, including Poland, Brazil, the Philippines, Venezuela and Hungary. It would be a real tragedy to see it take hold here. As much as the woke/cancel culture may think they have nothing in common with Trump, they actually have a very similar mindset. The real difference is not their mentality, but the things they emphasize to justify it. Second, and more importantly, wokeness/cancel culture is simply irrelevant to almost all voters. When voters are concerned about, for example, their jobs and healthcare, and a candidate is spending their time talking about race or gender identity, they are going to sound like they’re from another planet and completely out of touch. Luckily, Biden did not do this, but other candidates, like Elizabeth Warren, did and I worry candidates in the future might, particularly those who spend a lot of time on Twitter.
The good news is that between Trump being gone and Biden trying to lower the temperature, that should go a long way towards reducing the appeal of wokeness/cancel culture on the left. Biden is also someone who has always shied away from fighting the culture wars and kept up impeccable message discipline during the campaign in avoiding falling into culture war traps. I have no doubt he will do the same as President. In addition, the Democratic Party has some structural features that prevent wokeness and cancel culture from taking over, i.e. the typical Democratic primary voter is not a 25-year-old, educated, white far leftist, but a 50+ year old who may or may not be white, may or may not be college educated and is center/center-left.
PS, below are a few examples of cancel culture/wokeness that have happened in the last few years. In all seriousness, if someone thinks any of these are defensible, please let me know.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/berkeley-at-center-of-political-battleground-reverses-decision-to-cancel-speech-by-conservative-pundit-ann-coulter/2017/04/20/75574a72-25ef-11e7-b503-9d616bd5a305_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_15
https://www.vox.com/2020/7/29/21340308/david-shor-omar-wasow-speech
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/sarah-silverman-cancel-culture-blackface-white-supremacy-b1351777.html
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/uc-berkeley-is-offering-counseling-for-students-harmed-by-conservative-speaker-ben-shapiro
For, those wanting to get a deeper dive into authoritarianism, what it is and what makes it attractive to so many, I recommend reading “Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism” by Anne Applebaum. It is not so much a book as it is a long essay from an article that she wrote for The Atlantic in 2018. It particularly emphasizes what has happened in Poland and Hungary and how so many people, including former friends of Applebaum’s who are well educated, went from being perfectly normal and happy to paranoid conspiracy theorists parroting state propaganda.