“What does ‘woke’ mean?’ Question was asked by my pastor, as he sat down at our table having post-Mass coffee. “What does it mean, exactly?”

                Interestingly, we all could tell him examples, but no one—me included—could give a succinct answer to his question. He later gave us his understanding, which I think was something like ‘being nice to folks who are different.’ But I took his question in a more fundamental way. The guy is not a Jesuit, but I went to a school run by Jezzies, and that sort of direct, fundamental query as to basic meaning is as Jesuitical as it comes.

                “What does ‘Woke’ mean? Short answer? All the dictionaries define the term as meaning “socially aware of injustice.” Yeah, yeah. That’s like defining Communism as “wanting to help people.” So I started down the rabbit hole road, and here are the general precepts. Woke is:

1. An ideology—meaning a secular religion. It’s revealed Truth, opponents are sinners, questioning is heresy, unbelievers must be converted or destroyed.
2. It’s collectivist. Collective thinking rejects human individualism, herding people into broad classes, based on defined characteristics–like race, sex, religion. In classic Marxism, those groups are defined by economic status. Woke defines them by race and sorts them out by ‘privilege.’ The color of your skin does indeed define your character—forever. A wealthy black college professor outranks a poor white son of a coal miner. Collective thinking denies humans basic dignity as treats them as mere numbers. Key: it also assigns collective guilt.
3. Woke is authoritarian. Collectivism is tyrannous. With no individual rights to base human dignity and freedoms on, people are simply ants to be directed by any would-be Leader.
4. Also Marxist: Woke defines the world into nothing more than an arena of power. All are at war with all, for dominance. The defined dominant class is at war with everybody else. Every institution, norm, faith, history, and tradition—every human endeavor—is a deliberate instrument of oppression by the dominant class. Woke defines the dominant class as “white supremacy.” Everyone else is a victim. Everything existing is fair game to be destroyed.
5. Woke is totalitarian. There are no innocents, there are no neutrals, nothing is non-political, everything is either an instrument of oppression or an instrument of struggle. For the defined victim class, all is permitted. For the oppressor class, any attack is fair game.
6. Within this religion—ideology, there is the doctrine of “intersectionality.” This means there are other classes of victims that have hitched a ride along with race. Not all these hitchhikers are equal. Humans are sorted out into sub-collectives by their degree of arbitrarily defined “privilege.” The white female feminist outranks a white straight male, but ranks below a black female. The male who publicly identifies as a woman is now “Trans” and now outranks the hetero feminist and the lesbian. Competition within these victim groups is intense. One class whose status is inviolate is African American. Attempts by others to identity as “Black” and the very idea of “Trans-Race” are laughed out of the room.
7. The true motivation of this religion is power, not an idealistic desire to improve the world. Like the Maoist Red Guards that upended China, the woke believers use their religion to empower themselves by pulling down anyone and anything that catches their attention. Students destroy their teachers, players destroy their coaches, colleges pull down statues of their founders. Like Mao’s China, it’s a Cultural Revolution led by power drunk fanatics. The object is power.
8. This religion is growing and militantly crusades to extend its power. Through explicit evangelical institutions such as “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” initiatives, it’s true believers have been given power within organizations.

So there you have broad principles. Can we get this down to the classic 25 words or less? Let’s try:

“Woke means an intolerant, revolutionary, collectivist ideology of power that’s at war with all society.”

And yes, it’s explicitly racist.

                “NO!!!” will shriek the Woke. “We can’t be racist!! We’ve redefined “racism” to mean not us!” ANSWER: “Bullshit! Who cares what your private language says? ‘Racism’ has a factual meaning.”

                “NO!!!” will shriek the Woke! “That dictionary definition was written by White Supremacists!” ANSWER: “Bullshit. Facts are facts and reality is.”

`               “NO!!!” will shriek the Woke. “Facts and reality are defined by the dominant group as an instrument of white supremacy! We reject those facts and reality.” ANSWER: “Bullshit! Your rejection of truth and fact doesn’t mean they go away. I reject your attempts to pervert them to gain power.”

                “NO!!” will shriek the Woke. “Submit to us or we will destroy you.” ANSWER: you grimly smile and say “finally you speak truth.” And then you either submit or prepare to fight because they will indeed try to destroy you. There’s no compromise, no middle ground. Remember: to them it’s religion; they’re high on power, they are the Inquisition, and you are the devil.

                But if you submit, their boot is on your face forever, and if you fight, sometimes you win. And believe me, there are way more of us than there are of them.