The conservative right’s ‘war against woke’: fighting the latest ‘enemies within’

Dorey, Peter ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2763-1622 2024. The conservative right’s ‘war against woke’: fighting the latest ‘enemies within’. Bonnet, Alma-Pierre and Kilty, Raphaele, eds. Towards a Very British Version of the “Culture Wars” Populism, Social Fractures and Political Communication, Routledge, pp. 98-117. (10.4324/9781032627199-6)

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Abstract

Conservatives need enemies against whom to define themselves and 'Britishness', and who they can characterise as a threat to society, in order to mobilise or retain support among anxious or aggrieved citizens, especially in an era of economic crisis. This also serves to legitimise authoritarian policies – purportedly in the name of defending freedom and democracy. For Britain’s Conservatives, the ‘enemy within’ has traditionally been the Left and Socialism, but since the 2016 vote to Leave the EU, the ideological offensive has been significantly extended to target liberals, young people generally, and social justice campaigners, under the aegis of a ‘War Against Woke’. The recent proliferation of environmental and social justice campaigns has been exploited by many Conservatives to create or exacerbate social and electoral divisions between different sections of British society, and foster ‘us and them’ attitudes between Conservatives and those deemed to be ‘the other’, namely environmentalists, liberals, progressives, pro-Europeans, and sundry minorities. The ‘War Against Woke’ serves as a divide-and-rule strategy to divert or quell simmering discontent over austerity, decimated public services, housing shortages, growing inequality, the failure of wealth to ‘trickle down’ as promised by neoliberals – and the increasingly evident failures of Brexit.

Item Type:	Book Section
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > Department of Politics and International Relations (POLIR)
Publisher:	Routledge
ISBN:	9781032627199
Last Modified:	19 Feb 2025 11:45
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/176105

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