YAF Speech: How Do We “Liberate America From Wokeness”?

Shake off the comforts of being perpetual underdogs where cultural loss is both profitable and safe.

This weekend, I had the pleasure of speaking at a Young America’s Foundation (YAF) seminar titled, “Liberate America from Wokeness.”

During my speech, I explained that in order to truly liberate America from wokeness, the conservative movement must collectively decide that we really want to liberate America from wokeness.

Read my full speech below, and watch the video for the Q&A session that followed:

Thank you to Jaime for inviting me, and everyone at YAF for hosting this event. I’m really honored to be here.

We’re here today to talk about how we can “Liberate America from Wokeness.” To give each other the tools to fight back and stop the spread of wokeness across the country.

Sounds good so far!

But first, before we dive in, are we sure that we all know what wokeness means?  We all know what images spring to mind when you hear the word “woke.” For a lot of us, that’s usually a screaming lunatic with purple hair.

But it’s actually really important that we all agree on what we mean by wokeness, so that we’re all pulling in the same direction, and also understand what the Left means by wokeness. 

This is because the Left have one really powerful strategy that’s amazingly effective - the abuse of language to push their agenda. Let’s think about some examples.

With this language strategy, the debate over abortion is presented as one over a mother’s “choice” — or a birthing person’s choice, depending on how transphobic you feel like being that day — over what he/she/they/them can do with their “body.” 

So before the debate has even started, they’ve framed the issue in their terms.  Before you know it, you’re not talking about the murder of an unborn baby, but about top-down government control of women — if women exist that day, of course.

Another example is the debate over gun control. Ask yourselves: how does the Left use language to frame this debate? 

Terms like “assault weapons” and “weapons of war” come to mind. All of these are carefully selected to trick you into accepting part of their argument before you even begin, so if you’re not careful, you’ll find yourself pushed into a corner defending a so-called “weapon of war,” rather than focusing on actually important and relevant factors like statistics or the Constitution or reality.

And one more example — let’s think about illegal immigration. Even the words “illegal immigrant” or “illegal alien” have been shifted into the unacceptable, and you’re forced to enter the debate using terms like “undocumented person.” 

And any time you use their language, they’ve won half the battle.

Regardless of the area of debate, the Left uses language to stay one step ahead at every turn, and the same is true when it comes to “wokeness.” 

That’s why it’s really important to understand both what wokeness means and what the Left will claim wokeness means, so you don’t find yourself trapped in another one of their word games, fighting on their terms.

So, what is wokeness?