{"id":1517951,"date":"2022-06-16T06:34:49","date_gmt":"2022-06-16T10:34:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1517951"},"modified":"2022-06-16T06:35:01","modified_gmt":"2022-06-16T10:35:01","slug":"left-wing-groups-are-destroying-themselves-from-within-over-wokeness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/left-wing-groups-are-destroying-themselves-from-within-over-wokeness\/","title":{"rendered":"Left-wing Groups are Destroying Themselves From Within Over Wokeness"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fleft-wing-groups-are-destroying-themselves-from-within-over-wokeness%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1517951&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<aside id=\"aside1\" class=\"left\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>This <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2022\/06\/13\/progressive-organizing-infighting-callout-culture\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">piece from <em>The Intercept<\/em><\/a> is long, but take your time reading it. \u00a0It&#8217;s nourishment. \u00a0As Ramesh Ponnuru <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RameshPonnuru\/status\/1536718181842165761\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">quipped<\/a>, &#8220;I&#8217;m not going to read [the story] all at once. Some things have to be savored.&#8221; \u00a0Indeed. \u00a0We cover the &#8216;woke excess&#8217; beat on a regular basis, both in <a href=\"https:\/\/townhall.com\/tipsheet\/guybenson\/2022\/03\/22\/the-woke-mess-at-yale-law-school-n2604817\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">this<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/townhall.com\/tipsheet\/guybenson\/2022\/04\/01\/good-news-appeals-court-upholds-massive-legal-judgment-against-woke-college-for-defaming-local-business-n2605372\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">space<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/radio.foxnews.com\/fox-news-talk\/guy-benson\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">on the radio<\/a>, because it matters. \u00a0A relatively small, loud group of activists wields disproportionate control over our culture and free expression right now &#8212; and every scalp claimed, every unjust or undeserved &#8216;cancellation&#8217; achieved, makes us all a little bit less free. \u00a0This was our concern when Mary Katharine Ham and I <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/End-Discussion-Outrage-Industry-Manipulates\/dp\/0553447777\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">wrote <em>End of Discussion<\/em><\/a> in 2015, and things have only devolved further in the ensuing years.<\/p>\n<p>One of the interesting real-world lessons of wokeism is that some of the people <em>most<\/em> at risk of being pulled under by its insatiable practitioners are committed leftists themselves. \u00a0They operate and marinate in this milieu. \u00a0They legitimize its capricious whims through participation, indulgence and appeasement. \u00a0In quite a few cases, those who are voluntarily or even enthusiastically steeped in this toxic stew are the ones who ultimately succumb to it. \u00a0And what recourse do they have? \u00a0They&#8217;ve effectively consented to the lunacy by being leftists and going along with the madness. \u00a0Which is the jumping off point for <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2022\/06\/13\/progressive-organizing-infighting-callout-culture\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">the aforementioned story<\/a>, in which &#8216;progressive&#8217; activists complain about the stultifying and paralyzing influence of their own side&#8217;s rules <em>vis-a-vis<\/em> the work they&#8217;re attempting to accomplish. \u00a0The opening anecdote comes from an abortion rights organization in the wake of George Floyd&#8217;s murder:<\/p>\n<blockquote>[The manager] talked about the role systemic racism plays in society and the ways that Guttmacher\u2019s work could counter it. Staff suggestions, though, turned inward, Prism reported, \u201cincluding loosening deadlines and implementing more proactive and explicit policies for leave without penalty.\u201d Staffers suggested additional racial equity trainings, noting that a previous facilitator had said that the last round had not included sufficient time \u201cto cover everything.\u201d With no Black staff in the D.C. unit, it was suggested that \u201cGuttmacher do something tangible for Black employees in other divisions.\u201d &#8230; <strong>In the eyes of group leaders dealing with similar moments, staff were ignoring the mission and focusing only on themselves, using a moment of public awakening to smuggle through standard grievances cloaked in the language of social justice<\/strong>. Often, as was the case at Guttmacher, they played into the very dynamics they were fighting against, directing their complaints at leaders of color. Guttmacher was run at the time, and still is today, by an Afro Latina woman, Dr. Herminia Palacio. <strong>\u201cThe most zealous ones at my organization when it comes to race are white,\u201d said one Black executive director at a different organization, asking for anonymity so as not to provoke a response from that staff.