Witch Craze Fact or Fiction? How Much of The Fake Witch Narrative Do You Think is True?

 

The Witch Craze: Fact or Fiction?
 
How Much of The Fake Witch Narrative Do You Think is True?
 

"From ghoulies and ghosties

And long-leggedy beasties

And things that go bump in the night,

Good Lord, deliver us!"

 

So runs a traditional prayer. This time of year, though, we swing the door open wide. We wear costumes, watch movies, and visit haunted houses populated by nightmares we normally shove under the bed. The queen of our revels is the witch. A long-nosed old woman in a conical hat, riding on a broom and accompanied by a black cat, the witch is a staple from Walmart displays to documentary films.

 

We all know her story. During the Middle Ages, the misogynist Catholic Church burned nine million women because they were practitioners of a peaceful, universal, goddess-worshipping religion that had existed since the Stone Age. The woman-hating Judeo-Christian tradition and bloodthirsty Western Civilization drove this Pagan religion underground. With the coming of the Enlightenment and the primacy of science over faith, the witch hunt stopped.  

 

The National Film Board of Canada documentary "The Burning Times" recounts this history. Dan Brown tells this very tale in "The DaVinci Code." You can read it on page 105 here. Neo-Pagans cling to this narrative because it provides a patina of ancient authenticity to their beliefs. Atheists recite it because it proves that religious people are violent, dangerous lunatics, and that it is only by rejecting religion that man can be moral. Some Protestants support it because it makes the Catholic Church look bad. Nowadays, our Woke superiors are grateful for the timeworn witch narrative. The Woke hope to replace Western Civilization with their Utopia. Europe's persecution of witches is just one of a litany of Western crimes, including the Inquisition and the Crusades, that prove how irredeemable the wicked West is.

 

Here's a fact that's even spookier than ghoulies and ghosties. Not a single element of the above-told witch narrative is true. Even scarier: because humanity hasn't faced up to the witch craze, we haven't learned the necessary harsh lessons, and we are all too likely to repeat the witch craze's demented destruction. In fact we may be all too close to that reenactment right now.

 

Ghetto Tarot by Alice Smeets

 

"Don't jump!" you want to shout.
 
A thin, young, very black man, in threadbare shorts and t-shirt, plants his foot on the ledge of a cinder-block roof. Over his right shoulder he carries a long branch; suspended from the tip of this staff is a hobo's bindle. Traditionally the bindle is a piece of cloth, tied to create a sack; this bindle is a black plastic bag. In his right hand the young man holds a white blossom. An underfed mutt gazes upward at the young man. There's something of the transcendent about this scruffy runt. He appears to be guarding, warning, or merely knowingly observing his human master. In the distance green mountains rise; above them hangs a placid blue sky.

 

The young man's facial expression grabs you. He focuses intensely on his goal, clear to him in his mind's eye. He appears to be listening. One is reminded of the quote by Henry David Thoreau. "If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away." But you worry for this young man. He is, after all, standing on the ledge, like someone contemplating ending it all. And he is wearing a bed sheet around his neck as if it were a cape. Does he think he can fly? Will he crash to earth?  

 

In fact the lad with the intense expression is Louis Kervens, a teenager in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. He is affiliated with Atis Rezistans, a "close-knit community" of artists steeped in "junkyard make-do" and "survivalist recycling." Kervens is posing for the Fool card of Belgian photographer Alice Smeets' Ghetto Tarot.

 

Smeets, winner of the 2008 Unicef Photo of the Year Award, has been visiting Haiti since 2007. The Ghetto Tarot is the fruit of her calling "to combine three of her passions: the spiritual world, the Haitian culture and people, and philosophical reflections about dualities, in this case, rich and poor."

 

Haiti is famous for three things. In 1804, Haiti became the only nation in history established by a successful slave revolt. Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Six million Haitians live on $2.41 per day, or less. Haiti is also famous for Voodoo, a syncretic religion that combines Catholic imagery with African traditions.

 

Tarot is a deck of seventy-eight cards used for divination, reflection, and amusement. In 1909, London's William Rider and Son published a tarot deck. Author and occultist A. E. Waite wrote the guidebook, and Pamela Colman Smith illustrated the cards. The Rider-Waite-Smith deck remains the most popular tarot deck ever created.

 

Smeets and her Atis Rezistans collaborators re-enact the images from the Rider-Waite-Smith deck. Smeets' photos are all in color, and they all feature living models. The models' costumes and props are, as per Atis Rezistans' manifesto, created from locally available materials, including machetes, animal horns, hubcaps, and human skulls.

 

The Ghetto Tarot inspires me to rejoice. Though I am a devout Catholic, and don't believe in magic, I do read cards. A reading offers the querent an opportunity to see vexing problems in a new light. Focusing on archetypal imagery rather than the all-too-often imprisoning vocabulary of written or spoken words invites the querent's mind to explore hidden corners and new vistas, and to feel out new pathways to new solutions.

