The Woke Right & James Lindsay’s Warnings To Young Conservatives

By all accounts, James Stephen Lindsay is a highly unlikely figure to become a prophet for conservatives around the world.

A mathematician by training and an atheist by conviction, Lindsay first gained prominence, some would say notoriety (along with the avuncular Peter Boghossian) for exposing the ideological rot and intellectual skulduggery within academia through his “grievance studies” hoax, co-authoring absurd papers that were mindlessly accepted by respected journals.

But in recent years, Lindsay has turned his sharp – some would say laser-like, analytical focus to a phenomenon that many on the Right are only beginning to understand — the emergence of a woke Right, and the existential danger it poses not just to mainstream conservatism, but also to liberal democracy itself.

What Woke am I?

At first glance, the phrase woke Right seems both oxymoronic and redundant. “Woke” has long been a pejorative used by the right to describe a leftist worldview steeped in critical theory, identity politics, and a quasi-religious obsession with social justice.

But as Lindsay warns, the philosophy underlying wokeism — or as Lindsay calls it, ‘Critical Constructivist Epistemology’ – is a fixation on purity, a rejection of liberalism, and an emphasis on collective identity over individual rights — is now finding fertile ground on the other end of the political spectrum.

Only recently, it’s morphed from quasi-religion to all-encompassing worldview.

And if conservatives fail to grasp this in time, they may unwittingly help usher in the very authoritarian future they claim to resist.

From Marx to Maoservatism

Lindsay’s term “Maoservatism” isn’t just rhetorical flair. It highlights how elements of the modern right are adopting tactics and goals historically associated with leftist revolutionaries — but dressed in nationalist, traditionalist, or Christian clothing.

What makes this trend so insidious is that it cloaks illiberalism in the language of restoration. Under the guise of protecting children, restoring the family, or defending national identity, new factions on the right are embracing top-down cultural revolution, not unlike Mao’s Red Guards.

These groups may speak the language of tradition, but they wield it with the same moral absolutism and appetite for purges that once defined the radical left.

Lindsay’s concern is not just that this [woke right] ideology is metastasizing — it’s that it’s doing so by cannibalising conservatism from within. When conservative influencers call for banning books, silencing dissent, and using state power to enforce their cultural values, they mirror the very strategies the left used to dominate institutions. But instead of resisting this illiberal drift, many on the right are celebrating it as long-overdue retaliation.

Image via Grok2 / B. Miletic.

Above: Lindsay’s term “Maoservatism” isn’t just rhetorical flair. It highlights how elements of the modern right are adopting tactics and goals historically associated with leftist revolutionaries — but dressed in nationalist, traditionalist, or Christian clothing.

In their desire to “win the culture war,” they risk becoming exactly what they once opposed.

Konstantin Kisin, co-host of the Triggernometry podcast, says “The deranged worldview of the woke left, along with its disregard for truth, hatred of the West and falsification of history, is now being replicated on the right.”

The Betrayal of Classical Liberalism

At the heart of Lindsay’s critique is his assertion that both left-wing and right-wing wokeism are united in their rejection of this framework. Where the woke left claims that liberalism masks systemic oppression, the woke right increasingly argues that liberalism is decadent, weak, and incapable of defending national values.

This anti-liberalism is not limited to the fringes. Those with eye-watering follower numbers like Bronze Age Pervert, Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson, or Curtis Yarvin, co-founder of the anti-democratic Dark Enlightenment, even certain factions of the post-liberal Catholic right have gained traction in conservative circles, pushing an ideology that sees democracy as expendable and sees “liberal order” as synonymous with moral decay. For them, illiberalism is not a threat but the solution — the necessary vehicle to achieve a purified national or religious vision.

In other words, according to the woke right, the poison apparently is the cure.

Lindsay’s warnings are stark: if conservatives embrace this path, they will lose the moral high ground in their fight against the left. More dangerously, they will accelerate the collapse of the very institutions that protect freedom — courts, legislatures, public education — all in the name of saving them. It is a tragic irony that those most vocal about civilisational decline are now promoting its most dangerous accelerants.

Not Everyone is a True Believer

Some prominent Evangelical Christians, though, are sceptical. Writes Ben C Dunson in American Reformer: “It is just as true that the major voices of the New Right do not adhere to the worldview of the Left. This is what made Lindsay’s stunt so silly: we all hate communism too. We even hate the entire materialistic worldview that stands behind it, which is more than could be said for Lindsay.”

Furthermore, writes Dunson, “It seems so obvious as to hardly need saying that the intellectual substance of one’s political and cultural thought is what matters, not specific “analytical tools” used to argue for that position.

