TL;DR: Yes, wokeness is just Communism.

Paul Gottfried recently published a bad article arguing that “wokeness” is “not real Communism.” It could easily have been written by InfraHaz or some other wacky Stalinist. Gottfried recycled long-debunked talking points that are typically used in silly intra-Communist arguments over whose specific strain of Socialism is the one and only Real Communism™.

I don’t know why Right-Wingers keep trying to defend the honor of Orthodox Marxism and I’ve covered this trite topic hundreds of times already, but I’ll address Gottfried’s core arguments below (paraphrasing because the quotes are too long).

Bear the following graph in mind while reading — “wokeness” was practically nonexistent in the Anglosphere until Communists, many of whom were immigrants from Eastern and Central Europe, gained a foothold in our academic institutions during the early 20th Century.

  1. “Communists are the real traditionalists, not anti-White or sexually deviant.”

All Communist states abolish religion, destroy traditional culture, implement feminism, and so on. Leninist USSR legalized LGBT and had the first hate speech laws in history. Communist China is most renowned for its immensely destructive Cultural Revolution. “Anti-imperialism” (i.e. overthrowing White empires/colonies) has been a central doctrine of Communism since Lenin. Stalinist USSR and Communist China were both Third Worldist and their agents led the anti-White revolutions in South Africa. Cuba is radically feminist to this day.

Bonus fact: Stalin’s favorite movie, the 1936 Soviet musical Circus, was pro-miscegenation propaganda; a White American single mother with a Black mixed-race baby escapes Western racism by seeking refuge in the racially tolerant USSR.

  1. “Wokeness isn’t Communism because post-Soviet Eastern Europe isn’t woke.”

This is because Eastern European countries did not experience full blown Cultural Marxism, which was specifically developed to attack the West, hence its formal moniker, Western Marxism. These countries did experience the general cultural effects of Marxism, but they were saved from the more radical “wokeness” of Leninism. When Stalin took power, he began to roll back Lenin’s more extreme cultural policies because they were leading to societal collapse. You can’t fight a war of annihilation if your country is internally destabilized by radical feminism, LGBT parades, and sexual promiscuity. He instead settled on anti-racism, anti-imperialism, Third Worldism, and feminism-lite.

  1. “Wokeness isn’t Communist because they work with Capitalists.”

Every Communist regime in history has worked with Capitalists. The “Russian” Revolution was financed by banker Jacob Schiff, among others. The USSR was saved from economic ruin and military defeat during WW2 by America (of course, FDR was a crypto-Communist). Chinese Communists were and still are perfectly happy to work with Wall Street Bankers, Rothschilds, Rockefellers, etc.

Furthermore, all so-called “Capitalist” countries of the West have countless Socialist policies, are rife with private-public partnerships, state-backed monopolies, state central banks printing infinite money, and so on. America has never been more regulated and less Capitalist than it is today.

  1. “Wokeness isn’t Communism because the economic aspect of Communism has taken a back seat.”

The entire point of CULTURAL Marxism is to weaken Western culture to the point that Leftists can force economic Communism on everyone. Georgy Lukács, a founder of Western Marxism, literally said that their objective is to “destroy society.”

Cultural Marxist theory is largely based on the Orthodox Marxist concept of “false consciousness”: Every characteristic that roots an individual to his nation, kin, culture, and traditional way of life is a spook that prevents him from identifying with his supposed “class interests.” Of course, these ideas are never applied to the “oppressed” Third World populations, whose ethnic identities are to be championed as they are weaponized against their White “oppressors.”

Plenty of Globalist elites (e.g. the WEF gang, supposed mega-Capitalists) have been hinting or outright stating that this is their objective: “You will own nothing and you will be happy.” Plus, Globalist elites and Leftist plebs alike are obsessed with wealth redistribution, largely from the Bank of Whitey to the Third World but, still, they constantly talk about wealth inequality, increasing taxes, reparations, and so on.

  1. “Woke Capitalism is a Leftist counterrevolution but it’s definitely not Marxist.”

Firstly, “wokeness” is based on Western Marxist theory, so it is Marxist by definition. Cultural Marxism is the ideological operating system of the New Left. Secondly, being rich does not preclude somebody from being a Communist or embracing Communist ideas. Most Communist leaders in history came from the upper classes. Marx marred into the European nobility and descended from a long lineage of leading bankers and rabbis, and Engels was a rich factory owner. Lastly, corporations only jumped on the “woke” bandwagon after it was already mainstreamed by Leftist cultural hegemony. When the pendulum swings back far enough, we’ll see the rise of “Anti-Woke Capitalism.”

As an aside, corporations (like everyone else in the West) are forced to be “woke” by “Civil Rights” laws, the threat of “cancelation,” law suits from NGOs, and financial pressure from ESG bankers. Plus, many elite Capitalists are not pushing “woke” nonsense because it’s profitable or “good for Capitalism” but because they are true believers — J. D. Rockefeller is a good historical example.

  1. “Wokeness isn’t Communism because it deviates from Orthodox Marxism.”

By this logic, Leninism is not Communism, Stalinism is not Communism, Maoism is not Communism. Communism is an evolutionary doctrine by nature, constantly mutating and adapting. Each iteration introduces new developments that deviate from its predecessor. Nevertheless, the broad objectives of Communists worldwide remain the same. As Mystery Grove perfectly summarized: “Communism is when ugly deformed freaks make it illegal to be normal then rob and/or kill all successful people out of petty resentment and cruelty. The ideology is all just window dressing.”

Conclusion:

There are some non-Marxist influences on “wokeness” because no ideology exists in a vacuum. However, its core is firmly Communist and it simply would not exist without Marxism. We can look at the historical genealogy of Leftism, investigating its various biological, economic, and even occult/metaphysical influences, but most of this arcane information is not remotely useful for the average individual. The bottom line is that if Karl “abolish all traditional culture” Marx were alive today, he would be waving an LBGT flag and chanting “Black Lives Matter.”