Ep 14: The Ascent of Woke with Yascha Mounk

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Nick Cohen talks to Yascha Mounk, the political scientist and author, about his new book about the astonishing rise of "Woke ideology" - The Identity Trap: A  story of ideas and power in our time.

According to the Washington Post,  "whatever you call it — identity politics, political correctness, wokeness or cancel culture — some new power seems to be at work in our culture and institutions."

Yascha tells Nick that advocates of this "Woke" ideology fixate on identity to the exclusion of all else, and that many reject “universal values and neutral rules like free speech and equal opportunity as mere distractions.”  He argues that this ideology has grown ever more embedded in society - influencing many institutions.

Right wing extremist supporters of Donald Trump are already manipulating fears over "The Great Awokening""  for the 2024 presidential elections in the hope that voters will see this revolutionary strain of identity politics as a threat to American values.

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