AOC’s “Woke 1 was crazy” on ABC’s This Week set off a two-week left debate over the excesses of 2020-era cancel culture. Jacobin’s Branko Marcetic concedes those excesses were real — then flips the frame: the Left is re-litigating a private-sector moral panic while the MAGA movement runs a state-powered version that is worse by every measure.
The “Woke 1” excesses, acknowledged without nostalgia:
- A professor removed from his course for a Mandarin word that sounds like an English slur; a data analyst fired for posting protest-tactics research; a biracial makeup artist fired for singing along to a rap lyric
- Streaming purges of scenes, episodes, and films; Paw Patrol condemned for depicting police; Barbara Ehrenreich piled on over a misread tweet
“MAGA Woke” is a different order of magnitude:
- DOGE keyword sweeps for words like “history,” “culture,” and “climate” cancelled grants for 9/11 firefighter disease research, cancer studies, Holocaust history projects, and programs for disabled teens
- Government workers placed on right-wing watch lists; visas revoked, green cards cancelled, students jailed and deported for pro-Palestinian speech
- After Charlie Kirk’s murder: 600+ Americans fired, suspended, or investigated for speech — vs 22 academics fired in the whole 2020 frenzy (Reuters)
- Federal judges have ruled against the Trump administration in 75 First Amendment cases (an 81 percent loss rate); the Biden administration faced 27 such challenges in four years and lost 13
The sharpest section is the crackdown on Palestinian-rights speech — a pro-Israel cancel culture masquerading as antisemitism enforcement. A DOJ whistleblower alleges investigations were opened on the basis of a single New York Post article, and Muslim Middle East studies professors were interviewed in “trap” sessions.
Marcetic’s conclusion: the Left can acknowledge Woke 1’s mistakes precisely because it has moved on — while MAGA Woke has the full machinery of the state behind it. Worth remembering who actually holds the cancel button.