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Grant Smith's avatar

Wokeism definitely meets the legal definition of religious belief as protected by RFRA and the U.S. Constitution. This implies to me that anywhere Christianity isn't appropriate, such as direct endorsement by a public school teacher, Wokeism is likewise inappropriate. https://radicalamerican.substack.com/p/religious-belief

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John Carter's avatar

The parallels between a religious movement and the Great Awokening are indeed clear. I've even gotten progs to admit that directly. Nevertheless there are some important, and revealing, distinctions.

The first, which you draw attention to, is the doctrinal fluidity - new dogma can be invented and disseminated almost overnight. Most other religions are not nearly as adaptable.

The second, and I think the most important, is that wokeism is self-sterilizing and individually maladaptive. The woke don't have kids - that puts a cap on the long-term viability of the project. Further, woke does nothing to encourage virtue in its adherents; to the contrary, it encourages them to adopt self-destructive habits. The resulting individual degeneration is often striking and appalling. Virtually all traditional religions both encourage family formation, and prod believers to try and live up to their best possible selves by aspiring to an ideal represented by the founding figure.

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