 

I live in a majority minority city, Paterson, NJ, and my querents are often people of color. I own several dozen tarot decks but none of them gives me what I have long dreamed of: a deck that is fully integrated in a coherent black world. The Rider-Waite-Smith deck is grounded in Medieval Europe. It is populated by kings and queens, in a landscape dotted with castles, knights, peasants and beggars. It wouldn't make much sense to introduce non-white characters into that landscape. One of my favorite modern decks, the Book of Shadows, is set in modern America. Several cards include African American characters. The Cook's Tarot, another favorite, includes even more African American characters. These decks are great, but the gift the Ghetto Tarot offers is really special: this is a black deck grounded in a black world. There are no white characters, and every card reflects Haiti, a very important country to the African Diaspora. Just as black people have been able to find wisdom in the all-white Rider-Waite-Smith and other all-white decks, white seekers will find all they look for in tarot in the Ghetto Tarot deck.

 

Tarot is at least partly an entertaining escape from the burdens of the real world, and many readers, including me, enjoy the fantasy aspects in our favorite decks. Many Tarot decks feature pristine vistas and women with hourglass figures and men with chiseled chests. But the Ghetto Tarot takes a unique approach. Most of us are not blessed with pin-up worthy bodies, and the pristine natural vistas so often encountered in tarot art are disappearing from planet earth at a tragically rapid pace. When we do manage to find an untouched Eden, we have to deal with biting insects and a distressing lack of indoor plumbing. The Ghetto Tarot emerges from the real world of bodily imperfection and manmade pollution. Natalie Amboise in the Star card is fully nude, and her body is a lot like yours or mine, in that it's not the body of a runway model. Just as the very real citizens of Haiti have to deal with uncollected garbage and clothes worn well past the point of being new, so do the denizens of The Ghetto Tarot. Smeets' real-world aesthetic does not make The Ghetto Tarot any less appealing. I experience a new tarot deck similarly to how I experience a novel or a feature film. I tune in to the artistry and plumb each page, or each card. The Ghetto Tarot deck is one of the most immersive decks I've ever experienced. As with a good novel or film, it really does take my mind to another world, a world I find attractive, in spite of its flaws. I feel as if I am getting to know the characters, and that intimacy helps me to build a relationship with the images that will aid contemplation.

 

Many little touches delight me. The Magician is wearing worn-down basketball sneakers and standing in front of a building made of corrugated tin. Anyone who has lived in the Third World as I have, will be familiar with such architecture. Amboise again, embodying Strength, cradles a plaster lion. She gazes at the cat she has tamed with a look of depthless feminine compassion. Mario Alito Denis, as Death, wears the clothing and white chalk face paint of Baron Samedi, the Voodoo loa of the dead. Some of the cards, like the two of cups, include sculptures by Atis Rezistans sculptors. A wooden sculpture of the Archangel Michael floats above two lovers; between their feet snakes a Voodoo serpent god. The five of cups, symbolizing regret, is set in a decrepit courtyard; a pile of garbage rises in the background. The queen of cups, the monarch of water, emotions, intuition and spirituality, assumes an appropriately regal air though seated in front of the mouth of a sewer.

 

What makes all this imagery of poverty and decay bearable? The people. Atis Rezistans artists depicted in the cards radiate a vibrant vitality that warms and electrifies the viewer. These Haitians, with their direct gaze into Smeets' lens, invite the viewer not just into their ghetto, but into their hearts. The king of wands is seated on a dirty street, but he fixes the viewer with his eyes and communicates his humor, his wisdom, and indeed his joie de vivre. "Yes, I live in a slum and you are a consumer far away who could afford to buy this tarot deck. But I am just as alive as you. My dreams are just as big and vivid as yours. I love as intensely as you. Though thousands of miles apart, we are all human, and we are all in this together." As much as I've loved other tarot decks, I've never owned one that conveyed just that message.

 

The four of swords traditionally depicts a knight's tomb in a church. Over him is a stained glass window. In the Ghetto Tarot, Mario Alito Denis reclines on a shipping crate. Over him, in lieu of a stained glass window, is a folk art representation of what looks like Poland's Black Madonna of Czestochowa. Stenciled onto the crate's rough boards is the word "Fragile." Indeed, we are. But these Haitians are also clearly insistent on survival, though life has handed them a fate much more demanding than ours. Whether you believe in magic or not, you can gain a lot from the Ghetto Tarot.

The Victory of Reason by Rodney Stark. Book Review

 

I reviewed Rodney Stark's "The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success" at Amazon when it first came out in 2006. I think Tom Holland's book, "Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World" is more thorough, but Stark's book is an easier read and it does cover ground Holland does not cover.

 

Here's my review:

 

Christophobes don't want you to read Rodney Stark's "The Victory of Reason." Alan Wolfe's New Republic review is easily accessible online; after reading Stark's book, you really ought to read Wolfe. You will learn how desperately Christophobes twist words and realities to monger hatred. Wolfe labels Stark, "vile," "Vulgar," "anti-Semitic," "ugly," "childish," "Marxist" (!), and "untouched by the spirit of reason." Any book that gets such a hateful man so worked up has something going for it.

 

[Alan Wolfe, I learned after Googling him, is, according to his publisher, "a secular Jew who teaches at Boston College" He "has made an important contribution to our understanding of contemporary Jewish life." Wikipedia reports, "Wolfe was a member of the collective that put out the Marxist-oriented journal, Kapitalistate … Wolfe is a self-proclaimed atheist."

