The Crypto Woke: The new useful idiots
Laundering Critical Race Theory or Making Very Radical Ideology safe and acceptable to everyday housewives...
This is part two of Critical Race Theory (CRT). I’ve transcribed a rather heady conversation between Dave Rubin and James Lindsay from one of Rubin’s YouTube vlogs. According to Lindsay, he coined this phrase The Crypto Woke' a few years back. Similar to the concept of Useful Idiots (a phrase attributed to Vladimir Lenin) which was used during the Cold War to describe non-communists regarded as susceptible to communist propaganda and manipulation.
Lindsay makes a beautiful argument and lays out exactly what CRT is. I’ve tried to quote him directly here, though there may be some additional context you’d like to digest. You can do so on the Rubin Report podcast from Jun 20, 2021. Basically, I make no claims on ANY of this context. I’ve transcribed it, but you’ll notice some editorial injection if you make a comparison to the actual episode.
My disclaimer is that I write these things for my own clarity, so take it with a grain of salt. You should probably refer to these conspiracy theories as just the rantings of a madman.
Now on to the Crypto Woke. The Crypto Woke will repeat this mantra: “They can’t really mean what it actually says.”
According to Lindsay: “They can be read a piece that calls into question the very foundations of the liberal order. Including equality theory, legal reasoning, enlightenment rationalism, the neutral principles of constitutional law. (That quote BTW is in the first paragraph of the INTRODUCTION to CRT) They seize upon “Well, it just calls it into question, it can’t mean the Critical Race Theorists [CRTs] want to undo those things!”
“CRTs are ‘highly suspicious’ of another liberal mainstay, namely rights. The Crypto Woke will repeat the mantra that Critical Race theorists are just ‘highly suspicious’, things can go wrong with ‘rights’. They’re not against rights. They rationalize that rights do have their ‘faults’.”
He almost waxes religious, referring to the archetype of the Tree: “Simply look at the tree. This tree is bearing BAD fruit.” [It’s fruit is division, scorn, arrogance and a total absence of self awareness] “According to Michele Gutierrez [a non mathematician who theorizes that math is just inherently and systemically Racist], “Maybe equity is not enough, maybe we need a Revolution.”
The Crypto Woke’s duty is to make CRT seem really reasonable and palatable: “They’re pretending it can’t happen here. They lack the capacity to believe there are people out there who genuinely think outside the classical liberal paradigm, and those people genuinely want to subvert and overthrow that broadly liberal paradigm that they control and it’s truly totalitarian.”
The trending idea [Among many of the Twitterati] is that the Critics of CRT can’t even define it. How does James define CRT? His definition comes straight from the CRT textbooks:
“It is the belief that the fundamental organizing principal of society is racism. Namely systemic racism, as they call it. It is what the CRTs call the cause, otherwise unknown and unspecified, of differences in outcomes where white people come out ahead of SOME people of color SOMETIMES. Systemic racism hides itself. It’s hard to see. [So hard to see, most systemic racists don’t even KNOW it’s there!]
CRT expounds on this: Racism is the organizing principle of society. Racism is permanent, it doesn’t improve over time, it can only become worse. When you tackle racism, it can’t be ‘gotten over’. Systemic racism is very tricky, described under a doctrine called interest convergence that leads it to hiding itself. It’s hidden and insidious. [Well, except it’s everywhere!]
CRT is the tool the CRTs use to uncover the hidden racism present in all features of society because it is the fundamental organizing principal of all ‘social phenomena’.
Joy Reed says “You don’t even know what it is, so you can’t fight it and you can’t debate it” It’s just been defined. You’re being gaslighted.
It is hidden in things like: “Being on time, hard work, 2+2=4, caring about truth. These things are suddenly thought of through the CRT lens as white supremacist tools.” [We’re all white supremacists aren’t we?]
“Every virtue that upholds society, things like loyalty, are suspect. They are utterly convinced that the society we occupy was founded by white supremacists, with the intent to maintain white supremacy forever. It’s a real conspiracy theory!”
“Everything that Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Thomas Paine, John Locke valued were trying to establish white supremacy as the dominant orthodoxy for the rest of time. All white people are secretly involved in a racial contract that they all assent to it, though no one ever talks about it or tells anybody about it. It’s to keep white people up and black people down.”
“There’s no nugget of truth that these people will accept.” Rubin adds to this, and it’s almost comical: “It’s such an admirable theory. It’s like Alien”
Lindsay goes on with more analysis (and I’m paraphrasing a bit here) “It’s like a highly evolved virus frankly. The theory has literally figured out how to convince the world that white people are a cancer. It’s exploited the ‘receptor’ sites of liberal society. Even religious society and conservative society. It latches on to kindness and respect and charity.
Its going to force you to be kind. But when you ask for kindness in return, they say: “Well, you’re forcing me to participate in your regime.” it’s been so successful latching on to those receptors. We want to hear you out, give me your argument.” Then they turn it around: YOUR argument is based on trying to maintain your privilege. There’s something perversely beautiful to behold in this. But psychologists will need to sort this out, if we survive as a civilization. It’s hard to respect in a direct sense. It’s patently evil, blatantly racist and blatantly destructive.”
“People are going to stop hiring Ivy Leaguers any more. They’re going to stop hiring college grads. This burns through brand equity and real equity so quickly. It can’t build. There’s nothing to respect in that.”
[I’m right, you’re wrong. And if you don’t see that, you’re a racist. You’re a part of the problem. See how that works?]
So, in summation; who are the Crypto Woke? All you have to do is look at Bernie Sanders. He is oblivious to the fact that he’s been co-opted. He truly believes he’s being a hero. Even his supporters have abandoned him. Father forgive them, they know not what they do…
What do you do? Don’t cower. Or at least support those who don’t cower. Courage is infectious. And without courage this is going to destroy us. It’s not going away. It’s fear driven. Everyone is afraid of being accused of being racist. It’s a fate worse than death.