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It goes on to describe how this pro-abortion group has been &#8216;ripped apart&#8217; (interesting phrasing, given the &#8216;care&#8217; they exist to support and defend) by internal grievances and divisions, often centered on identity and race. &#8220;The six months since then have only seen a ratcheting up of the tension, with more internal disputes spilling into public and amplified by a well-funded, anonymous operation called ReproJobs, whose Twitter and Instagram feeds have pounded away at the organization\u2019s management,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2022\/06\/13\/progressive-organizing-infighting-callout-culture\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">the story explains<\/a>. &#8220;&#8216;If your reproductive justice organization isn\u2019t Black and brown it\u2019s white supremacy in heels co-opting a WOC movement,&#8217; blared a typical missive from one of its Instagram stories. The news, in May 2022, that Roe v. Wade would almost certainly be overturned did nothing to temper the raging battle.&#8221; Amazing. They&#8217;ve been consumed by the poison of wokeness, to the point that it&#8217;s detracting from their actual mission, arguably at the <a href=\"https:\/\/townhall.com\/tipsheet\/guybenson\/2022\/05\/03\/analysis-scotus-reportedly-poised-to-uphold-mississippi-abortion-restriction-return-issue-to-states-n2606658\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">most significant moment<\/a> the abortion movement has faced in decades. And it&#8217;s not just organizations in this one area, either; it&#8217;s a contagion spreading across the professional Left writ large:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>That the institute has spent the course of the Biden administration paralyzed makes it typical of not just the abortion rights community \u2014 Planned Parenthood, NARAL Pro-Choice America, and other reproductive health organizations had <strong>similarly been locked in knock-down, drag-out fights between competing factions of their organizations, most often breaking down along staff-versus-management lines. It\u2019s also true of the progressive advocacy space across the board, which has, more or less, effectively ceased to function.<\/strong> The Sierra Club, Demos, the American Civil Liberties Union, Color of Change, the Movement for Black Lives, Human Rights Campaign, Time\u2019s Up, the Sunrise Movement, and many other organizations have seen wrenching and debilitating turmoil in the past couple years. In fact, <strong>it\u2019s hard to find a Washington-based progressive organization that hasn\u2019t been in tumult, or isn\u2019t currently in tumult.<\/strong>..Twitter, as the saying goes, may not be real life, but in a world of remote work, Slack very much is. And Twitter, Slack, Zoom, and the office space, according to interviews with more than a dozen current and former executive directors of advocacy organizations, are <strong>now mixing in a way that is no longer able to be ignored by a progressive movement that wants organizations to be able to function. The executive directors largely spoke on the condition of anonymity, for fear of angering staff or donors.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Lots of anonymity granted to sources who fear incurring further wrath. \u00a0Backlash around every corner. \u00a0Very healthy, positive stuff. \u00a0For folks who want to ban guns, they&#8217;re awfully adept at circular firing squads.\u00a0 One leader compared the environment to familial abuse. \u00a0The author of the story writes that Official Leftism fritters away its time and energy &#8220;locked in virtual retreats, Slack wars, and healing sessions, grappling with tensions over hierarchy, patriarchy, race, gender, and power,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2022\/06\/13\/progressive-organizing-infighting-callout-culture\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">acknowledging that<\/a> this reads like a cartoon version of left-wingers who &#8220;spend more time in meetings and fighting with each other than changing the world.&#8221; \u00a0Some of these quotes are remarkable. \u00a0Simultaneously damning and sheepishly apologetic. \u00a0These people and their institutions seem broken:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cMost people thought that their worst critics were their competitors, and they\u2019re finding out <strong>that their worst critics are on their own payroll<\/strong>,\u201d said Loretta Ross, an author and activist who has been prominent in the movement for decades, having founded the reproductive justice collective SisterSong. \u201c<strong>We\u2019re dealing with a workforce that\u2019s becoming younger, more female, more people of color, more politically woke \u2014 I hate to use that term in a way it shouldn\u2019t be used \u2014 and less loyal in the traditional way to a job<\/strong>, because the whole economic rationale for keeping a job or having a job has changed.