Conservatives have always ridiculed the rise of the woke movement and identity politics. Traditional liberals have recently joined in, most notably the philosopher Susan Neiman in her 2023 book Left is Not Woke. In part, these liberals are attempting to reverse declining public support for left-wing political parties, which the public now associates with woke’s inherent extremism. But more traditional left-liberals fail to acknowledge their role in encouraging woke ideology, which conservatives warned for decades was the inevitable outcome of modern liberal thought.
