About

Woke Right is a slang term that refers to a subset of conservative and right-wing political discourse in which critics claim the "Woke Right" mimics left-wing social justice rhetoric, especially surrounding grievances related to identity and oppression. The term was first used by conservatives and right-leaning pundits who were reacting to and critiquing a perceived victim complex in Christian Nationalism, which resembled the victim mentality they perceived in the Woke Left. The term has been broadly associated with supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump and his Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement as well.

Origin

Online use of the term Woke Right surfaced en masse in mid-to-late 2021, evident in non-viral tweets shared that year.

For instance, an early example was posted by Twitter / X ^[1] user @DeeJayDub00 on July 28th, 2021, concerning a clip of political commentator Charlie Kirk criticizing American Olympic gymnast Simone Biles, saying, "We are raising a generation of weak people like Simone Biles." The X user wrote, "Weak people like Simone Biles? Listen to how upset this guy gets … He’s the woke right" (shown below).

Woke Right was used in other tweets^[2][3] in September 2021, which were reacting to comedian and podcaster Joe Rogan's use of Ivermectin to treat COVID-19 and the ban of the children's book I Am Enough in Pennsylvania,^[4] respectively.

In a 2024 blog post,^[6] author Neil Shenvi discussed the origins of the Woke Right and pointed to an interview with U.S. Representative Dan Crenshaw that was posted to YouTube^[7] by The Texas Tribune on September 23rd, 2022.

The moment occurs at the video's 11:53-minute mark (shown below). Crenshaw says about the Woke Right, "If the first words out of their mouth are 'establishment' and 'globalist,' you can rest assured they're not very thoughtful and they're probably about to lie to you."

Spread

The term Woke Right gained viral use online in the following years. For instance, on December 8th, 2023, X^[8] user @LegoRacers2 quote-tweeted a post that read, "Devil worship in the streets of Austria. They celebrate evil as if it is good." @LegoRacers2 wrote, "The woke right is trying to cancel Krampus," as in the mythical creature related to Christmas in Central and Eastern Alpine folklore.^[9] The tweet received over 94,000 likes in two years.

The tweet being quote-tweeted has since been deleted, but the interaction was screenshotted and shared to the /r/BrandNewSentence^[10] subreddit (shown below), in which Redditor Thedepressionoftrees highlighted, "The woke right is trying to cancel Krampus," as a brand new sentence.

On September 5th, 2024, Substack ^[12] writer Konstantin Kisin uploaded a piece titled, "Thou Shalt Not Criticise the Woke Right," gaining over 400 likes in nine months.

On November 28th, Substack^[13] writer Andrew Doyle uploaded a piece called "'What is 'the woke right'?" receiving over 100 likes in eight months.

On January 8th, 2025, YouTuber^[11] MentisWave posted a video reacting to the term Woke Right, called "Why The 'Woke Right' Is Not a Thing," gaining over 133,000 views in five months (shown below).

On February 20th, New York Times^[5] opinion writer John McWhorter published an article titled, "How 'Woke' Became the 'Woke Right' (and Why It Shouldn’t Surprise Anyone)."

On February 22nd, 2025, X^[15] user @SirJoshuaBlack quote-tweeted a Fox News tweet concerning a quote from comedian Bill Burr. @SirJoshuaBlack wrote, "Is that the woke right trying cancel a comedian for telling jokes?" gaining over 197,000 likes in four months (shown below).

On April 10th, X^[14] user @ConceptualJames posted a Venn diagram that showed aspects of the Woke Left, Woke Right and what aspects they share. Over two months, the tweet received over 3,800 likes (shown below).

On May 7th, 2025, the Atlantic^[16] writer Jonathan Chait published an article titled, "The Godfather of the Woke Right," which talked about a 2011 book by Pat Buchanan and its relation to the Woke Right. When describing the Woke Right, Chait quoted his colleague Thomas Chatterton Williams and said:

"The woke right," my colleague Thomas Chatterton Williams explained earlier this year, "places identity grievance, ethnic consciousness, and tribal striving at the center of its behavior and thought." Right-wing wokeness appropriates techniques of the illiberal left-wing variety—language policing, historical revisionism, expansive claims of ethnic oppression—but deploys them in the service of the MAGA coalition, above all white Christian males, rather than racial and sexual minorities.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References