\u201d \u00a0<strong>That lack of loyalty is not the fault of employees<\/strong>, Ross said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><em>This certainly is not their fault<\/em>, said this person &#8212; who allowed herself to be quoted by name &#8212; discussing her young wokes. \u00a0<em>Please don&#8217;t come for me next.<\/em>\u00a0 These leftists are deathly afraid of each other, but also afraid of even talking about the problem, lest they adopt &#8216;right-wing&#8217; framing. \u00a0This pervasive bitterness and fear is preventing them from solving or even <em>discussing<\/em> the issues tearing the progressive movement asunder. \u00a0And they&#8217;ve made this dysfunctional bed, with their own neuroses and ridiculous rules:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>The silence stems partly, one senior leader in an organization said, from <strong>a fear of feeding right-wing trolls who are working to undermine the left. Adopting their language and framing feels like surrendering to malign forces, but ignoring it has only allowed the issues to fester.<\/strong> \u201cThe right has labeled it \u2018cancel culture\u2019 or \u2018callout culture,\u2019\u201d he said, \u201cso when we talk about our own movement, it\u2019s hard because we\u2019re using the frame of the right. It\u2019s very hard because there\u2019s all these associations and analysis that we disagree with, when we\u2019re using their frame. <strong>So it\u2019s like, \u2018How do we talk about it?\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>For years, recruiting young people into the movement felt like a win-win, he said: new energy for the movement and the chance to give a person a lease on a newly liberated life, dedicated to the pursuit of justice. But that\u2019s no longer the case. \u201cI got to a point like three years ago where I had a crisis of faith, like, I don\u2019t even know, <strong>most of these spaces on the left are just not \u2014 they\u2019re not healthy. Like all these people are just not \u2014 they\u2019re not doing well,\u201d<\/strong> he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe dynamic, the toxic dynamic of whatever you want to call it \u2014 callout culture, cancel culture, whatever \u2014 is c<strong>reating this really intense thing, and no one is able to acknowledge it, no one\u2019s able to talk about it, no one\u2019s able to say how bad it is.\u201d<\/strong> The environment has pushed expectations far beyond what workplaces previously offered to employees. \u201cA lot of staff that work for me, they expect the organization to be all the things: a movement, OK, get out the vote, OK, healing, OK, take care of you when you\u2019re sick, OK. It\u2019s all the things,\u201d said one executive director. <strong>\u201cCan you get your love and healing at home, please? But I can\u2019t say that, they would crucify me.\u201d<\/strong>&#8230;Executive directors across the space said they too have tried to organize their hiring process to filter out the most disruptive potential staff. <strong>\u201cI\u2019m now at a point where the first thing I wonder about a job applicant is, \u2018How likely is this person to blow up my organization from the inside?\u2019<\/strong>\u201d said one, echoing a refrain heard repeatedly during interviews for this story.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>It sounds like the bosses at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/opinion\/twitter-saga-obscures-the-washington-posts-taylor-lorenz-scandal\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Washington Post<\/em><\/a><em>\u00a0<\/em>and <a href=\"https:\/\/townhall.com\/tipsheet\/guybenson\/2021\/02\/09\/intent-is-irrelevant-another-woke-purge-inside-the-new-york-times-n2584388\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"><em>New York Times<\/em><\/a> might want to adopt a similar approach, given the real-time hostile takeover of their newsrooms by left-wing activists masquerading as journalists. \u00a0The schadenfreude-inducing deliciousness goes on and on, spanning <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2022\/06\/13\/progressive-organizing-infighting-callout-culture\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">tens of thousands of words<\/a>. \u00a0I can&#8217;t possibly excerpt all of the relevant or entertaining bits, but I&#8217;ll close with a few last examples. \u00a0First, a common theme is that what broke these people was the election of Donald Trump:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Sooner or later, <strong>each interview for this story landed on the election of Trump in 2016 as a catalyst.<\/strong> Whatever internal tension had been pulling at the seams of organizations in the years prior, Trump\u2019s shock victory sharpened the focus of activists and regular people alike&#8230;<strong>Things get very ugly, she noted, and the overlapping crises of Trump, Covid, and looming climate collapse have produced extreme anxiety.