Counter Wokecraft: A Field Manual for Combatting the Woke in the University and Beyond

Counter Wokecraft: A Field Manual for Combatting the Woke in the University and Beyond

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  • Type：Epub+TxT+PDF+Mobi
  • Create Date：2021-11-27 15:21:20
  • Update Date：2025-09-06
  • Status：finish
  • Author：Charles Pincourt
  • ISBN：B09MKJK5D4
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Reviews

Carolyn Kost ，

If you are among those concerned by the current threats to democracy， limited government， universal human rights， legal equality for all， freedom of expression， respect for viewpoint diversity， honest debate， evidence and reason， separation of church and state and freedom of religion and want to do something about it， this is the manual for you。 It's brief， pithy， and a usable tool in this fight to preserve these foundational tenets of our political philosophy。 This follows in the tradition of R If you are among those concerned by the current threats to democracy， limited government， universal human rights， legal equality for all， freedom of expression， respect for viewpoint diversity， honest debate， evidence and reason， separation of church and state and freedom of religion and want to do something about it， this is the manual for you。 It's brief， pithy， and a usable tool in this fight to preserve these foundational tenets of our political philosophy。 This follows in the tradition of Rules for Radicals: A pragmatic primer for realistic radicals， Saul Alinsky's 1971 manual for revolution that inspired Obama and Clinton， answered in 2012 by Michael Charles' Rules for Conservatives: A response to Rules for Radicals， a manual for conservatives and Tea Party folks。 This is the manual we need for the 2020s。 It's the necessary epilogue or companion volume to Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything about Race， Gender， and Identity—and Why This Harms Everybody。The first chapter describes the principal tenets of Woke and the typology of adherents。 First， the knowledge principle: objective truth is impossible to obtain because culture determines what is known。 Second， the political principle: the power structure has created the tools that construct knowledge: science， empirical facts， reason， and logic， so all these tools are necessarily considered oppressive and evil， which is why personal anecdotes， fictitious stories and narratives are perceived not simply as equivalent to but more valid than logic， statistics， the scientific collection of data， etc。 Third， the subject principle: "individuals are primarily defined by their group identity" （sex， race， sexuality， etc。） which determines their status as oppressor or oppressed。 Chapter 2 （pp。 15-45） is important to identifying the Woke's tactics， especially the specific meanings of innocuous words， technical jargon that I forget most people aren't familiar with， like cis-normativity， discursive aggression， hermeneutic， epistemic oppression， etc。， which "intimidate and suppress any dissent" （40）。 There are many tactics described well here。 Readers of this book are likely to have experienced at least a few of these。 Just naming a few: "insistence on the informal，" "enmity toward secret ballot voting，" "emphasizing emotion and experience，" [as in "Speaking as a _______，" "ad hominem attacks，" "assume guilt，" "intentional misinterpretation，" "using consensus as coercion，" "piling on，" "canceling and de-platforming，" and "the motte & bailey rhetorical technique。" That last one is important， but I've never seen it so well explained as it is here。" The Motte & Bailey strategy involves a proponent who wants to advocate a difficult-to-defend， extreme position （the bailey） [the hard to defend courtyard below the tower on the mound]。 When （or if） the extreme position is challenged， the proponent retreats to an easily defendable and easily acceptable position （the motte）['the well reinforced tower on a mound that is easy to defend']。 The key to the strategy is a hidden false equivalency of the extreme and easily acceptable positions" （35） For examples， see any number of memes in your search engine of choice。 The second half of the book， pages 49-91， is the manual about how to fight the Woke。 That's the pith。 Pay attention。 Take the fight seriously。 Coordinate， sow doubt， formalize meetings， record and circulate meetings， and above all， demand secret ballot voting。I'm not overstating that this is a war。 If you aren't already seeing this in your company， school， university， or organization， you will。 Be prepared by using this manual。 。。。more

