Left Is Not Woke

By: Susan Neiman

Narrated by: Susan Neiman

If you’re woke, you’re left. If you’re left, you’re woke. We blur the terms, assuming that if you’re one you must be the other. That, Susan Neiman argues, is a dangerous mistake.

The confusion arises because woke is fuelled by traditionally leftwing emotions: the wish to stand with the oppressed and marginalized, to address historic crimes. But those emotions are undermined by widespread philosophical assumptions with reactionary sources. As a result, wokeism conflicts with ideas that have guided the left for more than 200 years: a commitment to universalism, a firm distinction between justice and power, and a belief in the possibility of progress. Without these ideas, the woke will continue to undermine their own goals and drift, inexorably and unintentionally, towards the right.

One of the world’s leading philosophical voices, Neiman calls with passion and power for the left to return to the ideals that built the best of the modern world.

©2023 Susan Neiman (P)2024 Polity Press

left/= woke

Easy to listen and clear definition of concepts approached by the author. The author don't use rough words to express disagreement. The topic is quite current and sociopolitically relevant.

a bit too theoretical but still listening

The author set about a journey to find out what separates 'woke' from 'left'. Her journey passes almost exclusively in theoretical realms - dismantling the theoretical foundations she recognizes as fundamental to the so-called 'woke' movement. This she does well, and that is perfectly fine, except that wokeism is not to be found only in books. In fact, it is actually in the real, lived world of activism that the true nonsensical consequences if this movement truly reveal themselves. The crouds if Hamas supporting spiiled university kids, the ridiculous ultra prinouned youth, The post colonial terror apologists, Gays for Gaza and all other one-sided, narrow-minded fools are actual actors in the real world. With these, unfortunately, the author seems almost completely unwilling to engage. What a pitty.