 

So New Republic, where Wolfe is a contributing editor, assigned a secular Jewish atheist Communist, that is a man with a clear conflict of interest, to review a book about the impact of Christianity on Western Civilization. Astounding. Back to my review.]

 

No matter how counterintuitive it may seem, "The Victory of Reason" is NOT a proselytizing tract. The same book could easily have been written by an atheist. I have no idea, after reading this book, what Stark's spiritual life looks like, and I don't care. In fact, Stark includes a lengthy quote by a, presumably, non-Christian, Chinese scholar who reiterates Stark's thesis: Christianity's influence gave rise to capitalism, science, democracy, and the preeminence of the West.

 

Stark makes no appeal anywhere in the book for the reader to become Christian. Stark makes clear that, while Christianity, in his view, was essential for the development of science, capitalism, democracy, and the Western way of life, it is NOT necessary for the continuation of any of these. Now that Christianity has gotten the ball rolling, you need not be Christian to be a scientist or capitalist or citizen in a free state.

 

Also, Stark never argues that capitalism, science, or democracy are perfect representations of Biblical values. Nowhere does Stark imply that if Jesus came back today, he'd say, "Wow, I'm so glad that the Bank of America or the US Congress or the National Academy of Sciences reflects my teaching!"

 

Outraged Christians who howl about how Stark is giving readers a false view of Christianity are *also* missing the point of this book. This is a clinical account of how a given stimulus affects a given organism, not an explication of what ideal Christianity would have to look like in order to best represent Jesus' teachings.

 

Stark is writing against a powerful grain, and he reveals awareness of that. Ever since Political Correctness gained power in academia and media, it has been popular to attribute all the failings of humanity to the West, white men, and Christianity. The reader familiar with currently powerful prose may gasp while reading Stark's book. "Wow," the reader may say to himself, "Here's a book that doesn't *apologize* for, or bash, or demonize, or denigrate Christianity! And here is a book that speaks frankly of how other traditions may have hampered the development of the people practicing them." That experience - the experience of reading a book that doesn't depict Christianity and the West as the Great Satan, and all other traditions as above reproach - will be a breath of fresh air for many a reader.

 

Especially valuable is Stark's take on the Mediterranean, Classical, Pagan World v. the Medieval, European, Christian World. When I was studying the Classical World in grad school, I was browbeaten by my professor for expressing disgust and despair at the fate of its slaves and women. I just wasn't supposed to think about the fate of average people. I was supposed to, only, be really, really impressed by the accomplishments of a few elites, from architects to playwrights to military tacticians. And, of course, I was impressed. But, all those slaves, and women . . .

 

Stark is unafraid in his exposing of the Classical, Pagan World's injustices and elitism. He grants the Classical World its marble edifices, but doesn't shrink from reminding us of its masses of oppressed. "The Dark Ages" is a misnomer, Stark reminds us. Monks, nuns, and emergent capitalists in Medieval Europe made technical advances that spread welfare across a wider population.

 

And yet, were I a juror, I would have to say that Stark did not convince me beyond a reasonable doubt. I need more data, and I can't imagine how much data would have to be adduced to conclusively prove Stark's point. He'd have to extensively compare all Christian societies with all societies of other faiths.

 

So, here's the book I'd love to read next. A debate between Stark and prominent scholars, representing Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, Confucian, Buddhist, Pagan, Atheist Marxist, and other worldviews, histories, societies, systems of knowledge, and economics. What would Stark say about the current, dismal, state of much of Christian Africa, compared to more desirable lifestyles available in largely non-Christian, East Asian nations like Japan? How would Stark address the preeminence of Jewish scientists in the twentieth century? And, what about Orthodox Christian Russia, whose injustices under the czars against the peasantry spawned the evils of the Stalinist era?

 

In any case, "The Victory of Reason" is the kind of book that leaves the reader's mind in a ferment, asking perhaps ten times as many questions as the book could ever answer. That's a very good thing, and for that reason, I highly recommend it to the reader.

 

A couple of quotes from Stark's book

 

"During the past century, Western intellectuals have been more than willing to trace European imperialism to Christian origins, but they have been entirely unwilling to recognize that Christianity made any contributions (other than intolerance) to the Western capacity to dominate. Rather, the West is said to have surged ahead precisely as it overcame religious barriers to progress, especially those impeding science. Nonsense. The success of the West, including the rise of science, rested entirely on religious foundations, and the people who brought it about were devout Christians."

 

A quote Stark attributes to a Chinese scholar studying why the West surpassed China:

 

"One of the things we were asked to look into was what accounted for the success, in fact, the pre-eminence of the West all over the world. We studied everything we could from the historical, political, economic, and cultural perspective. At first, we thought it was because you had more powerful guns than we had. Then we thought it was because you had the best political system. Next we focused on your economic system. But in the past twenty years, we have realized that the heart of your culture is your religion: Christianity. This is why the West is so powerful. The Christian moral foundation of social and cultural life was what made possible the emergence of capitalism and then the successful transition to democratic politics. We don’t have any doubts about this."

