Woke Antisemitism: How a Progressive Ideology Harms Jews

by David L. Bernstein

Like all intellectual monopolies, postcolonialism denies the validity of other explanations, and in its certitude becomes an illiberal and dangerous source of extremism and hate. The ideology does, of course, contain a modicum of truth—the horrors of colonialism do contribute to some of today’s global disparities. The proponents of postcolonialism, however, completely paper over the highly successful Asian countries that were once colonies, and what their achievements say about the varieties of long-term impacts of colonial rule. In simplistically dividing the world into oppressors and oppressed, postcolonialism holds successful nations morally culpable and struggling nations morally pure. And in insisting on this perverse binary, the ideology enables the expression of the usual resentment and ill-will toward Jews and Israel, both of whom have succeeded in their respective environments.