Author: Blazingcatfur

They’re indicative of society’s and individuals’ flight from reason into fantasy and self-destruction.

The “disease” of “hysteria” was the scourge of the front parlors and hospitals of the European elite in the 19th century. Even Sigmund Freud had a conflicted diagnostic go at hysteria. It was in the medical textbooks, in the meetings of surgeons and head shrinks, in the broadsheets, and in the minds and conversations of many a concerned lady. Fees for services flowed into the purses of medical practitioners — and doubtless also some quacks who worked to seek a cure for the overwrought ladies, inside and out, and rid them of the terrible hysteria menace.

There are two dishonest conversations about wokeness, or identity politics if you prefer the less contentious term. The first from conservatives is wearily familiar. For some on the right, ‘woke’ is now a synonym for ‘anything I can’t abide’. Overuse has made the insult meaningless.

On the left, the dishonesty lies in the denial that a new ideology even exists. Nothing has changed, we are told. To be what Conservatives sneeringly call ‘woke’ is simply to be a decent person who cares about the rights of others as progressives have always done.

“They’re calling you ‘woke’ if you call out bad things,’ cried the actress, Kathy Burke. ‘If you’re not racist, you’re woke. If you’re not homophobic, oh, you’re woke. Be woke, kids. Be woke. Be wide awake and fucking call it out.’