Member-only story
Holding the line
In the past week there have been numerous articles deconstructing “woke”, with the gist being that those who state things like “trans rights are not up for discussion” fail to see that mediation is the only way forward for rights issues. I disagree with this, especially when such arguments fail to account for the way media and social media narratives have explicitly railed against trans, environmental, immigrant, and other rights to the point that the conversation has explicitly been shifted against those who previously enjoyed rights that are now being stripped. Those calling for rights are not the central issue; it is the reactionary media which has whipped up populations and voters against minorities that are the key factor in why majorities have come out against specific groups.
This is not hyperbole or dismissive of valid critique of rights groups. No. My point is that narrative power has stripped certain groups of their voice, and when those groups have pushed back they have been further demonised. Migrants and refugees have a long sordid history of being the whipping folk of the right going back as far as the 18th century in the English-speaking press. Any time social hardship hits immigrants, economic migrants, and refugees get lambasted as the root of all social ills, with any outsiders invariably blamed for the ills of society. The US and UK have long histories of welcoming the “right” migrants while…