Kaufmann argues 'woke' specifically means making historically marginalized identity groups sacred and morally policing society around them. Right-wing tribal gatekeeping may mimic tactics but lacks those sacralized totems, so it isn’t 'woke' by definition. He invokes Sartori’s warning against 'conceptual stretching' to keep terms analytically useful.
— This framing counters sloppy equivalence claims and grounds debates about illiberalism symmetry in clear, testable definitions.
2025.10.07
60% relevant
The article argues against labeling wokeism as 'Gnostic,' paralleling the existing idea’s push for precise, non‑stretched definitions of 'woke' rather than sweeping analogies; it names specific conservative actors (Barron, Feser, Lindsay) and the Voegelin lineage driving the mislabel.
Eric Kaufmann
2025.05.12
100% relevant
Kaufmann: 'Woke refers to the making sacred of historically marginalized race, gender and sexual groups... By definition there can be no woke right.'
Eric Kaufmann
2025.04.14
80% relevant
Kaufmann defines 'woke' as sacralizing marginalized identities and contends Trumpist 'troll' amoralism neither mirrors nor defeats it; this reinforces the thesis that right-wing illiberalism isn’t 'woke' and that defeating woke requires a distinct moral framework, not symmetrical tactics.