Wokeness and anti wokeness are inventions of the political right on both sides of the Atlantic. They are confected ideas that are pushed by elite think tank, media and political groups and have been used in different ways since the era of the counter culture in the late 1960s. Their prime advocates claim that 'woke' is some manner of threat to either freedom or common sense, but the reality is far more mundane. The well resourced, organised and funded political right in the US and UK seeks wedge issues and maintains its power in doing so. The threat that the right faced throughout the 20th Century and which it united against in the late 60s onwards was the prospect of widespread social solidarity. Anti wokeism is just the latest post 2008 iteration of this strategy.

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