The cult that cries “woke” by Markus Gibbons

When Donald Trump’s loyalists, his self-declared “patriots,” his MAGA faithful, his army of keyboard warriors, rage about the world being “too woke,” they’re not just reacting to language or political correctness. They’re revealing their fear. Because every time they sneer at the supposed fragility of liberal democracies, what they truly can’t handle is being seen for what they are: a movement that worships power, embraces cruelty, and hides behind the mask of grievance. They say the world has become too sensitive, yet no one melts down faster than a MAGA follower when you call them what their actions make them, fascists, racists, or worse.

The irony is exhausting. The same people who ridicule others for “woke tears” will erupt into hysterics the moment you mention words like “white supremacy,” “Nazi,” or “authoritarianism.” The double standard is not accidental; it’s strategic. It’s the old playbook of projection; accuse your opponents of the very weakness that defines you. When Trump’s acolytes complain that the world is too cautious with words, what they mean is that language has begun to expose them. They can’t control the narrative anymore.

Let’s call it what it is: MAGA is a cult. Not in the metaphorical sense, but in the way it functions, demanding absolute loyalty to the leader, rejecting all external truth, and feeding on myth. The members of this cult have replaced civic values with blind obedience. They no longer see America as an idea to protect, but as a possession to hoard. The flag isn’t a symbol of unity to them; it’s a weapon.

This cult isn’t conservative in the old-fashioned sense. It doesn’t care about small government or fiscal restraint or constitutional fidelity. It cares about domination, humiliation, and purity. It wants to define who belongs and who doesn’t. It’s not about patriotism it’s about hierarchy. It’s about making sure someone, somewhere, is beneath them.

And this is where the “woke” accusation becomes their favorite shield. To them, empathy is weakness. Inclusion is a threat. Accountability is persecution. The moment you suggest that words and systems can cause harm, they mock it because acknowledging harm would mean acknowledging responsibility. And responsibility, in their worldview, is for suckers.

What’s striking is that this isn’t just political rhetoric it’s psychological warfare. Trumpism feeds on resentment. It tells its followers they are victims of invisible forces, immigrants, feminists, journalists, globalists, scientists. Everyone’s conspiring against them, and only the leader can make them whole again. This is fascism’s emotional engine, hurt pride transformed into righteous fury. It’s the oldest formula in authoritarian history.

And then there’s ICE, the modern American Gestapo. That’s not hyperbole. Look at the tactics: raids at dawn, families torn apart, fear as policy. A bureaucracy weaponized against the powerless, justified by slogans about law and order. The cruelty is not a byproduct, it’s the point. When the state dehumanizes one group, it licenses the mob to do the same. And the MAGA crowd cheers because it affirms their hierarchy. It reminds them that power still belongs to people who look and think like them.

They call it nationalism, but it’s tribalism. They call it freedom, but it’s obedience. They call it patriotism, but it’s submission to the cult’s mythology.

Meanwhile, in the so-called “woke” world they despise, democracy still wrestles with conscience. The democratic world debates language because it understands that language shapes justice. It’s not about censoring thought; it’s about refusing to normalize hate. When democracies care about the words they use, they’re trying to protect the space for everyone’s humanity. That’s not fragility. That’s moral discipline.

What MAGA calls “woke tyranny” is really the discomfort of being held accountable in public. They’re not used to it. They mistake criticism for censorship, disagreement for persecution. Their freedom, to them, is the right to dominate unchallenged. When society pushes back, they call it oppression. When you refuse to be insulted, they call it cancel culture. The entire movement is built on the illusion that equality is an attack.

And yet, the moment you turn the mirror back on them, when you point out their fascist tendencies or their cultish behavior, they collapse into fury. “How dare you!” they cry. “You’re the real fascists!” As if labeling ICE’s cruelty or Trump’s demagoguery for what it is were an act of hate. But history has seen this before. Every authoritarian movement rewrites language to protect its own fragility.

Trump’s lackeys are not revolutionaries; they’re reactionaries terrified of becoming irrelevant. They long for a time when cruelty could parade as strength and prejudice as patriotism. They yearn for the simplicity of us versus them. That’s why they’re obsessed with fighting “wokeness” because it forces them to face complexity, to see others as human beings, to live in a world where power must justify itself.

The tragedy is that many of them have been conned. Trump, the self-styled savior, is a salesman of resentment. He sells anger the way a fraud sells miracle cures. The cult doesn’t notice the scam because rage feels like meaning. They confuse noise for conviction. But behind all that bluster is a hollow empire of grift, money, fame, and ego.

In the end, MAGA’s war on “woke” isn’t about protecting free speech or resisting censorship. It’s about silencing empathy. It’s about making cruelty normal again. It’s about keeping power safe from reflection. And the democratic world, with all its imperfections, remains the last barrier against that descent.

The fight, then, is not between “woke” and “anti-woke.” It’s between those who believe words should protect the human spirit and those who use words to crush it. It’s between those who see truth as a duty and those who treat it as an inconvenience.

The democratic world is not too careful with words, it is careful because it remembers what happens when words lose their meaning. When “law and order” becomes an excuse for persecution. When “patriotism” becomes the mask for hate. When a conman becomes a messiah.

So yes, Trump’s lackeys are half right: the world is obsessed with language. Because language is where civilization begins and where tyranny always tries to end it.

And if that makes the democratic world “too woke,” then let it stay wide awake.