El Pais Reports: Woke is not what it used to be. For some years, the term was used to describe those who are sensitive and involved in the struggle against social injustice, especially in U.S. politics, but also in the politics of other countries following suit perhaps to a lesser degree. Woke was a label proudly worn by activists in pursuit of social and climate justice: from Black Lives Matter to the #MeToo movement and the fight against global warming. Woke seemed to advocate a new era of equality and justice.

Now, however, the concept is being turned on its head by a growing anti-woke contingent that, according to the laws of action and reaction, has imbued the term with the kind of contempt that discredits those progressive causes. What began as a kneejerk reaction from the right has now spread to encompass an element of the left that is dissatisfied with woke’s current prominence, is concerned by what they consider its excesses, and its lack of universality. Woke is now used as an insult. The growing criticism of the woke from some members of the left is generating tensions, as reflected by authors and philosophers such as Susan Neiman, Umut Özkirimli and Stéphanie Roza, not to mention the exuberance of right-wing critics within the field.

“By subverting the word ‘woke,’ the ultraconservative sector of the U.S. Republican Party managed to turn it into a kind of catch-all to criticize any progressive aspect of the political spectrum, be it education on racism, feminism, identity politics or even books they consider inappropriate,” explains journalist and writer Lucía Lijtmaer, author of Ofendiditos. Sobre la criminalización de la protesta (Anagrama, 2019). Today, anti-woke, especially among the U.S. right, could be considered a movement in itself.

The response to wokeness is complex and varies according to political sensitivities. The ultra-right has long used the term to attack identity policies and environmental movements in general, painting them in terms of dictatorships: the woke dictatorship, or the environmental dictatorship, or simply the dictatorship of political correctness, also encompassing gender ideology, the gay lobby and all things queer. In its fearmongering, it warns of the advent of a kind of cultural Marxism, which will destroy white, Christian, capitalist, heterosexual civilization. “There is a manic compulsion to discover the woke everywhere; they are like hyper-motivated Pokémon hunters,” says writer Gonzalo Torné, author of La cancelación y sus enemigos (Anagrama, 2022), who points out that attempts at censorship have generally come from conservatives in the past.