Will the ‘Woke’ Industrial Complex Ever Wake Up?

Will the ‘Woke’ Industrial Complex Ever Wake Up?
An activist waves a damaged rainbow flag during a gay pride event in St. Petersburg on July 26, 2014. Olga Maltseva/AFP via Getty Images
Christian Milord
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Commentary

Have you ever wondered if and when the “woke” industrial complex will rise out of its slumber and smell the coffee? There are plenty of commonsense folks who wonder about the same topic.

It appears that woke influencers in business, education, entertainment, government, and sports repeat the same mistakes over and over, despite being called out by concerned citizens and consumers. Indeed, many businesses such as Budweiser, CNN, Disney, Target, and others continue to defy the will of the people even when public support diminishes.

In California, the woke industry has permeated every corner of society with its emphasis on identity politics and accompanying speech codes. It all starts in public education, where governing officials believe that your children belong to the state. If they belong to the state, the schools can teach whatever they want as they create a wedge between parents and students.

California has one of the highest per-pupil spending rates in America (your tax dollars), yet the outcomes are dismal. Test proficiency scores have been near the bottom for several years with no end in sight, despite instructional pendulum shifts every 10–12 years.

Rather than learning fundamental civics and patriotism, students are taught a balkanized ersatz history which generates further division according to color, ethnicity, gender, and race. Other core subjects are also dumbed down to reveal the “soft bigotry of low expectations.” Standards are diluted in order to accommodate the concept of social promotion.

By the time students enroll in college, large percentages of them require remediation, which puts them further behind those who studied. During my group mentoring of university juniors and seniors, I’ve observed that far too many students have the comprehension and writing skills of early high school students.

Critical thinking skills are replaced by a fixation on electronic devices. How are students going to cope in the real world when they are “traumatized” by folks who question their entitlement mentality, or they discover that entry-level jobs don’t always start at $100,000 a year and they must work for a living?

Is it any wonder that large numbers of college students have a meltdown over every grievance or perceived microaggression? If they aren’t taught thorough reasoning and research, they will be tossed about by fleeting events and feelings. In the current hatefest on campuses across California and the country, students are ignorant regarding Middle East dynamics, the Holocaust, and the last century of events in and around Israel. They haven’t truly studied the history of Israel or the Jewish people.

We do know that the infamous George Soros, who has funded borderless border policies and lawless district attorneys, has also helped to finance pro-Hamas demonstrations on campuses and in the streets, according to the New York Post. He has helped to finance the Tides Center, among other advocacy groups, that are busy attacking Israel with the support of a compliant legacy media and leftist members of Congress.

If several professors and students at both private and public universities around the state can’t differentiate between the Stone Age barbarism of Hamas and the ordered liberty of Israel, something is definitely Orwellian in higher education. Perhaps, we ought to rename our vaunted postsecondary institutions as “indoctrination centers of shallow learning,” because there is an appalling lack of intellectual diversity on too many campuses.

When the woke government apparatus portrays nonviolent parents who are concerned about their children’s education as domestic extremists, yet views terrorist groups as legitimate, isn’t something terribly askew with their thought processes? Welcome to the brave new world of dystopian modern Marxism.

Many “inclusive” campus groups are calling for the elimination of Israel, so why aren’t they being arrested for inciting violence? How could such free speech insanity emanate from Stanford or the University of California system? Aren’t folks supposed to be intelligent to be accepted into our elite universities?

Moreover, plenty of woke individuals and governing bodies are calling for a ceasefire or truce in the current conflict. However, the cessation of hostilities is primarily aimed at Israel, not Hamas, which unleashed the unprovoked Oct. 7 slaughter upon Israel. Anyone with a head on their shoulders understands that if Israel stopped fighting, the carnage activated by Hamas would accelerate.

By contrast, if Hamas released the hostages and surrendered without conditions, the chance of peace in the region would vastly increase. Unfortunately, the anti-Israel protestors are oblivious to the track record of Iranian-sponsored regional terror over many decades, and they are too lazy to investigate. Without a clear moral compass, they lash out at any convenient target and turn a blind eye to genuine terrorism.

Are there remedies to the woke apparatus? Yes, there is always hope when the silent majority begins to take a stand against the wrong side of history. We must defund organizations that are antisemitic and stop supporting media outlets that spew irrational hatred toward Israel and the Jewish people. We can also hold on to our wallets when woke businesses ignore their customers by catering to special interest groups.

It is also critical to encourage competition in education that would give parents options regarding the different types of schools for their children. Character, civics, critical thinking, and merit ought to be ingrained from a young age so youngsters can identify the difference between good and evil. More philosophy and religion courses could be offered even at the secondary school level.

Finally, it’s crucial to elect representatives who are straightforward and who cherish principles such as border sovereignty, free markets, limited government, responsible liberty, the rule of law, and a peace-through-strength national security infrastructure.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Christian Milord
Christian Milord
Author
Christian Milord is an Orange County, California-based educator, mentor, USCG veteran, and writer. He earned his M.S. degree from California State University, Fullerton, where he mentors student groups and is involved with literacy programs. His interests include culture, economics, education, domestic, and foreign policy, and military issues. He can be reached at [email protected]
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