According to Nathan Cofnas, wokeness is rooted in the "equality thesis" and blank slate ideology. He argues that wokism arises from the belief that innate cognitive and temperamental differences between racial and sex groups are negligible or nonexistent—a view he traces back to Enlightenment liberalism and Christian morality.
Cofnas contends that if all groups are assumed to be equal in potential (the equality thesis), then any disparities in outcomes must be due to systemic discrimination, making it a moral imperative to eliminate those disparities through radical social engineering. This, he says, leads logically to DEI policies, equity-based resource allocation, and identity-based grievance politics—hallmarks of woke ideology.
He also emphasizes that wokism is not primarily about gender or transgender issues, but is instead the culmination of a three-and-a-half-century tradition of blank slatism—the idea that human minds are born as blank slates, shaped entirely by environment. In his view, challenging the equality thesis (by acknowledging natural group differences) would undermine the foundation of wokeness.
Only a "hereditarian revolution"—the widespread acceptance that innate, biologically rooted differences contribute to group disparities—can make wokism logically impossible. Until then, Cofnas maintains, wokism may be suppressed but not eradicated.
According to Nathan Cofnas, wokeness is rooted in the "equality thesis" and blank slate ideology. He argues that wokism arises from the belief that innate cognitive and temperamental differences between racial and sex groups are negligible or nonexistent—a view he traces back to Enlightenment liberalism and Christian morality.
Cofnas contends that if all groups are assumed to be equal in potential (the equality thesis), then any disparities in outcomes must be due to systemic discrimination, making it a moral imperative to eliminate those disparities through radical social engineering. This, he says, leads logically to DEI policies, equity-based resource allocation, and identity-based grievance politics—hallmarks of woke ideology.
He also emphasizes that wokism is not primarily about gender or transgender issues, but is instead the culmination of a three-and-a-half-century tradition of blank slatism—the idea that human minds are born as blank slates, shaped entirely by environment. In his view, challenging the equality thesis (by acknowledging natural group differences) would undermine the foundation of wokeness.
Only a "hereditarian revolution"—the widespread acceptance that innate, biologically rooted differences contribute to group disparities—can make wokism logically impossible. Until then, Cofnas maintains, wokism may be suppressed but not eradicated.