So how does the Cult of Woke™ gain new recruits? How do they manage to persuade otherwise sensible people in the education, medical, and other fields to adopt this bizarre ideology?

I came across an article by journalist Christopher Rufo that he wrote for City Journal in which he discussed how the University of Central Florida is rolling out a brand spanking new Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) program that advances the usual critical race theory/Ibram X. Kendi thought process.

“The University of Central Florida has adopted radical Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programming that segregates students by race, condemns the United States as ‘white-supremacist culture,’ and encourages active discrimination against the ‘oppressor’ class, characterized as ‘male, White, heterosexual, able-bodied, and Christian,’” Rufo wrote.

The author also noted that the university created “a blizzard of programs, classes, trainings, reports, committees, certifications, events, documents, policies, clubs, groups, conferences, and statements pledging UCF to left-wing racialism.”

The main thrust of these programs is to persuade folks to believe that America is an irredeemably racist nation made up of white oppressors and nonwhite oppressed groups. The situation can only be rectified by employing programs and policies that discriminate against white Americans ostensibly to help black and brown people get ahead.

Ann Gleig, an associate professor of religion and cultural studies told white students to start “waking up to whiteness and white privilege” and urged them to “educate [themselves] on systemic racism and white supremacy.” She even went so far as to suggest that they “commit to having difficult conversations with white family and friends about systemic racism.”

In a move that would make Bull Connor proud, she also exhorted white students to participate in “affinity groups” that are segregated by race, meaning she wants them to attend groups of other white students to talk about racism and stuff.

Another professor, named S. Kent Butler, who serves as the university’s chief diversity officer, promoted the narrative that racial minorities supposedly live in a constant state of fear and exhaustion every single day. It is the type of hysterical claptrap LeBron James spews whenever anything negative happens to a black person.

“Leaving the house is an action that may seem ordinary for some, but for individuals who deal with regular hatred and judgment . . . we live with anxiety and fear about walking into unwelcoming spaces,” Butler wrote in an article.

During an interview with the school’s newspaper, he also asserted that it is white people who must solve these problems. “Racism comes from slavery, from when they used to have [Black] people swinging from trees,” he said. “White people have to come to the forefront and stop the systemic system that’s been put into play by white people.”

These two professors illustrate perfectly how the authoritarian left gets people on board with their ideology. They use white guilt and black fear to manipulate people into believing in their oppressor/oppressed defines America as a nation.

For starters, look at how Gleig framed her talking points: White people are responsible for the oppression minorities experience in today’s America. In fact, she and her colleague lump white students living today with those in the past who enacted racist policies and promoted racist thinking. The objective is to elicit feelings of guilt in the students.

Folks like Gleig want white people to feel a sense of guilt and responsibility for the plight in which too many black and brown Americans find themselves. But even more sinister is the reality that both she and Butler argue that these problems are up to white America to solve. This also explains why so many white progressives go into white savior mode when looking at these matters.

But on the other hand, progressives also like to use black fear to manipulate their prey. Note, when Butler intimates that most black people feel a constant sense of fear every day, he is lying. He knows this is not true. The vast majority of black folks just want to live their lives as everyone else and they are not looking behind every tree to see if there is a KKK member waiting to lynch them.

This isn’t to say that black people are not sensitive to racial issues – this has been a paradigm for over a century. But the idea that African Americans experience “hatred and judgment” based on their skin color every day is foolish, as is the notion that we are experiencing “anxiety and fear” on a daily basis. This rhetoric is designed to convince black students that there are valid reasons to be fearful and anxious; if white America detests you, then why shouldn’t you be at least a little afraid? By using this fear, they convince these folks to wear a victimhood identity and to believe that far-leftist authoritarianism is their only chance of surviving in America.

What is also insidious about this belief system is that it is used to manipulate everyone – both white, black, and otherwise. White people are told that black people live in fear daily. Black people are told that only white people can solve their problems. It is an ugly, abhorrent, and malevolent con job perpetrated by people who claim to be addressing the issues Americans face.

In his piece, Rufo suggests government policy as the solution. “Florida governor Ron DeSantis has promised to address the problem in the coming legislative session,” he wrote. “It seems that Florida lawmakers have seen the DEI scam for what it is: an attempt to push left-wing racialist ideology in the guise of academic justice.”

It sounds good, but it won’t work. These folks have shown time and time again that they know how to skirt the law – especially when it pertains to what is taught in K-12 classrooms and also in higher learning institutions. Enforcing laws against racial discrimination will do some good, but it is not enough.

This is a cultural issue, plain and simple. The authoritarian left is in control of almost all of America’s main institutions – especially those that involve communication. Passing laws will not change this. But this does not mean conservatives and libertarians do not have resources at their disposal. Alternative media has been a significant boon to the movement as it has allowed right-leaning ideals to be spread in the marketplace of ideas. There is a reason why leftist organizations are trying to shut it down.

Moreover, those who do not subscribe to authoritarian leftist views might want to consider building their own learning institutions and heavily promoting those that already exist. Sending your children to a college like Hillsdale is likely far better for their well-being than UCF. These are only a few steps we can take. The left is not invincible, but it is powerful. But if we fight smart, they will fail in their effort to make their ideology supreme over all others.