If one is, for example, committed to a wholesome Christian influence in state and society, laws supporting God’s design for the family, law and order, anti-neo-communism, and the like, it would be exceedingly bizarre to claim that that person is basically identical to the Woke Left simply because he employs certain intellectual tools to make his case.

Or is it that such tools are acceptable, but only if remaining within the framing of leftist usage?

But isn’t that Lindsay’s main point after all? It’s the Venn Diagram-like overlap that matters. It’s the notion that ‘we have more in common than not’ that makes the Woke Right and Woke Left a Janus-like single-torso entity in the whole metamorphosing body politic of the capitalist West?

As he posted only weeks ago on X: “They’re activists who use Woke tactics (desire for unlimited power, victimhood narratives, identity politics, etc) yet claim to be the only ‘true conservatives”.

Turning Back the Tide

If Lindsay is correct — and mounting evidence suggests that he is — then mainstream conservatives face a Solomonic decision. They can continue down the path of reactive illiberalism, or they can reclaim a more principled, future-oriented conservatism that defends liberty without succumbing to revolutionary fervour.

This starts by rejecting the false dichotomy that pits order against freedom. True conservatism understands that these are not mutually exclusive — that a free society depends on cultural cohesion, but also on institutional checks, tolerance, and the humility to allow for pluralism.

The woke right’s appeal lies in its offer of clarity and vengeance, but its consequences are indistinguishable from the violent, envious, and soul-crushing leftist totalitarianism it mimics.

Conservatives must also resist the temptation to adopt the methods of the enemy. Censorship, coercion, and state-led morality campaigns may feel cathartic in the short term, but they destroy the cultural soil in which genuine tradition grows.

A vibrant conservative movement does not require uniformity — it requires courage, reason, and a willingness to persuade rather than dictate.

Moreover, leaders on the right must confront this ideological drift within their own ranks, rather than looking the other way.

That means calling out illiberal voices no matter how popular they are on social media or how effective they seem at “owning the libs.” It means refusing to cede ground to those who offer authoritarianism as a shortcut to cultural renewal.

A Warning and not a Prediction

However, Lindsay is not a partisan figure. His work critiques ideological extremism in all its forms. But his warnings about the woke right have special resonance for today’s conservatives — because only they can stop its spread within their own movement.

The goal of conservatism should never be revolution — whether from the left or the right. Its strength lies in preserving what works while adapting to change with wisdom and restraint.

That is incompatible with the utopian impulses of both wokeism and Maoservatism, which seek to remake the world through purity and punishment.

SOURCE: https://www.govtech.com/opinion/are-we-only-20-years-from-the-singularity

Above: Futurist Ray Kurzweil popularized the idea that The Singularity would come by 2045.

In this sense, Lindsay’s message is less about politics than about civilisation. He reminds us that liberal democracy is fragile, that free speech and due process are not guaranteed, and that the biggest threats often come not from enemies without, but from betrayals within.

In the end, our choice is not between left and right — it is between liberty and tyranny. Between good and evil. Between God and Satan.

If conservatives are serious about saving the West, they must begin by saving themselves from becoming the mirror image of the ideologies they oppose.

That means listening — really, really listening — to voices like James Lindsay (and others), before the window for correction closes for good.

“It would be beneficial for you to start thinking about the consequences of where all of this will lead,” says Lindsay’s’ fellow traveller Michael O’Fallon, Founder and CEO of the Sovereign Alliance.

“You can stop this nightmare from becoming a reality.  Become informed and know what is happening around you.”

“Most importantly, speak up and stop deluding yourself into thinking that everything will be okay, especially when several of the men advising the President are eager to usher in The Singularity and bring an end to human history as we know it,” he says.

Salient Advice for the Youthful Masses

In his recent ‘A short letter to MAGA youth and young conservative’, Lindsay wrote: “Our institutions are often full of crap because of Woke capture. Lots of your teachers and even pastors filled your heads with Woke garbage, which amounts to lies and manipulations, some of them knowingly. You’ve been forced to self-censor, told you can’t have fun, robbed, and abused.”

“The impacts of lots of bad policies, some Woke and some otherwise, including “globalist,” have made certain parts of your lives harder (while others aren’t). Dating is a mess, largely because of online factors and their consequences. Buying a home or starting a business is more difficult than ever, at least in a long time. Things are expensive. The economy and the future are completely uncertain. Even your hobbies and outlets like sports and games have been corrupted and poisoned by this madness, and again, you’re not given many options.”

“You’re frustrated and having fun now, but one of the most important skills to learn is when to leave a party before it goes sideways. This one is going sideways. Don’t let its excesses and its eventual crash define you.”

It is very salient advice, by any measure.

Time is ticking folks.