The Ten Woke Ideas from FiveThirtyEight

 The chappies at FiveThirtyEight founded by Nate Silver have produced a piece on the ten issues that make up the Woke Agenda.

I thought I should put up a table of the ideas, with the validity of each idea and a counter argument.

	Idea	Validity	Counter
1.	America "not an exceptional nation." "U.S. has disempowered its Native and Black populations and women throughout its history," and has "never been a true or full democracy."	Baloney. Every nation is an exceptional nation. Every political entity favors the agenda of the ruling class and its supporters.	Yes, but the US has made extraordinary efforts to balance the agenda of all kinds of different people. US ruling class used to favor whites in the past, now it's anyone-but-whites.
2.	White people, particularly white men, are especially advantaged in American society (“white privilege”).	Actually, it was more Virginia plantation owners, followed by New England Protestants, followed by WASPs, followed by today's educated elitists.	Are white men -- ordinary middle-class white men without advanced degrees -- privileged in today's America? I don't think to.
3.	"People of color in America suffer from not only individualized and overt acts of racism" e.g., racial slur,  "but a broader 'systemic' and 'institutional' racism."	True up until 1964 Civil Right Act. But not enough. Otherwise why do you need Jim Crow laws to enforce racism and segregation?	It is one thing to use the government to prosecute acts of discrimination. Another thing to discriminate by affirmative action and diversity.
4.	Capitalism as currently practiced in America is deeply flawed, giving way too much money and power to the wealthy.	True. Humans are flawed, and capitalism is human! But capitalism doesn't "give money." it rewards good ideas until replaced by newer ideas.	Don't you mean Government "gives way too much money" to the wealthy, the middle-class elderly, to the politically active?
5.	Women suffer from systemic sexism.	Women only entered the public square in 1900ish. Prior to that, of course, upper-class women ran the world from their salons.	Women "expect to be protected" and will complain until protected. Only upper-class educated women with #WeBelieve signs need apply.
6.	People should be able to identify as whatever gender they prefer or not to identify by gender at all.	Yeah. Why not? But do we force the rest of the world to pay for gender reassignment surgery?	One little problem. If people don't have kids there won't be any genders in a generation. Just dust and ashes.
7.	The existence of a disparity — for example, Black, Latino or women being underrepresented in a given profession or industry — is evidence of discrimination, even if no overt acts of discrimination are visible.	No it ain't. People are different.	This accusation is just an application for a license to discriminate. In my America an absence of disparity would be prima facie evidence of government discrimination. Let the lawyers loose!
8.	Black Americans deserve reparations to make up for slavery and post-slavery racial discrimination.	Reparations is vengeance. The whole point of the legal system is to reduce vengeance to a dull roar.	And just who is to pay this? The Irish that suffered under the Brits for centuries? The Jews from the Russian pogroms or Nazi Holocaust? And to whom? The children of Barack Obama, scion of a tribal chieftain in East Africa and raised by whites?
9.	Law enforcement agencies, from local police departments to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, are designed to defend America’s status quo as much as any public safety mission.	Yes. law enforcement is designed to protect people (especially women) from "domestic enemies," e.g., violent lower-class males in cities. That's why the Brits invented modern policing.	Hey, no skin off my nose. The police are there to keep violence in low-income communities down to a dull roar. And given the absence of fathers in low-income communities, what do you expect wokies?
10.	Trump’s political rise was not an aberration or a surprise. Politicians in both parties, particularly Republicans, have long used racialized language to demean people of color — Trump was just more direct and crude about it.	This is a straight-up lie. Trump is a "nationalist," meaning that he values Americans as Americans. And in 2020 increased percentages of Hispanics and Blacks voted for him. I wonder why.	If I were Trump I would sue for slander. The key and obvious thing about Trump was that he encouraged all people living in America to think of themselves as Americans and not as ethnic, or racial or gender minorities.

This sort of thing is going to increase until it gets batted down. The whole point is that the ruling class, our educated elite, obtains power from the Woke Effect. Because it gives them the right to use political power to help their supporters and to punish their enemies. 

That's the point. If there is no discrimination, no systemic this-or-that, then there is no need for allies to save the oppressed people from the white oppressors. QED. Period. Full Stop. 

That is all.