Being “woke,” the bane of many right-wing politicians and commentators, is apparently just as racist as advocating for white nationalism, Fox News host Greg Gutfeld argued Monday on The Five.
The Fox panel was reacting to Elon Musk’s chummy interview Friday with Bill Maher, in which the Twitter CEO once again explained his issues with what he dubbed the “woke mind virus,” mainly that it poses a threat to free speech.
Co-host Dana Perino, who not long ago admitted that being “woke” could mean different things to different people, began by voicing concerns about it “stalling progress” in the arts and in tech. Even “Hollywood,” she claimed, wants to pump the brakes on it.
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Gutfled followed up by saying that there are signs that society is “turning a corner on woke-ism, which is scary because the left always comes up with something worse.”
“Because woke-ism is so absurd, the most persuasive critics are progressives. People on the left, actually, are the people that everybody is believing because they’re going, ‘Wow, these guys are destroying us,’” Gutfeld said. “It’s like when you’re a conservative, you come out against white nationalism. And this is kind of the mirror image. Woke-ism is like that. In fact, I would argue that woke-ism is every bit as racist as white nationalism.”
None of Gutfeld’s colleagues objected to his comparison. The discussion moved right along to Jesse Watters, who offered an analogy for the “woke mind virus” while acknowledging that he is not the most persuasive figure to supposedly help those affected by it.
“If you’ve caught it, then you have your antibodies. That’s why you need the Democrats to help slow the spread, because this thing is transmissible,” Watters said. “If you have people like a Musk or like a Maher telling the left to knock it off, that’s who they’re going to listen to. They’re not going to listen to Jesse Watters. You’re only going to kill this virus if the Republicans and the Democrats unite to kill it.”
