Woke Elites, Blue Collars and Race

""Wokeness", like "cancel culture" and "critical race theory", is ill-defined and used as a vague catch-all for things the right does not like. In large part, the war on wokeness has been manufactured by the right's elite. In part, the war arises from grievances of the base. There are even some non-imaginary conflicts in this war -at least on the part of the Americans that can be seen as blue-collar workers."

"Put roughly, the United States has two broad categories of blue-collar workers. There are the traditional blue-collar workers, such as those in manufacturing, employees of plumbing businesses, truck drivers and so on. There are also the blue-collar elites; they own small businesses, are successful self-employed electricians, work as middle managers at blue-collar industries and so on. As with any class, there are degrees of each."

The right frames a cultural conflict as a 'war on wokeness' and positions the woke elite as its leaders. Terms like 'wokeness', 'cancel culture', and 'critical race theory' function as ill-defined catch-alls for things the right opposes. Much of the backlash is driven by right-wing elites, while some stems from authentic grievances among parts of the population. Blue-collar Americans divide into traditional workers in manufacturing and trades and a blue-collar elite of successful small-business owners and skilled self-employed professionals. The woke prioritize left-leaning social issues like race and sexuality, while left elites (Bobos) have de-emphasized broad economic concerns.

Read at A Philosopher's Blog