The Good Fight Musa Al-Gharbi on Why We Have Never Been Woke (Rerun)
Aug 27, 2025
Musa Al-Gharbi, an assistant professor at Stony Brook University and author of 'We Have Never Been Woke,' engages in a thought-provoking discussion about the elite's claims to oppression. He critiques the concept of 'wokeness,' emphasizing the disconnect between elite activists and the wider communities they claim to represent. The conversation tackles the complexities of asymmetric multiculturalism and suggests the need for a more consistent approach to social identities, all while advocating for shared values to foster inclusivity.
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Woke Is A Contested Family Of Themes
- Musa shows 'woke' is contested and resists a single crisp definition.
- He argues for mapping common themes rather than forcing an analytic definition.
Use Family Resemblances Not One Definition
- Musa invokes Wittgenstein to show many political terms lack neat analytic definitions.
- He endorses cataloguing family resemblances and common dispositions instead of a single rigid meaning.
Core Themes That Signal Contemporary 'Woke'
- Yascha lists core themes of contemporary 'woke' discourse like skepticism of universal truth and intersectionality.
- He suggests practical checklists of recurring axioms to identify the ideology in context.
