There’s nothing here you don’t already know but seldom has a demonstration of the “horseshoe theory” of political ideologies been as amusing as this.

In fact, the horseshoe is less useful in visualizing this kinship than one of those left/right and authoritarian/libertarian matrixes. Just substitute “tribalist” and “individualist” for the second pair. Wokesters and racists are champions of their tribes, side by side on the spectrum; each will inevitably stoop to forms of authoritarianism to advance the tribe’s prerogatives but it’s the tribalism that makes the engines go.

It’s how we end up with the Smithsonian’s African-American museum of history and culture promoting what looks to all the world like white-supremacist propaganda. Or how the must-read woke tract of the summer turns out to demean black Americans:

White Fragility is, in the end, a book about how to make certain educated white readers feel better about themselves. DiAngelo’s outlook rests upon a depiction of Black people as endlessly delicate poster children within this self-gratifying fantasy about how white America needs to think—or, better, stop thinking. Her answer to white fragility, in other words, entails an elaborate and pitilessly dehumanizing condescension toward Black people. The sad truth is that anyone falling under the sway of this blinkered, self-satisfied, punitive stunt of a primer has been taught, by a well-intentioned but tragically misguided pastor, how to be racist in a whole new way.

The tribalists of all stripes are in ascendance in American politics today so here’s a toast to the unholy alliance before you watch. May God help us all.

When Wokes and Racists Actually Agree on Everything. pic.twitter.com/Z9SlfscUjQ

— Ryan Long (@ryanlongcomedy) July 20, 2020