On Cultural Inflection Points Of The Woke Left Cult

This post captures a pivotal moment in the ongoing communist insurgency: the "woke breaking point" where manufactured outrage campaigns force people to make a choice. To either double down into deeper cult radicalization and open calls for violence, or begin the painful process of waking up and leaving the left. It documents the predictable psychological and social mechanics used to escalate division, isolate dissenters, and recruit the next wave of foot soldiers, while normies are pulled into low-level indoctrination.

This is how the revolution sustains itself: through manufactured inflection points that separate the committed from the awakening. Preserving these voices now ensures future generations see the pattern before it's memory-holed.

The original X post by @RealKerSmith can be found here.

"We're going through another cultural inflection point, during which many who are in the Woke Left Cult either start to wake up, or double down and go further in, becoming more cultish and rabid in behavior.

This always happens when the Commie Left seizes upon some new "issue" and makes it a cloak for the revolution. A very revealing old quote from SDS: "The issue is never the issue. The issue is always the revolution."

We've been through many of these cultural inflection points or agitprop flashpoints in the past 10 years. The 2016 campaign and election was a big one. It's the one that woke me up and caused me to begin the long process of leaving the left. This was the "woke breaking point," as my friend @ConceptualJames calls it, for me and countless others. Some of my best friends who are also former leftists woke up in those 2016-2018 years. But others doubled down. Became more zealous, more hateful, more isolationist. Started participating in public witch hunts and cancelation mobs, much like Mao's "struggle sessions."

The BLM riots were another one of these periods. The Covid years another. Charlie Kirk's murder by a deranged leftist another. And now - the fake ICE outrage and attempt to obstruct and attack immigration enforcement officers is yet another.

The agitprop around this phony outrage is so pervasive that even your most politically disinterested "normie" friends have heard it. Normie is not derogatory - I think normies are some of the most healthy people around, in a dystopia. But that's one way you know it's reached the point of stochastic terrorism. When the normies get pulled in. Those who are susceptible to the propaganda start to think they have opinions. They can't name specifics or make arguments, but they have received opinions they are now repeating. It's activated them on a very low level of cult indoctrination. It doesn't mean they will necessarily go further - but they've at least become a sort of apathetic mouthpiece for the time being. You might hear them say something uncharacteristic of them like, "ICE agents SHOULD be doxxed and threatened!" Whoah - what?

Other normies, who've also never really been interested in politics (again, God Bless Them) start to pay attention to the machinations at times like this. They start to see the propaganda. The onslaught of pressure applied to conform. They may tell you they find themselves being pressured to "post the black square" or "show they're an ally" or "make the statement against ICE!" etc. The cultural inflection point has the opposite effect on them. It sends them away from the cult.

Then there are the behaviors of those who have BEEN in the Woke Cult for years now. These aren't normies. These are the ones who have already bought in and are on level 2 or 3 of cult indoctrination. They have already "posted the black square" during previous inflection points. They have already conformed. They have donned the mask for photos or changed their profile picture to "I got my covid vaccine!" or added pronouns to their bio. They are already bought-in to some degree.

During these manufactured cultural inflection points, these commie agitprop campaigns, this group either goes further into the cult and becomes more abusive, more isolationist, more rabid OR witnessing this behavior in their fellow cult members works to make cracks in their foundational cult beliefs.

For the former, these are the ones who start to make threats about cutting off their friends and family. Or they go through with the threats and brag about who they have cut off - seeking virtue points within the cult for their new level of radicalization. Typical isolationist cult behavior, once you've reached level 2 or 3. They start to step up their Woke virtue signaling and move beyond the simple symbols like the pronouns in bio or the black square. Suddenly they're posting bile-filled screeds about how all conservatives or Christians or Trump voters or white people are evil and lobbing false allegations of "fascist" and using that to justify their calls for violence and hatred. They start openly embracing violence as a means for silencing anyone not in their cult. Sound familiar? This is Marcuse's "Repressive Tolerance." It's also a key feature of Totalitarianism of any stripe (whether Communism or Fascism).

But the latter group does the opposite! I'm pleased to say I belonged to this latter group in 2016 - 2018. These are cult members who are in part awakened by the very progression in radicalization among their cohorts. Instead of further radicalizing them, the increased agitprop and sudden calls for violence and escalation of vitriol among their fellow cult members starts to pierce their conscience. They start to ask questions of their fellow cult members who are doubling down - questions like, "I thought we were liberals. Why are you pushing for violence and censorship?" or "That's actually not true. I was looking at some of the data. What do you think of this?" The response they get to these kinds of questions is angry and controlling. The cult will try to use shaming and mobbing to get them back in line. This in turn causes more questions for them! And slowly, over a long period, these are the people who walk away from the left. These are the people who look back at that time and call it their "Woke Breaking Point."

If you find yourself in this latter group lately: Welcome! There are many of us who have left the left. It's a long process, deprogramming from cult indoctrination. If I may offer some advice: Don't rush into another group simply for the security of tribalism. Take your time discovering what YOU believe about each issue. This takes longer than you are used to, if you have always simply absorbed opinions from a tribe, or worse - from a cult. Get used to saying, "I don't have an opinion about that. I haven't had time to think about it." And on the things you DO start to research and think about and find yourself forming strong opinions on - be confident in these opinions, knowing you have spent the time necessary for them to be genuinely yours. Also - while being confident, don't hold your opinions in a death grip. Your opinions are not your identity. Be aware of what it would take to cause you to change your mind. Be aware that mistaking your opinions for your identity causes you to view every attack to your opinion as a personal attack (this is what the left does - they view every opposition to their ideology as an attack on them personally, as people. It's an emotionally unregulated and unhealthy way to live.)

Above all - ENJOY LIFE. That slow spread of joy that starts to grow in you after leaving the Woke Left is unfamiliar after having spent so many years in an angry, resentful, mentally ill cult. You will find that you start to shed your crutches. Maybe it's alcoholism, or porn addiction or gambling, or sloth - it will start to fall away. You may rediscover a joy for reading. You may start to grow a garden. You may start enjoying conversation and even small talk and loving PEOPLE again. All of those Holidays that the Woke shat all over and told you not to participate in will start to come alive for you, with anticipation for the joy, the fellowship, the cultural unity that undergirds them. You may start dressing more colorfully. You may start going to the gym and losing a bunch of weight you've carried and used as a shield. You may start valuing your health and loving yourself the way your Creator loves you.

Welcome home."