New Discourses Introducing Woke Nationalism
Mar 25, 2026
They unpack the idea of a politicized national identity called woke nationalism. They contrast horizontal class-based wokeness with a circle-of-purity model that treats the nation as an organism. They trace duty-driven, purging impulses and survey historical nationalist variants. They explore how competing definitions of nationhood can escalate into coercive power struggles.
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Woke Defined As Critical Theory Lens
- Woke means using a critical theory lens that treats social arrangements as deliberate systems of power and alienation.
- James Lindsay links woke to critical consciousness stemming from Western Marxism and Paulo Freire's pedagogy as a theory of perception and power.
Woke Left As Horizontal Class Split
- The woke left divides society horizontally into oppressors above and oppressed below, producing class-based identity politics.
- Lindsay illustrates this with a sheet of paper split by a horizontal line and class consciousness examples like bourgeoisie vs proletariat.
Woke Right As Bubble Nation Model
- Woke right is better modeled as a circle: an authentic in-group nation inside and contaminants outside, which Lindsay calls woke nationalism.
- He contrasts the bubble model against the left's horizontal split to show a collectivist, folkish nationalism.