Birdwatching is Racist, Imperialist, and Homophobic. Woke Demands Hegemonic Control of Intimate Joys

 

Birdwatching is Racist, Imperialist, and Homophobic
Woke Demands Hegemonic Control of Intimate Joys

 

On September 27, 2021, David Sibley, a birdwatching celebrity, posted the following on his Facebook page. "The outdoors is for *everyone* and has felt unsafe to many LGBTQIA2S+ folks for too long … Today, ask yourself 'What could I do better?'" Sibley "warned" that birders were liable to make "hurtful and dangerous comments" and that "sensitive" and "vulnerable" people should "avoid the comments section." LGBT people "struggle to feel and BE safe in the outdoors." Mind – Sibley was not condemning very real and reprehensible anti-LGBT violence. Sibley was specifically accusing birdwatchers of violence.

 

Follow-up comments from Sibley's fans were overtly accusatory of birdwatchers. One wrote, "Too many white cis/het (and male) people are so used to not having to think about anyone but themselves. It's part of the foundation of white/straight privilege. They don't have to think about race or gender, because it doesn't affect them every single day, like it does so many others …'I like my privilege, and I don't want to have to think about those who don't have it!'" Another wrote, "LGBT+ people [are] threatened, attacked, even murdered" – by birdwatchers. And another, "Homophobia and the violence that flows from it is a well-documented scourge" – among birdwatchers.

 

At least since 2014, activists have alleged that birdwatchers and birdwatching are racist. Bird names are white supremacist and imperialist. Birding's Woke elite are now changing the official names of every bird named after a white, male naturalist. The Montezuma quail will keep its name. Montezuma reigned over a slave-owning, war-based empire that practiced religiously-mandated cannibalism and the torture and murder of children sacrificed to Tlaloc, the Aztec rain god. No matter, Montezuma, who wore regalia comprised of the feathers of hundreds of dead birds, was superior to groundbreaking white naturalist John James Audubon.

 

Bachman's warbler was named after John Bachman, a prodigious white male clergyman and naturalist. The Bachman's warbler was declared extinct on Wednesday, September 29, 2021, thus saving Woke birders from having to rename it, or to protect it from being wiped off the face of the earth. Indeed, on that same day, the US Fish and Wildlife Service announced the extinction of twenty-three species, including the beloved ivory-billed woodpecker, once the third-largest woodpecker in the world. Rather than focus their activism on this heartbreak, Sibley fans aimed their most formidable weapon, their keyboards, at the fearsome, menacing scourge of birdwatcher homophobia.

 

The National Audubon Society ran an article in 2018 entitled, "For the LGBTQ Community, Birding Can Be … a Source of Anxiety." The article reports that "Nature reserves and wildlife refuges tend to … lack diversity … the birding community … is definitely dominated by white men … Birding trips with straight men have been very difficult … Straight spaces often feel hyper-competitive and masculinized … which can suck the fun out of birding … queer people [feel] left out of the team."

 

On June 7, 2021, The Salt Lake Tribune published "LGBTQ Birding Group Helps Queer Utahns Find Community in the Outdoors … A Safer Way for LGBTQ Utahns To Meet Up And Feel Safe." Birdability promises that "We will use our platform and our voice to speak out against discrimination of any kind in the birding community, and we condemn … homophobia." On September 17, 2018 Out Front Magazine profiled Gregoriah Hartman, identified as an Audubon Society employee, who complained of "microaggressions" such as people not referring to Hartman by Hartman's chosen pronouns, namely, "ze, zim, zis." If, after reading "ze, zim, zis," you thought "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah," remand yourself to Twitter. You have committed a thought crime and you must be flagellated.

 

"Not every queer person has an affirming experience when they set out into the great outdoors," the magazine mourned. "Despite efforts to be more inclusive, the culture of outdoor enthusiasts is still very white, hetero, and upper-class. Many who find themselves outside of those demographics don't get invited to the outdoors, or don't feel they have the resources to do things like hiking … queer people aren't willing to just get out there and hike. Organized hikes with strangers leave people open to microaggressions and all-out homophobia from those who don't affirm queer identities."

 

The Woke commandeer words: "kind," "inclusive," "diverse," "harm," "danger," and "safe." Language has been prostituted and weaponized: "don't get invited," "don't have the resources to go hiking," "don't affirm identities." These phrases conjure a non-existent reality in which one must be "invited" and have "resources" and be "affirmed" to birdwatch. No one "invited me" to become a birdwatcher. The "resources" I have to go hiking is a pair of shoes, often with holes in them; I walk a lot, have little money, and wear shoes straight through to the pavement. No one "affirms my identity." Birdwatching is not about affirming your fellow birdwatcher's identity. It's about watching birds.

 

Among birdwatchers, as well as among civilians, I have been insulted for my poverty, my weight, and my gender. I have also been physically assaulted. I have not allowed ugly incidents to deter me, and I have also not concluded that the rich whites who insulted me, or the black men who assaulted me, are representative of all rich whites or all blacks. Birdwatching is not safe, nor is any activity carried out in natural areas. Recently Aisha White accused Jason Ward, a celebrity birder, of raping her during a hike. Every birdwatcher, not just LGBT people, must learn and practice outdoor safety.

