Why socialist Susan Neiman says 'woke-ism' is not leftist

[BidenPresident]

I would say that, first of all, tribalism is a luxury they can't afford because all marginalized peoples or people who have been oppressed in the past need deep solidarity with other people.

And I say somewhere in the book, I'm not an ally. I don't want to be an ally. Allies are based on interests. The United States and the Soviet Union were allies for a short period of time when they had a common interest in defeating Nazi Germany. And as soon as that was over, they became enemies. We don't need to go into whose fault that was. There were lots of people at fault. But what that example shows is that if you don't base solidarity on deep principles that you share, it's not real solidarity.

So that someone who claims their marginalization is worse than everybody else's is reckoning themselves out of the game.

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/susan-neiman-left-is-not-woke-1.6799887

 

[BidenPresident]

The term, first associated with the left to exemplify support and awareness of racial and social injustice, has since become a pejorative, weaponized by the right.

A self-described lifelong leftist and socialist, Susan Neiman may seem an unlikely critic of "woke-ism." But she argues the tenets of the woke have become antithetical to the traditional values of the left.