By demanding the purification of the individual and branding broad swathes of the public as oppressor classes, 'Woke 1' besmirched the average Americans who Democrats once championed.
Woke isn't gone, we have plenty of evidence of that. Woke 1 indicates you think we are either in or going to have a woke 2 period. What does that look like?
Yep, those were the days... Josh focuses on a few of the more ludicrous aspects of Woke I (as it's now referred to) but there were a lot more sinister aspects of the whole thing than these. Such as prioritizing medical care based on an insane desire to "correct past wrongs," essentially - condemning those with "privilege" to wait for medicine like the Covid vaccination while prioritizing "BIPOC+" people over everyone else.
Came here to recommend Mamdani’s answer to Ben Smith about woke at the New York Editorial Board thing when he was polling at 1%. It was almost a year ago and he was green at that point so it’s more interesting
Here’s the part
**Ben Smith**
The DSA and the Sanders campaign actually got very tangled up in identity politics issues which tore those groups apart over the last few years. There’s now a debate on the left about whether that was a horrible mistake or whether that's the future direction. What's your view on that question?
**Zohran Mamdani**
On the question of identity politics?
**Ben Smith**
Do you think the DSA made mistakes in its internal fights about identity politics? Do you think the left in general went too far and is responsible for some of the backlash we're seeing now?
**Zohran Mamdani**
I don't think I’d—
**Ben Smith**
You’re familiar with these arguments?
**Zohran Mamdani**
Yeah, no I'm familiar with them. I think in this campaign, there are aspects of my identity that make me stand out. I am the first Muslim or even South Asian elected official to run for mayor. I would be one of only a few immigrant mayors in New York City [history]. But this campaign is not about my identity. I have acknowledged those things and I have spoken about the need to foreground who the politics is actually for and what we are actually fighting for. And I think in many ways that has been the most successful parts of left interventions in electoral politics.
And I often think about the way that New York City is caricatured in a political landscape sense. We often talk about Staten Island as if it is the home of Trump Republicanism — that Democrats on Staten Island are just people waiting to vote for a Republican in a general election. And yet what we found is when there was a message of economic inequality and the necessity of taking on a system that has left people behind, 42% of that voting base came out for Bernie Sanders in 2016 [in the Democratic primary].
I think that there’s a true ability to go beyond the corridors that we’ve been told, “This is where a progressive lives, and this is where a progressive dies.” And there are different aspects of the same message that appeal to many, many people, as long as you don’t ask them to stand up and subscribe to every single thing that you might say and every single thing you might believe, and that you're respectful when you’re faced with that disagreement.
Woke isn't gone, we have plenty of evidence of that. Woke 1 indicates you think we are either in or going to have a woke 2 period. What does that look like?
Yep, those were the days... Josh focuses on a few of the more ludicrous aspects of Woke I (as it's now referred to) but there were a lot more sinister aspects of the whole thing than these. Such as prioritizing medical care based on an insane desire to "correct past wrongs," essentially - condemning those with "privilege" to wait for medicine like the Covid vaccination while prioritizing "BIPOC+" people over everyone else.
Came here to recommend Mamdani’s answer to Ben Smith about woke at the New York Editorial Board thing when he was polling at 1%. It was almost a year ago and he was green at that point so it’s more interesting
Here’s the part
**Ben Smith**
The DSA and the Sanders campaign actually got very tangled up in identity politics issues which tore those groups apart over the last few years. There’s now a debate on the left about whether that was a horrible mistake or whether that's the future direction. What's your view on that question?
**Zohran Mamdani**
On the question of identity politics?
**Ben Smith**
Do you think the DSA made mistakes in its internal fights about identity politics? Do you think the left in general went too far and is responsible for some of the backlash we're seeing now?
**Zohran Mamdani**
I don't think I’d—
**Ben Smith**
You’re familiar with these arguments?
**Zohran Mamdani**
Yeah, no I'm familiar with them. I think in this campaign, there are aspects of my identity that make me stand out. I am the first Muslim or even South Asian elected official to run for mayor. I would be one of only a few immigrant mayors in New York City [history]. But this campaign is not about my identity. I have acknowledged those things and I have spoken about the need to foreground who the politics is actually for and what we are actually fighting for. And I think in many ways that has been the most successful parts of left interventions in electoral politics.
And I often think about the way that New York City is caricatured in a political landscape sense. We often talk about Staten Island as if it is the home of Trump Republicanism — that Democrats on Staten Island are just people waiting to vote for a Republican in a general election. And yet what we found is when there was a message of economic inequality and the necessity of taking on a system that has left people behind, 42% of that voting base came out for Bernie Sanders in 2016 [in the Democratic primary].
I think that there’s a true ability to go beyond the corridors that we’ve been told, “This is where a progressive lives, and this is where a progressive dies.” And there are different aspects of the same message that appeal to many, many people, as long as you don’t ask them to stand up and subscribe to every single thing that you might say and every single thing you might believe, and that you're respectful when you’re faced with that disagreement.