 

If birdwatching were a hotbed of violent homophobia, I and other birders would have been working against that violence and homophobia. I've been active in gay rights and have published what I can to advance acceptance. I've been watching birds on four continents, for five decades, as a dues-paying member of the National Audubon Society, the Sierra Club, and local groups, and on my own. I've never heard a birder utter a single word that could even be interpreted as homophobic. Birders tend to be eccentric obsessives lacking polished people skills. I don't know my birder Facebook friends' sexual orientation, whether they voted Trump or Biden, their religion, their favorite film, or anything about their families. If they drove two hundred miles to see a snowy owl, I know. No one, in the over nine hundred posts following his, cited evidence supporting Sibley's accusation that there is a widespread problem with birders "threatening" LGBT people.  

 

One poster wrote that saying out loud, in any context and to any person, "I believe in traditional marriage" or "I believe that there are two sexes," is an act of violence. Equating an opinion with violence is a highly political move. The Woke say they value diversity, but Woke diversity does not include diversity of thought. Contrast this with the above-linked Audubon Society article. In that article a gay person says that an LGBT birding group has "created a space where you can say whatever you want about your own life while birding." 

 

LGBT people deserve the same respect and civil rights that every other citizen enjoys. Human beings are not the same as extremism carried out in the name of human beings. I discussed Sibley's allegation with author and trans man Max Wolf Valerio. Max wrote to me, "It's the lunatic fringe. Always a couple of kooks out there but the rest of us have lives to live and are mostly like the rest of the country: jobs, school, family and friends. We worry more about the cost of living then some idiot who says something rude. Trans people are resourceful and resilient as a group and mainly not that much different from others."

 

Bait-and-switch is a timeworn con. Sibley's fans insisted that they were about being "kind," "safe," and "inclusive." When posters resisted the narrative that birders are dangerous homophobes, Sibley's "kind" and "inclusive" fans bullied and slandered them.

 

A poster named Lauren wrote, "i ask my gay brother and his boyfriend of their experiences often, and they haven't faced anything of the sort." In response to this innocent comment, posters responded, "your brother isn't comfortable telling you the truth because of your beliefs or how you react," "100% your gay brother is imaginary," "Take several seats, darling. It's time for you to be quiet now," "quite frankly Lauren, I can't imagine your gay brother being comfortable sharing any of his experiences with you given your own prejudices and obstinance," "if you're not prejudiced against gays what exactly does this comment of yours mean," "[you are] absurdly homophobic," and "Are you just trolling here or are you that obtuse? Because everything you have said exposes your deep bigotry." What was Lauren's "deep bigotry"? Saying that her gay brother and his partner have not experienced birdwatcher homophobia.

 

"Kindness" and "inclusivity" evaporate when speakers voice any truths that resist the hegemonic Woke narrative. On the national stage, "kind," "safe," and "inclusive" are a front for "rigid," "punitive," and "totalitarian." Witness, for example, the fate of Peter Vlaming, a popular, veteran teacher who was fired because he accidentally, and only one time, referred to a male-identifying female student as "she."

 

Woke's "kindness" is behind the Lancet's referring to women by the diabolical neologism, "bodies with vaginas." "Bodies with vaginas" is the kind of misogynist, indeed, anti-human poison one might hear from Jack the Ripper, not England's premier medical journal. Woke inspired Keir Starmer, the British Labour Party leader and Knight Commander and Queen's Counsel, to state that it is wrong to say that only women have a cervix. "It shouldn't be said. It's not right." Woke protected Darren Merager, a white, male sex offender, who penetrated the female section of a California spa, and Woke demonized Cubana Angel, the black woman who protested against the white, male sex offender's violation of her safety. Woke encouraged children like Keira Bell, a girl who tried to transition to being a boy, and Garrett, who underwent castration, to damage their bodies permanently before their brains were fully mature. Both Keira and Garrett regret their surgeries. The Woke suppress peer-reviewed research by Lisa Littman and books by Abigail Shrier and Helen Joyce that might help persons with gender dysphoria.

 

Many birders said that they did not care about the identities of those with whom they watched birds. One such post: "Birds don't see colour, sexual orientation and or hate. That's why we love them so much. They love everyone and perhaps we could learn a thing or two from them." Another, "I never ask any one what their sexual orientation might be. I don't care. I usually bird alone anyway." And another, "I treat [LGBT people] the same as everyone else on my bird walks. I am wondering if this is actually a thing, or a problem where none exists … Organized bird walks bring out an assortment of folks. Seems from my experience everyone is busy looking for birds, and not interested in who is what … It was about the birds, and only the birds. Love to all, and happy birding."

 

Sibley chastised posters who said that they didn't care about others' identities, for example, "We can not be 'colorblind' because then we can not see that not all colors are treated equally." And "it is important that we make sure we DO see color, race, sexual orientation, etc. in other people so we can see patterns of oppression and address those problems!" Sibley's insistence on emphasizing gender and color echoes Critical Race Theory. To say that one doesn't care about race or gender is merely proof of how racist and homophobic one is.

 

Sibley's Woke fans rabidly attacked those who said that they don't care about others' identities. One birder said, "I see no reason to treat people differently for any reason. I hope I am just as kind to one person as another. I do not care about their sexual orientation." In response to this anodyne comment, another wrote, "I sense a lame attempt at whitewashing your homophobia. I've seen it before, time and time again. Homosexuality makes you uncomfortable," and "a homophobe is a homophobe. Get a f---ing clue!" and "maybe you should reflect on why that is triggering for you. Is it possible that not EVERYthing is about you? Does the idea of it hurt your feelings in some way? If so - why?" and "by your Facebook timeline I see that you've been indoctrinated into a fascist cult."