\u00a0<\/strong>Under siege, many leaders cling more tightly to their hold on power, she said, \u201ctaking shelter in professional nonprofit spaces because they think clinging to a sinking ship and hanging on as long and strongly as possible is the best bet they can make for their own personal survival.\u201d &#8230; Progressive organizations convened meetings to work through their response, and, like at Guttmacher, many of them left staff extremely unsatisfied. <strong>A looming sense of powerlessness on the left nudged the focus away from structural or wide-reaching change, which felt out of reach, and replaced it with an internal target that was more achievable. \u201cMaybe I can\u2019t end racism by myself, but I can get my manager fired, or I can get so and so removed, or I can hold somebody accountable,\u201d<\/strong> one former executive director said. \u201cPeople found power where they could, and often that\u2019s where you work, sometimes where you live, or where you study, but someplace close to home.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>And finally, resentment and conspiratorial thinking:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Another leader said the strife has become so destructive that it feels like an op. <strong>\u201cI\u2019m not saying it\u2019s a right-wing plot, because we are incredibly good at doing ourselves in, but \u2014 if you tried \u2014 you couldn\u2019t conceive of a better right-wing plot to paralyze progressive leaders by catalyzing the existing culture where internal turmoil and micro-campaigns are mistaken for strategic advancement<\/strong> of social impact for the millions of people depending on these organizations to stave off the crushing injustices coming our way,\u201d said another longtime organization head. \u201c<strong>Progressive leaders cannot do anything but fight inside the orgs, thereby rendering the orgs completely toothless for the external battles in play.<\/strong> \u2026 Everyone is scared, and fear creates the inaction that the right wing needs to succeed in cementing a deeply unpopular agenda.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>These people are deathly frightened of each other, and the Democratic Party is frightened of them. Hence the Biden&#8217;s administration&#8217;s endless pandering to the Hyper-Online Left, at the expense of <a href=\"https:\/\/townhall.com\/tipsheet\/guybenson\/2020\/11\/10\/biden-on-his-mandate-n2579711\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">the mandate Biden himself articulated<\/a> in his November 2020 victory speech. Healing, cooperation, and moderation were shelved, in favor of &#8216;progressive&#8217; posturing. The results have been disastrous for both the country and the ruling party. But it does not appear as though a course correction is in the offing. Voters will have to impose one upon Democrats in November, and perhaps beyond. I&#8217;ll leave you with an angry Biden, <a href=\"https:\/\/townhall.com\/tipsheet\/guybenson\/2022\/06\/14\/biden-i-havent-yet-decided-whether-im-visiting-pariah-saudi-arabia-but-heres-why-im-going-there-n2608633\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">rumors swirling<\/a> about deposing him ahead of 2024, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/townhallcom\/status\/1536730915921084416\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">shouting abou<\/a>t how he doesn&#8217;t want to hear any of us ingrates talking about how his failed, inflationary policies are failing and fueling record inflation:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\" style=\"text-align: center;\">Biden, visibly angry: &#8220;I don&#8217;t want to hear anymore of these lies about reckless spending. We&#8217;re changing people&#8217;s lives!&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/0I3OgmIJGD\">pic.twitter.com\/0I3OgmIJGD<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Townhall.com (@townhallcom) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/townhallcom\/status\/1536730915921084416?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 14, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Oh, they&#8217;re changing people&#8217;s lives, alright. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This piece from The Intercept is long, but take your time reading it. \u00a0It&#8217;s nourishment. \u00a0As Ramesh Ponnuru quipped, &#8220;I&#8217;m not going to read [the story] all at<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1517951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1517951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1517951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1517951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1517951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1517951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1517951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}