WOKE! — The lost identity
By: Zanno Jacklin
Tags: Identity Politics, Racism, Toxic Ideology, Sexism, Sociology

Where does the wokeness and identity politics really come from, and what is the purpose of it all? To be completely honest, up until last year sometimes, I just figured they were all really stupid. Nothing more to it, just extremely loud and unintelligent people. That was before I accidently signed up for a sociology class at the university, twice. I never meant to study sociology, but now I am happy that I did.

The year I spent at the department of sociology at the university of Gothenburg actually taught me a lot. Mainly it taught me to understand why sociologists often are wrong in their analyze. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that all sociology and all sociologists and completely useless. They just arrive at their conclusions in a very odd way.

What is sociology?

To answer that, I would have to write a whole lot of books. The short answer, according to wikipedia, is basically “the study of society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction and culture”. I would like to add that sociology is also how all of these things are interacting with and influence one another. Karl Marx was more or less the person who laid down the ground for “the science of sociology”. Anyone who knows anything at all about Marx can probably start seeing connections to what we see today in our society. The base for it all is more or less a Marxist way of looking at the world, with a myriad of subfields to it.

The main issues I have with a lot of sociology is that it doesn’t really give any answers, or rather it can provide you with whichever answer you want. Throughout history there has been a lot of philosophers and sociologists who developed their own theories within sociology. From my experience a lot of what sociologist are doing is simply backwards. The see a phenomenon, theorizes about what might have caused said phenomenon and finally try to find theories that fit their explanation. I saw this a LOT during the year I studied sociology, and if one theory alone can’t explain the phenomenon you simply take the pieces that do fit and keep looking for more theories. I should add that I don’t know how it works in the rest of the world, but at least here in Sweden this is my impression.

In practice

Let’s say for example that a person commits a crime, let’s say this person together with a friend assaults and rob a person walking home alone at night. Most of us would look to the individuals and ask ourselves why did they commit this crime? It’s not as if they didn’t know it was wrong. They obviously know that if you assault someone, they might get badly hurt. We might recognize that they had a bad childhood and an unstable home, but we don’t see that as an excuse for that type of behavior. What they did was wrong, and our sense of justice tells us that their victim should get some kind of reparation, and the offenders should get some type of punishment. That’s how I believe most of us would think, especially if the victim were someone close to us.

If you are a sociologist, chances are that you will start looking for the answers elsewhere. In short you could say that the sociologist would ask questions like what did the society do in order to put these two perpetrators in a position where they had no choice but to assault and rob this other person? What’s the area they live in like? Is it a poor neighborhood? Are the perpetrators part of a minority? If they come from a poor neighborhood and are part of a minority, then at least part of the answer would be that: “it’s a socioeconomic problem, and these two people feel anger towards society because they don’t have what other people have. And the reason they don’t have the material things that some others do, is because our society is inherently racist and is actively working to prevent them from getting anywhere in life.”

A very easy answer that takes away all the individual responsibility we all have for our own actions. The society is to blame! But who is “the society”? That’s you and me. What did you and I ever do to makes these two so miserable that they just had to assault and rob an innocent person? I didn’t do anything, did you? The sociologists answer to that is that well maybe you didn’t do anything personally, but you are enforcing the structures of society and these are issues at a structural level. This is also very convenient because none of these structures can be seen or proven. We are just told that the structures are there, and it is your fault, so you should feel bad.

How to fix a structural problem

How do you fix something you can’t see, that can’t be proven and that you can’t even wrap your mind around? The solution will differ depending on which sociology you ask and which subfield they belong to. Most of modern-day sociologist make use of several different subfields and theories. The feminist sociology for example is based on conflict theory. It is exactly what it sounds like, all conflicts and no peace. There is no balance between the sexes, and we can’t be equal so it’s always a struggle between the sexes. The men of the world can only get a better life at the expense of women, and the women has to take from the man for her life to get better. But within the feminist sociology is not only a battle between the sexes, but also between sexual orientations, between races, nationalities, and economic classes.

So how would a feminist sociologist fix this issue? They will blame the toxic structures in society at the people who according to them are the oppressors. This equals to the white, heterosexual CIS-men of the middle- and upper class. This wouldn’t have been an issue if it were as simple as I first though, they are just crazy people. But their movement has gotten really big. They are politicians, media personalities, authors, influencers, professors etc. Anyone who is left leaning will at this point, if not sooner, decide that I’m a misogynist and I’m just afraid of strong independent women. Which of course, is not true.

I love strong, intelligent, and independent women. But I would rather we use or strength and intelligence to work together, for a better society for us all. We are not getting anywhere as long as a big chunk of the population constantly feel they are at war with a big chunk of the other side of the population. Unfortunately, there are big money involved, at least in Sweden where I’m from. In Sweden, and I assume large part of Europe, our government are funding a lot of this. Using our tax money, that could have been used for something constructive rather than destructive.

The bystander

Of course, not everyone is part of this sect-like movement. A lot of people just gives their active or silent support. Our children get taught in school that this is how society works. Boys are taught that they are evil, a rapist waiting to happen. White children are taught they are evil, because of the color of their skin or for what their ancestors might have done. Black children are taught to give up, because our racist society is never going to let them succeed anyway. Little girls are taught that men and boys are dangerous, and it’s just a matter of time until they get raped or murdered.

Our politicians are most likely stupid enough to believe what they are fed, or they are too afraid for the stigma that follows if they question the pure ideology with all the answers. As a politician you risk losing a lot of votes if you speak up. As a private person you risk losing your job and livelihood because the movement and the cancel culture. Don’t dare to stray from your path, there is always someone watching, always someone listening and if you say or do something wrong you will have a storm at your back before you know what hits you.

Picture: Stockphoto

But it’s the bystander that is important. It’s people like you and me, white people, black people, gay people, immigrants, and natives. We are the important ones, because all of this happens because we let it. The next time you see or hear something that makes you hesitate in doubt for a second, take a few minutes and think it through what it was you heard or saw. Did it make sense? When someone yelled that all men are violent rapists, did you think it over? Did you think about your father, brother, lover, son? Is it really accurate that those men you love are violent rapists?

The next time you hear or see someone claiming that all immigrants are criminals, will you think it over for a few minutes? Do you actually know any immigrants? If you do, are they criminals? Or the next time you hear or see someone making racist remarks, take a few minutes. Is it accurate according to you, that all or most white or black people are in a certain way?

Very rarely in these situations will you get anything else but vague answers along the side “well, not your son of course”, “Okay, your neighbor is nice despite being white/black/immigrant/whatever”. Isn’t it a bit too many exceptions, and very few concrete examples? To speak up in these situations is hard, I know. But just letting what is actually said sink in for a few minutes is a start.

It’s okay to have a difference of opinion in politics, religion, football teams etc. But we don’t need to hate other people simply for disagreeing with us. We don’t want this war; I don’t want this war.