 

Sibley deleted comments only because, he said, they were not "family friendly." He did, though, keep up comments attacking, insulting, and cursing those who said that they didn't care about other birdwatchers' sexual orientation.

 

A woman named Nancy said that she didn't like being lectured by Sibley. Her response is understandable; false accusations are the fuel that drives lynch mobs. We've known that at least since the millennia-old tale of Potiphar's wife, who falsely accused the Biblical Joseph of rape, with the goal of ruining his life. Nancy said that if Sibley lectured her, she'd lecture him in the same way that she lectures her son. Clearly, Nancy's post was tongue-in-cheek.

 

Sibley's fans descended on Nancy like stinging insects on an open wound. Bestselling author Amy Tan called Nancy presumptuous for daring to speak to birding celebrity Sibley in a disrespectful manner, and accused Nancy of posting a "threat" to "scare" Sibley. No one seemed to see any irony in this. All animals are equal but some animals, celebrities, for example, are more equal than others.

 

Those attacking Nancy egged each other on. Go look at her Facebook page, they urged each other. "she is a Trumpster. Her FB page is full of hate," one said. Another said, "she's a Trump supporter so I guess you can't expect much else." Another insulted Nancy with an overtly misogynist term. "What an unimaginable harpy!" One mocked Nancy for having few Facebook friends.

 

Again, all Nancy said was that she didn't like being lectured, and that she would lecture others if they lectured her. She said nothing about gay people. Many, though, insisted on falsely accusing Nancy of posting homophobic content. One wrote, "Thanks @Nancy for proving the point of David Sibley's post. As long as folks are as vehemently bigoted as you are - it's not safe for those of us in the queer community to go outside. I've got a bird for you Nancy" this was followed by an animated image of someone raising the middle finger.

 

The following two posts appeared back to back. You are, a post said, "a homophobic bigot. You're an asshole." The next post said, "You appear to be an angry and miserable person. Try kindness and opening your heart and mind to accepting the beauty of diversity and equality." The irony was apparently invisible to the poster.

 

Other posts in response to Nancy: "you are never too old to develop empathy and acceptance of people who are different than you. Please don't be small-minded and petty," "your family must be so embarrassed by you," "Feeling SUPER sorry for your sons!!!! What a nasty little person you are," "obviously a crochety damn old person," "listen you bigoted excuse for a human being … You do know that people who protest too much about others sexuality often have feelings of their own towards the same sex. Closet lesbian?" and "Get back on your meds, please."

 

One person said that Nancy was a bot, and not a real person. I visited Nancy's Facebook page and easily found a year-old post mourning the death of her father. Comments appeared to be from people who knew Nancy's father. 

 

People can be motivated by love or hate. If love for LGBT birders inspired Sibley, he could have posted that birders could make LGBT feel more comfortable by wearing a rainbow pin on their next group outing. I'm sure birders would be honored to do so. If love for black people inspired BLM and CRT's adherents, they could go to the black underclass and work for any number of humanitarian agencies.

 

Woke is motivated by hate. Woke doesn't work for; Woke works against. Rather than helping black people, BLM burned down cities and bullied white diners into giving closed-fist salutes. Instead of advancing education for black students, CRT denigrates whites and demands that whites be dispossessed, not just of money, goods, and advanced placement classes, but of cultural capital. Witness Eric Deggans' "limited good" call for Tom Hanks to work against his own oeuvre of films celebrating white astronauts and white ship captains. Sibley and his gang of bullies did nothing for LGBT people. Rather they devoted their time and energy to mocking a lonely, older woman because she dared to tell a celebrity that she doesn't like to be lectured. Woke hate is justified by Woke narratives: the West is irredeemably corrupt and must be destroyed. Anything less than destruction is inexcusable criminal negligence. Any resistance to Woke narratives threatens the Woke's very reason for being.

 

Woke attacks on anyone who resists their narrative has ominous echoes in professional life. Paul Rossi was a teacher at the Grace Church School in Manhattan, where the tuition is $57,330. Grace Church requires a curriculum that demonizes whites. Rossi refused to be pigeonholed. Rossi acknowledges that white supremacy is evil, and that it plays a significant role in American history. He simply didn't want Grace Church to tell him who he is on the basis of skin color. Rossi protested further that imposing a definition of whiteness as inherently evil harms children, something that he, as a loving teacher, could not do. Rossi said that Grace Church's curriculum taught students "because you have whiteness you are associated with evils, all these different evils, moral evils … we're demonizing white kids." Rossi's principal agreed. "We are using language that makes them feel less than, for nothing that they are personally responsible for." Rossi was fired for his resistance to the hegemonic narrative.

 

In September, 2020, it was revealed that Northwestern University held an online meeting. Every white attendee had to denounce himself as racist. One such text: "My name is Emily Mullin. I am a racist and a gatekeeper of white supremacy. I will work to do better." Note the vow to "do better." According to Woke, white people are inescapably racist, and heterosexuals are inescapably homophobic. They cannot change; they can only publicly acknowledge their inherent evil and vow to "do better" – see examples here, here, here. Sibley's Facebook post urged birders, whom he insinuated were dangerous homophobes, to "do better."

