But of course as I’m thinking about all of this it occurs to me that the very worst thing you can do to someone who has had a genuine change of heart is tell them they aren’t welcome because you don’t like something they said 3 1/2 years ago. In fact, that’s exactly what the left does to everyone.
Wokeism has been described (by John McWhorter and others) as a religion without forgiveness. The mob finds the 3 worst things you’ve ever said (in their view) and holds those against you for good. They don’t allow for people to change their minds or make mistakes and they definitely don’t offer any kind of forgiveness. They are the heretic hunters and everyone they disagree with are the heretics, only fit for kindling in a never-ending public bonfire.
Those people suck. They are bad humans. They are zealots. They are fractal parts of a mob whose whole existence is built around punishing others for sins whose definitions and contours change on a weekly basis.
All that to say, I’m inclined to give Bowles a chance just because I know if the roles were reversed…well, let’s not kid ourselves, the roles would never be reversed because the woke wouldn’t allow it.
And, hey, if you’d asked me 3 1/2 years ago if I’d ever make a habit of reading Glenn Greenwald, Matt Taibbi, Andrew Sullivan or Matt Yglesias, much less quoting them approvingly on the regular, I would have laughed. And yet, here we are. In an increasingly insane world, things change unexpectedly. . . .
Bottom line, if Nellie Bowles was having doubts about leftist extremism, that means there are a lot of other people out there who, right this moment, are thinking ‘I don’t know how much longer I can hang with these extremists.’ And when they’ve finally had enough, we can be here to welcome them back to common sense.
Wokism is a minority bullying a majority into going along. We should encourage the collapse of that phenomenon. A certain amount of “welcome to the party, pal” snark is justified, but a side that brings in converts is ultimately a side that’s winning.