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【Text/Observer Network columnist Zhou Deyu】

Recently, Musk once again brought up the term "Woke Mind Virus" and told the story of his son's gender reassignment. In Musk's description, his son tricked him into signing a gender reassignment consent agreement and then severed the father-son relationship. Musk believed that it was the "Woke Mind Virus" that harmed his son, and since then he has vowed to fight this virus that "will destroy modern civilization" to the end.

However, Musk actually has no precise definition of what the so-called "awakening virus" means. Sometimes he even calls it "Rebranded Communism" or "Cultural Marxism" - because he claims that his son has become a "Marxist." Considering Musk's chaotic family relationships and Musk's personal control freak characteristics, transgender is unlikely to be the primary reason for the breakdown of their father-son relationship.

News screenshot provided by the author

But in any case, the term "awakening virus" invented by Musk has been accepted and welcomed by more and more Republicans in the United States, and is used to refer to all the "political correctness" and "identity politics" culture supported by the Democratic Party.

If we pay attention to the cultural industry in Europe and the United States in recent years, we will find that whether it is film, television, literature or games, they all like to include various "politically correct" elements. Representatives of minority groups, whether they are suitable for the theme or not, you always have to add them in under explicit or implicit pressure, even if it makes the work look out of place.

For example, the Oscars have clear regulations that require the nominated works to meet a series of standards that include minority groups, so as to ensure the so-called "DEI (diversity, equality, inclusion)" spirit. The gaming industry also has various groups responsible for reviewing whether the game meets the "DEI" standard. A while ago, there were rumors that the production company of the game "Black Myth" was criticized by European and American game review websites because it refused the "extortion" of 7 million consulting fees by a politically correct consulting company called "Sweet Baby Inc." It is not clear whether the rumor is true, but "Sweet Baby Inc" is indeed a very controversial company in the gaming industry: on the surface, they help game companies make games that are more in line with DEI standards, but in fact, many people think that it is an auditing agency that extorts game companies.

Not to mention the cultural industry, the same is true in the education sector. For example, in the Department of Political Science at the University of Pittsburgh, where I work, a retired Russian professor complained that in order to promote DEI work in the past two years, the department has recruited professors with DEI identities, professors who study DEI topics, and employees in charge of DEI work... This back and forth has created a lot of positions, squeezing out the positions that were supposed to be studying Russia, leaving the department with a blind eye to the current world situation. Of course, considering that the Biden cabinet also selected an undersecretary of the Department of Energy's Office of Nuclear Energy who stole luggage after taking office for the sake of political correctness, I don't think Pitt is that outrageous.

News screenshot provided by the author

Musk mentioned the "awakening virus" again this time. The background is that California has just passed an outrageous law that prohibits school districts from notifying parents when students change their gender unless the students themselves agree. So it's funny that American children can change their gender without notifying their parents when they are too old to drink. Musk directly used this to say that he would move the company from California to Texas. But then again, considering that many contemporary American parents are not very responsible, this law may not be so outrageous.

From a certain perspective, the "awakening virus" seems to have caused the "collapse of morality and music" in the United States. But the question is, why are there people from top to bottom supporting these so-called "awakening viruses"? Passing those seemingly outrageous laws and selecting those seemingly outrageous people?

Simply put, it's all political needs.

Although the LGBT community is a minority, they have a political influence that exceeds their population proportion. From the perspective of the LGBT community itself, in order to fight for their own interests, they need to have a stronger political will and stronger ability to act than the mainstream community.

Harris election propaganda picture provided by the author

Like any minority group in the United States, LGBT has its own political organizations and activist groups, and in recent years has sent more and more representatives to the U.S. government and Congress at all levels. In the 2020 election, groups representing LGBT invested about $7 million in the Democratic Party. In fact, this number is not particularly high, but in addition to money, the most important political power of the LGBT community lies in its mobilization ability. In 2020, 93% of LGBT voters participated in the vote, and 81% voted for the Democratic Party, which is a very scary number. If you have no idea about this voter turnout, for reference, the voter turnout in the 2020 election in the United States was only 66%, which is the best level in history.

Although LGBT is a minority, it still accounts for nearly 10% of voters. As the proportion of LGBT among young people increases, some forecasts suggest that by 2030, the proportion of LGBT voters will increase from one in ten to one in seven, and even to one in five by 2040.

Therefore, it is not surprising that LGBT people have a disproportionate political influence. With a considerable number of people and a very high voter turnout, they are the iron vote bank that the Democratic Party must hold in its hands and the key force that can determine the success or failure of the election. For the 2020 election, the Washington Post also made a special calculation. If the LGBT community's votes were missing, Biden would lose almost all the swing states.