 

Grace Church did to Paul Rossi, and Northwestern University did to its professors, what David Sibley did to birders. Sibley attempted to impose on birders a self-definition as making the "outdoors" "unsafe" for "LGBTQIA2S+." Birdwatchers, therefore, needed to "do better." The birdwatchers who refused to allow Sibley to define them as "threatening" to "LGBTQIA2S+" resisted the hegemonic Woke narrative. It may seem counterintuitive that these birders would be punished for saying that they accept people regardless of their identity. Superficially, it might appear that the Woke value tolerance. In fact, the Woke do not value tolerance, and they don't care about the "safety" of "LGBTQIA2S+." Rather, the Woke demand hegemonic domination of a ritual and its accompanying narrative. Those birders who simply stated the truth, that most birders couldn't care less about the identities of those with whom they bird, defied the hegemonic narrative, and had to be punished.

 

Chris Rufo, an expert on Critical Race Theory, recently stated that CRT "is an elite vocabulary that you have to speak in order to gain access to" Ivy League schools, elite society, and profitable employment. People parrot the dogma even though they privately believe it is "BS." "What I find egregious and abominable about Critical Race Theory is that it is an intra-elite power struggle. The entire theory is derived to gain power within elite institutions since its founding at Harvard Law school in the 1980s." CRT "is surprisingly uninterested in doing the work of lifting people out of desperate circumstances." "Rather than providing any concrete benefit to people living in poverty or desperation," proponents of Critical Race Theory are "much more interested in people securing their own status … That is absolutely disgusting. They're using the poor and the oppressed as a mascot and a tool, an image or symbol for them to play their own games among people who all share privilege regardless of their racial background."

 

What helps people in need? Rufo points to the family, to work, and to churches as sources of real help. The Woke revile all three. "You can't even talk about them. They are taboo in elite environments. The family is a white supremacist patriarchal institution that should be dismantled. Work is capitalist exploitation and people shouldn't be required to work. Faith and churches are an impediment to state control and redistribution."

 

The Woke are privileged people who exploit other people's suffering as ornaments to enhance their own power and privilege and to feed their own narcissism, while at the same time suppressing any action that might actually alleviate human suffering. They can be compared to those afflicted with hero syndrome. Some arsonists set fires so that they can be seen putting the fires out, and thereby be declared heroes. By alleging that birdwatchers are bullies dedicated to mistreating "LGBTQIA2S+" persons, and by stating that he opposes this epidemic abuse, Sibley virtue signals. Many responses to his post praised him for being a hero taking a brave stand against "threatening" birdwatchers.

 

Sibley's virtue signaling and the bullying and hate he allowed and even "liked" in subsequent posts drove a wedge between people who might otherwise have felt united by their shared love of birds. Divisiveness, driving wedges of rage and suspicion between people, is not a bug of Woke. Divisiveness is a feature and indeed a goal of Woke. Drive people apart from each other, create chaos, destroy the existing order, and pave the path to Woke Utopia.

 

Woke descends from Marxism, and, like its ancestors, Woke's goal is to overturn Western Civilization and replace it with a Woke Utopia. Demonizing anyone who declines to accept the extremes of trans activism is part of that agenda. The difference between males and females is foundational to objective reality. Without maleness and femaleness none of us would be here, nor would much plant and animal life. Visually evident sexual dimorphism is widespread among birds. A male mallard looks and behaves differently from a female mallard. It's not clear how a birdwatcher can say, "I see a male mallard" without being accused of committing a violent act. Remove the very mention of that foundation from acceptable speech and thought, and you have removed one of the pillars of Western Civilization. 

 

The first day of every new semester, I would ask students to write three paragraphs on a topic of their choosing. My goal was to get a handle on their ability to command written language. I came to realize that those first day writing samples are encapsulations of the human soul. Please note that I used the singular, "soul," not "souls," plural. As a proud inheritor of the Western tradition I deeply value individuality. But I'm also aware that we all share much. I cannot reread these brief essays without being humbled and moved and realizing that God has given me a gift I never had the sense to pray for, but that He scattered before my feet like gems on a velvet cape.

 

I've had students born in Africa, the Caribbean, Malaysia, Israel, Iraq, the former Yugoslavia and Soviet Union. There was no way to tell whether a paper was written by a white or black student, rich or poor, right- or left-wing, native born or immigrant, gay or straight. Rather, what these essays reveal are commonalities. Everyone dreams. Even students who looked bored or vacant shared dreams of helping other people. Students talked about how much they loved their parents, siblings, boyfriends or girlfriends.

 

One theme turned up in paper after paper. "I am the only one, and I am afraid." I am the only one in this class who was born in Africa. I am the only one who is a single mother. I am the only one who is in a wheelchair. I am the only one who was told that I will die before I'm thirty of a an uncurable disease. The only one in a hijab. The only white male. The dyslexic. The one other students won't like. I will never fit in. I am the one for whom all of this will be very hard.

