How the far-right has made anti-wokeness a 'fledgling parallel economy': report

14 September 2023

When Gov. Ron DeSantis was reelected by 19 percent in 2022, he proudly described Florida as the state "where woke goes to die." Opposition to "wokeness" has been a recurring theme on the far right, and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has made of point of using the phrase "go woke, go broke."

In a podcast posted on September 14, The New Republic emphasizes that "anti-wokeness" has reached the point of becoming a "fledgling parallel economy" in the United States.

Laura Marsh, host of The New Republic's "The Politics of Everything," discussed the subject with guest Kathryn Joyce (who has covered it for the publication).

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Joyce told Marsh that the targets of "anti-woke" boycotts have ranged from Bud Lite to Target, adding that Walmart and Kohl's were targeted for selling gay pride merchandise.

Asked to describe this "parallel economy," Joyce replied, "manly and patriotic and freedom loving, for sure."

Joyce observed, "One of the more successful parallel-economy coffees, called Black Rifle Coffee, it's got these different roasts named after different kind of weapon terms. I think that the smooth roast, the light blend, is something about a silencer…. A lot of it is like that."

Joyce continued, "But they are definitely trying to go a lot bigger. I think if it was just that — and it has been that for a long time — that's kind of easy to mock. But there are also things like parallel financial advisory services or health plans. There is some survivalist stuff in there too, but also, there are cell phone carriers.…There's going to be a conference next year tied into different digital currencies, some of which are already pretty associated with the far right. So, it is definitely something that they are trying to blow up into a much bigger ecosystem."

Listen to The New Republic's full podcast at this link.

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