The weeks following the Oct. 7 atrocities, where 1,400 Jews were brutally killed in Israel, have been paradigm-shattering for many who had heretofore considered themselves woke allies.
The vilest acts of terrorism there were regaled here by all the usual woke suspects: Black Lives Matter and LGBT activists, college and high school students, and well-positioned college professors. The shameless celebrations on the backs of terrorism quickly pivoted to an explosion of blatant harassment of Jewish people on campuses and beyond, leaving those still living in the realm of sanity to question what this movement actually stood for all along.
For those looking to “detransition” out from woke possession, and those seeking to facilitate their escape, it is essential to understand how exactly so many were captured by it. The process of leaving the woke movement is similar to that of disentangling oneself from a cult or an abusive narcissist. You must begin to spot the lies and identify the various forms of manipulation. Once seen, such tactics are hard to unsee, and the spell breaks abruptly.
Stages of woke manipulation generally move from pity to fear to force. It starts with appeals to compassion, then preys upon fear of social or civic retribution, and finally moves to force through coercive laws, encroachments on freedom, corruption of agencies and institutions, and finally violence.
Stage One: Pity
The first stage is the most subtle. In any marginalized identity group, there are plenty of examples of legitimate injustices that ought to elicit
