What Is the Woke Right?

On the reactionary will to power

In popular use, the term woke describes a far-left ideology informed by critical theory. 

According to critical theorists, hidden systems of power control society. Social groups struggle for power. The social groups who succeed therein are oppressors, and the groups that fail are oppressed.

At the core of this worldview lies Friedrich Nietzsche’s will to power;

He believed that humans desire power above all else, and therefore want to infinitely expand their locus of control. 

This core woke view is common on the political far left, but it now appears that some on the right subscribe to it as well. 

Konstantin Kisin, a British satirist, warned his audience about the woke right last February. As a comedian, Kisin defends free speech. Already a critic of the woke left’s censorship, he now perceives a threat from the opposite side. 

According to Kisin, the woke right, which includes conservative commentator Tucker Carlson, is as intolerant of opposing views as the woke left. 

To understand the threat, we must understand where the term woke right comes from.

It may have started with Kevin DeYoung, an American theologian. In 2022, he reviewed The Case for Christian Nationalism by Stephen Wolfe: a political theorist. After reading the book, DeYoung concluded that dissident right-wingers are going woke. 

The argument: Wolfe’s political theory of Christian nationalism is a right-wing version of wokism.

Indeed, Wolfe writes that those who agree with him are awakening, while others remain in a dogmatic slumber. He insists the world victimizes his social group: white, heterosexual men. This is reminiscent of woke thought.

Neil Shenvi, a Christian apologist, has further outlined the similarities between the woke left and right in an extensive blog post.

According to Shenvi, Wolfe has not only adopted the woke worldview but explicitly admits to being influenced by it. Indeed, Wolfe writes that he does “…not reject a critical approach to social phenomena” since “our world […] runs on power relations”. Simply put, he has embraced critical theory: the ideology underpinning the woke movement. 

But, as Shenvi points out, Wolfe is not the only right-winger espousing woke views.

Andrew Isker, another Christian Nationalist, believes that America’s elites run an “…insane, dystopian and totalitarian” world. In his book, The Boniface Option, he tries to “make you see it […] and begin the hard work of escaping and overcoming it”. Here, once again, a woke trope reemerges: struggling for power against a hidden system of oppression. 

The roles are reversed, but the plot is the same.

C. Jay Engel, co-host on Isker’s podcast, celebrates identity in a woke way.

According to Engel, America truly belongs to Heritage Americans. This group, he argues, is ethnically European and culturally Anglo-protestant. Social groups who threaten their centricity should be disempowered, subjugated, or deported. 

The woke left accuses America of marginalizing minorities, and instead of refuting the accusation Engel doubles down on it. 

While politically at odds, the woke left and right are ideologically in unison.

They agree on the most fundamental principle: that power is the driving force of the universe. The difference is, that both want their side to wield it. The woke left and right claim to be oppressed, yet aspire to be the oppressors. 

The woke idolize power, and it is all they pursue.

The iron law of woke projection, coined by anti-communist author James Lindsay, explains why. The woke insist that all human beings desire power. Therefore, they implicitly assume it about themselves and act accordingly. 

The woke left and right project their desires to dominate onto everyone else, and therefore onto each other, despite having much in common. 

In other words, they point to the devil in the mirror. 

The result is a comical paradox. The two extremes despise one another. But although their politics are exactly opposite, their ambition is identical. 

It is easy to point out where the woke left and right overlap:

1. Moral absolutism.

You are either with the woke or against them. The woke left does not tolerate dissent because they fancy themselves to be in a historical struggle against injustice. The woke right does not tolerate dissent because they fancy themselves to be on a holy crusade against decadence.

Refuse to participate and you are on the wrong side of history. 

2. Conspiracy theories

Crudely put, Critical theory is an academically accredited form of conspiracy theorizing. To the woke left, the chief conspirators are corporations, financiers, and the law. To the woke right, they are academia, the government, and globalism.

Both inadequately specify the systems of power (or: the establishment) they rail against, because their paranoia makes them think the conspiracy is self-evident.

3. Revolution

Those subscribing to the will to power are obsessed with seizing it, which is why all woke politics bend toward control. The woke left sells its totalitarian vision as an equitable utopia. The woke right sells theirs as one of religious piety. 

Since neither understands government, their dream societies are never realized.

4. Collectivism

The woke do not believe in individual dignity; they only think in groups. The woke left celebrates women, minorities, and the LGBT+ community. The woke right celebrates (Christian) men, whites, and heterosexuals. 

Both use identity politics to demonize outsiders (such as the Jewish people, who are scapegoated from two sides). 

5. Relativism

The woke believe in power, and not in objective truth. To the woke left, rationalism, empiricism, and science are mere instruments of oppression. To the woke right, they are mere obstacles to religious fervor. 

Both reject the quest for truth that has defined Western thought since the Enlightenment.

6. Anti-liberalism

The woke despise liberty, and therefore (Enlightenment) liberalism. The woke left primarily opposes property rights, privacy rights, and freedom of expression. The woke right primarily opposes reproductive rights, freedom of religion, and (also) freedom of expression. 

Since both desire control, freedom must be eradicated. 

Before they are left-wing or right-wing, the woke are merely woke.

This fact is rooted in the psychology of the woke.

Power is their true ideal; ideology is just a way to get there. If you believe power motivates everyone, it provides you with a simple choice: oppress or be oppressed. The end all of the woke power struggle is therefore never justice; it is dominion. 

All woke politics are downstream from the will to power.

Those who study the 20th century will conclude that history is rhyming.

The woke left are communist offspring, while the woke right are children of fascism. Since these terms have image problems, both deny it. However, just like their predecessors they breathe down the neck of the West: eager to destroy its liberties. 

Whether progressive or conservative, it is incumbent on moderates to recognize that Western freedom is being devoured by two jaws. 

The woke left and right work in opposite directions, yet towards the same goal.

They despise each other but despise liberty more than anything else. Individual freedom is the antithesis of collective control. It is therefore the biggest roadblock to their ambitions. 

Liberalism counteracts the will to power through checks and balances.

The separation of powers constrains it. It thwarts totalitarians. This is why they find liberalism intolerable. 

A Woke society, whether left-wing or right-wing, is the opposite of a free one.

In it, the will to power prevails and devours all liberty.