 

There's a reason why Cinderella is the world's most popular folktale. We all feel like that orphan sweeping back fire soot while her stepsisters dance at the ball. Contrary to Woke, constantly focusing on our own pain diminishes us. The path to our greatest power is, as Jesus said, to die to ourselves, as a seed dies in earth, only to germinate and produce many seeds. Buddha said, "All life is suffering." Everything that is alive is in pain; rich white men are not exempt. When we recognize the Cinderella even in people more fortunate than ourselves, we grow spiritually in ways that seemed unimaginable when our theme song was "I am the only one."

 

In addition to the first day writing sample, my students were also required to introduce themselves to the entire class. My first-generation students at a commuter college needed coaching in forming professional networks. I told them, "It's not what you know; it's who you know." I included quiz questions about fellow students. "Which one of your classmates has a pet turtle?" 

 

I also wanted students to get to know each other because we'd be talking about controversial issues. I wanted my students to remember: this isn't just Jamal, with whom I disagree. This is Jamal, who, like me, is a Mets fan. Kyle is being a jerk, but he's an EMT, and he may save my life someday. Judy irritates me, but her mom is dying of cancer, and I need to take it easy on her. I wanted students to recognize the humanity of their fellow students.  

 

Woke insists on a rigid division between all whites, all men, all heterosexuals, who are all oppressors, and selected others who are defined as permanently oppressed. It's undeniable that gay people have been treated horrifically. It's equally undeniable that we have no way of knowing that any given white man has not faced equally horrific treatment. I have met white, heterosexual men who were slave laborers under the Nazis, imprisoned by the Imperial Japanese, who suffered years of unspeakable child abuse, who were beaten up in Paterson or Newark, or, whose academic careers were sabotaged, exactly because they were white males, and whose loved ones were killed on 9-11 because of their identity. In my mother's natal Slovakia I met a Catholic priest who was tortured by communists. I refuse to close my eyes to these men's suffering because Woke insists to me that they are "privileged white oppressors." I refuse to withhold judgment from LGBT people who have abused others, from Roy Cohn to Darren Merager. Identity is no basis for morality or for the rationing out of "kindness."

 

I posted on David Sibley's page, "There are times and places where it is very important to say, 'I am a woman and a rape survivor,' or 'I am working class and I have experienced classism that has diminished me.' But there are also times and places where it is actually better for a group of people to leave their identities and histories of oppression aside, and, together, focus on something transcendent, something utterly outside of themselves, something that overrides identities, something that unites them in an experience of the numinous, and of communitas. And, as these diverse people leave their mortal identities earthbound, as they ascend the heights of wonder, they realize that what unites them is so much more important than what divides them. And, later, they realize, 'Hey, I spent today with people unlike myself, and yet we experienced communitas,' and from that very experience, they learn transcendent love. David, I'm asking you to consider that your avian art offers a highway out of the prison of identity, and you should not squander that. Let us unite as birders. We don't have to hide our identities, but we don't have to rub others' noses in them. When I am birding, I don't think about being a woman who has been raped (which I am) I don't think about being poor (which I am.) I focus on my love of birds, which unites me to my fellow birders."

 

I was immediately and repeatedly denounced. One woman, a professional writer from Chevy Chase, the wealthiest town in Maryland and home to many celebrities, responded by accusing me of "contributing to a toxic culture" and supporting an oppressive "patriarchal society." Another poster called my post simply "awful" and proof that Sibley was correct.

 

My parents were peasant immigrants from Eastern Europe and I traveled there several times. I stood in food lines, and ran from tear gas, water cannons, and the riot police who broke up our anti-Soviet demonstrations. In spite of the Soviet Union's awesome power, I shared with fellow Poles cherished moments of freedom. We gathered over rye bread and butter, tomatoes and onions, and of course vodka, and we told anti-state jokes and sang inspirational songs like "Musimy Siac." I do not remember experiencing in Poland the penetration of Big Brother's scathing gaze into every nook and cranny of private life. I do not remember feeling that Big Brother was not one, remote, alien, communist state, a monolith that I and every decent person I knew was united in resisting, but, rather, that Big Brother operated the thousands of pairs of eyes of the people standing next to me, including people I had previously trusted to be above transparent ideological manipulation. That these people, strangers and friends, were insisting, not that I be good. No. Goodness is not a goal, here. Rather, these thousands of eyes rake me and demand that I confess that I am bad, privileged and bad, incurably bad, that I am bad when I read bedtime stories to a child; that I am racist when I seek soy sauce in the "ethnic foods" aisle in the supermarket; when I purchase Trader Joe's salsa; when I struggle to discover objective truth; and when I conclude that 2 + 2 = 4. These thousands of Big Brother's little helpers insist that I am "dangerous," "threatening," "hurtful," white supremacist, imperialist, homophobic and transphobic when I look at birds. If I don't agree to these absurdities, if I resist them at all, even to denounce racism, sexism, homophobia, and other hatred, I must be slandered. I must jettison any hope of rational discourse. I must enter an upside-down world where hate is diversity and speech is violence and celebrity princelings and princesses like David Sibley, Amy Tan and the ladies of Chevy Chase lecture poor people on our "privilege." I must risk being made unemployable, and being doxed and punished and torn by a mob of online hyenas. I experienced nothing like those feelings in communist Poland. This horror is new to me, here in Woke America.

 

Danusha Goska is the author of God through Binoculars: A Hitchhiker at a Monastery