Karl ，

Charles Pincourt， with the help of James Lindsay， offers this very concise field manual to combat what they choose to term Critical Social Justice （CSJ）， or sometimes just wokeness or wokeism in the university。 While the book does address combatting CSJ in academic departments already captive to CSJ， the emphasis appears to be on preventing the spread of CSJ to the various STEM fields。 The pseudonymous Prof。 Charles Pincourt does not reveal his identity in this book， but given his writing style， Charles Pincourt， with the help of James Lindsay， offers this very concise field manual to combat what they choose to term Critical Social Justice （CSJ）， or sometimes just wokeness or wokeism in the university。 While the book does address combatting CSJ in academic departments already captive to CSJ， the emphasis appears to be on preventing the spread of CSJ to the various STEM fields。 The pseudonymous Prof。 Charles Pincourt does not reveal his identity in this book， but given his writing style， his focus， and his formatting， one strongly suspects that he is engineering faculty。 This short book is divided into three chapters， titled “Understanding Woke，” “Wokecraft，” and “Counter Wokecraft。” Despite having a reasonably good academic understanding of Critical Theory from Horkheimer to Crenshaw， I found that the remedial parts of the book （the first two chapters） were the most helpful for the intended purpose。 The first chapter provides a very simple rubric of the central ideas of Critical Social Justice。 While Pincourt point outs that two of the central ideas were presented by Pluckrose and Lindsay in Cynical Theories， that book was dense enough that I had forgotten them， and to this he adds the third。 These are:-tThe knowledge principle: Knowledge is socially constructed。-tThe political principle: Knowledge is constructed by the oppressor group at the expense of the oppressed group。-tThe subject principle: Individuals are primarily defined by their group identity。 This， by itself， is an incredibly valuable resource which can be used to explain the epistemology of applied critical theory to the uninitiated without sending them home with a reading assignment。 The remainder of the chapter explains foundational concepts such as the continuum of oppression （the progressive stack）， the oppressor/oppressed dialectic， and provides a taxonomy of woke participants。 The first chapter is 14 small pages， and his language is far less pretentious than mine。 The second chapter offers a description of “wokecraft”， which he claims to be evocative of “spycraft” as perhaps to subtle allusion to the communist subversion described by Yuri Bezmenov and others， but the word comes off suspiciously like “witchcraft” to my ear。 This is not quite a description of the praxis of CSJ， only the different techniques used to propagate the ideology in different phases of entrenchment。 Here Pincourt is again very useful as a kind of no-frills glossary as he describes concepts such as “situations，” “site of oppression，” “problematization，” and the concept of applying the “least amount of force necessary。” About two days ago， I wound up explaining to my program chair why I objected the use of certain words in an academic department’s mission statement。 Unfortunately， I had not read this book and my description of what this book calls “woke cross-over words” was considerably more strained than Pincourt’s。 （A list of common cross-over words are helpfully provided in Chapter 3， which for the record are given as ‘critical’， ‘decolonization’， ‘discourse’， ‘diversity’， ‘embed’， ‘empowerment’， ‘equity’， ‘inclusion’， ‘intersection’， ‘justice’， ‘liberation’， ‘knowledge（s）’， ‘narrative’， ‘perspective（s）’， ‘privilege’， ‘race/racism’， and ‘resistance’。） I laughed out loud when I read the heading “The Reverse Motte & Baily Trojan Horse” because it is such a perfect description of the form of argument it describes that I knew what it was before reading the body of the text。 The third chapter of the book， while rightly the point of the book， is probably the least useful。 Whereas the other chapters are ridiculously abbreviated simplifications of complex ideas （field manual style）， the third chapter expands a few ideas at length which is probably not necessary for this format。 It is not incorrect in any part。 He is certainly correct that the hardest part of the battle is to recognize CSJ where you find it; the need to form a community to resist CSJ; and the need to reinforce the liberal institutions which can hold fringe ideologies in check。 Well and good。 At length， Pincourt calls out the lack of secret ballots and good order in the various faculty governance committees， and here I think I have a small disagreement because I have not noticed that failing to strictly adhere to Robert’s Rules has been a primary driver of CSJ’s metastasization （thought it may be at least partly responsible for many other failings）。 My complaint， however， is the some of the questions that weren’t addressed。 Here is a question I have， for instance。 If you are a person familiar enough with continental philosophy to adequately explain the provenance of many of the sorts of buzzwords now found in academic mission statements， how can you craft your argument against it without sounding like a raving conspiracy theorist？ The mild-mannered librarian who inserted the phase about “empowered learning” has no idea about Freire and can be genuinely offended at the insinuation that she doesn’t understand ideas that she believes grew from her own thoughts and happen to be shared by all well-intentioned people。 Or even in the rare situation that you argue with someone who does understand the origins of these these ideas， how do you avoid appearing like a crackpot as you begin telling the story of some society of German Jews who fled the Nazis to bring Marxism to the Pacific Palisades。 The story of Angela Davis is sometimes difficult to believe; Eldridge Cleaver’s biography is stranger than fiction。 It all matters， and the person who talks about these things can seem like any other crank who might as well be raving about the Bilderbergers or the Trilateral Commission。 I can predict the answer， and it is to be strategic in the formulation of arguments and to grant the parts of the argument that clearly do not matter。 My hesitation is that I generally believe you should be transparent in your beliefs and reasoning， and these are the sorts of manipulations that I would complain about in others。 （Maybe expanding these sections is something to consider for the second edition， Dr。 Pincourt。）Overall， this book takes about as much time and costs less than the last bad movie you saw。 Very much to my surprise， I think its lists and highly condensed discussions make it useful for its advertised purpose as a field manual against CSJ ideas。 I would welcome an expanded （though not more verbose） edition in the future。 。。。more

Reference

google book https://www.google.com/search?tbm=bks&q=Counter Wokecraft: A Field Manual for Combatting the Woke in the University and Beyond

hathitrust digital library https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/ls?q1=Counter Wokecraft: A Field Manual for Combatting the Woke in the University and Beyond&field1=ocr&a=srchls&ft=ft&lmt=ft

The British Library https://bll01.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/search?query=any,contains,Counter Wokecraft: A Field Manual for Combatting the Woke in the University and Beyond&tab=LibraryCatalog&search_scope=Not_BL_Suppress&vid=44BL_INST:BLL01&lang=en&offset=0