Donald Trump supporters and wokes seem like sworn enemies. Yet their respective attitudes to debate, institutions and society reveal striking similarities.
At first glance, everything pits Donald Trump and his die-hard supporters against intersectional activists and gender and race theorists. Trump's followers are willingly conservative, nationalistic and populist. Wokes, obsessed with «structural» discrimination, claim to be progressive and cosmopolitan. Yet Trumpism and wokism are far more similar than they pretend or appear: both are part of the same contemporary illiberal impulse, as these seven points in common demonstrate.
1. Disregard for rational debate
Wokes like Trumpists don't seek truth, they seek power. In the previous editorial by yours truly, the parallel trends of «reason without debate» (political correctness, favored by the Wokes) and «debate without reason» (political incorrectness, favored by the Trumpists) were discussed. The former lapse into dogmatism in the name of reason (which they forget to practice within a framework of debate); the latter, in the name of debate (which they forget to place under the sign of reason).
2. A tolerance for inconsistency
In both camps, glaring contradictions are excused, even justified, in the name of the cause. Wokes advocate inclusion, while excluding those who deviate from their line; they promote gender reassignment, but abhor cultural appropriation; they affirm individual identities defined according to structures of oppression, while militating for the abolition of these same structures... Trumpists, on the other hand, denounce electoral fraud (which they claim led to the election of Joe Biden), while welcoming the breaking of rules - those of the World Trade Organization, for example - as long as it serves their cause.
3. The culture of emotion
In particular, both movements feed on a sense of persecution: on the one hand, wokes denounce oppressive structures of which they claim to be victims; on the other, Trumpists pose as citizens excluded by disconnected elites. In both cases, resentment becomes a political engine, directed against the «system».
4. A wholesale rejection of traditional institutions
Universities, media, courts... no institutional pillar escapes discredit. a priori. Wokism wants to «decolonize» institutions, Trumpism wants to «cleanse» them of Wokism, without bothering to separate the wheat from the chaff.
5. The temptation of censorship
In either case, freedom of expression is no longer a principle to be respected, but an obstacle to be swept aside. While the woke prevent so-called hate speech, including opposition to gay marriage or the medical care of children for sex reassignment, the trumpist removes from libraries books like 1984 because of their allegedly sexual nature.
6. Transgression for transgression's sake
Both camps feed on a posture of rupture that has value in its own right. Wokism shakes up language norms, traditions and aesthetic canons; Trumpism shamelessly violates political, diplomatic and legal codes.
7. The utopia of a purified world
Both visions promise a regenerated society: without racism or patriarchy on the one hand, without immigration or trade deficits on the other. For Trump, as for his sworn enemies, nuance is betrayal; compromise, weakness.
Write to the author: jonas.follonier@leregardlibre.com
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