News screenshot provided by the author

So Biden also returned the favor by giving the LGBT community a cabinet position after taking office and revoking the LGBT ban in the military. The LGBT community and the Democratic Party have thus formed a cycle: LGBTs support the Democratic Party, and the Democratic Party in turn supports LGBTs to expand their influence, and LGBTs then use their greater influence to support the Democratic Party.

Because elections at all levels in the United States are winner-takes-all, and the mainstream voters of the two parties are basically fixed, then winning over the minority groups in the middle is often the most important task for the two parties, just like the two sides fighting for those swing states in the presidential election. Under the rule of minority obeys majority, the minority decides the fate of the majority, which is a normal state in American politics. Therefore, except for the Chinese who are at the bottom of the racial discrimination chain and do not understand politics, most minority groups in the United States, whether blacks, LGBT or Southern evangelicals, have political energy that exceeds the population proportion.

For the Democratic Party, supporting LGBT and identity politics is a very cost-effective thing. Manipulating cultural issues is much easier than revitalizing the economy and solving social problems. Mainstream voters want this and that, and you don’t know how to satisfy them. Even if you satisfy them, they may not vote for you. LGBT demands are clear, easy to satisfy, and highly loyal. They can bring substantial votes, so they are of course more worthy of attention. Similarly, those seemingly outrageous "politically correct" quotas and audits are also true, because they can easily attract support from specific groups.

Of course, the same logic applies to the Republican Party, which also has opposing cultural issues to manipulate, and also has minority groups like LGBT that are stable and active as iron vote banks - such as the famous white evangelicals. Although the mainstream Republican Party has a lot of cultural conservatism and racial discrimination, the extremes of recent years, such as openly approaching the KKK, promoting various conspiracy theories, and planning to govern the country with the Bible, are also the result of mutual promotion with the extreme minority within the party.

So for Americans, the virus they have to face is not just the "awakening virus". In many places in the southern United States, schools are not allowed to teach evolution, the history of racial discrimination, and books are banned based on religious beliefs. What is this? Musk said that California's law is outrageous and he will move to Texas, but Texas law not only prohibits abortion, but also encourages people to report abortions. Isn't this outrageous?

People are burning books. Photo courtesy of the author

But there is no way, this kind of thing is easy to achieve political achievements and easy to win votes. From MAGA to the "awakening virus", the two major parties in the United States have long discovered that the code to wealth has never been to do what should be done, but to do what is easy to do.

I wrote an article on Guancha.com a few years ago, "It's easier to take down Gone with the Wind than to take down racial discrimination." For the Democratic Party, they don't need to really care about LGBT and ethnic minorities, as long as they do things that can make them vote. As for whether these things are reasonable and whether they are really good for these groups, it doesn't really matter.

To some extent, the more outrageous the Democratic Party's "politically correct" policies are, the more they can arouse the anger of others, and the more they can tie these minority groups to their own camp to fight against "reactionary Republicans." The same is true for the Republican Party. It is difficult to solve the poverty and drug problems of the lower-class white people, but it is easy to set a target of "degenerate Democrats" for them... As for the sense of responsibility to care about voters to solve problems, what is that?

Of course, we cannot simply attribute the problem to the irresponsibility of individual politicians. Because in the face of systemic problems, there is only so much that individuals can do. No matter how responsible you are, you cannot turn back the clock and return to the era when the American economy and culture were thriving. The call for the return of manufacturing has been made for many years, but the Rust Belt remains the same. The issue of racial discrimination has been discussed for so long, but hate crimes are still coming.

Let alone politicians, even ordinary Americans have long been helpless and have lost the courage to face difficulties. They choose to hypnotize themselves with politicians, pretending that MAGA or "awakening" can solve the problem. Politics has become a fan circle and then a cult. Politicians create gods, political parties spread oracles, and voters can just be believers and offer sacrifices to the two parties. The American dream that we all miss, the spirit that emphasizes hard work and struggle to succeed, has given way to the irresponsible spirit of the times.

Musk's "awakening virus" is just one aspect of the lack of responsibility in American society. Musk blamed everything from the school to society to Marxism for his son's severing ties with him, but he didn't blame himself, nor did he really care about his son. He even coined the term "awakening virus" just to use this incident to continue to expand his political capital... So I am very optimistic about Musk's political career. After all, American politicians do the same thing every day. When they are indecisive, they can just blame their opponents or China.

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