Woke Consciousness Inventory

Determine how woke you are and whether you may be suffering from Woke Deficit Disorder

As with the Darwin Devotion Detector, James Barham and I developed the following questionnaire some years back for an educational website. The questionnaire was originally put in terms of political correctness or PC. But PC back then now seems tame compared to the current woke. The old questionnaire therefore needed revising to bring it up to date, which I’ve now done. Tongue-in-cheek though it is, this questionnaire provides a useful window into how woke activism and ideology have impacted us. Given that I just posted the Darwin Devotion Detector, I thought I’d give it a bit of time before posting this Woke Consciousness Inventory. But given the recent elections in Europe and their hard turn to the right, I felt better about presenting it now.

Introduction

How woke are you? The Woke Consciousness Inventory (WCI) will help you to answer that question. In it, you will find pairs of statements representing the woke and unwoke positions on a broad range of contemporary issues, all the way from sex and education to politics and science.

What does it mean to be woke? It means to adhere to the belief system shared by the most intelligent, influential, and enlightened people in America today. By taking this test, you will find out how closely your own thinking matches that of the smartest opinion-makers in our nation’s universities and the most captivating taste-makers in Hollywood and the media.

Significance

Clinical psychologists and psychiatrists are coming to regard those with insufficiently developed woke sensibilities as harmful to society. In fact, Woke Deficit Disorder (WDD) has been identified as a form of mental disturbance warranting inclusion in the upcoming edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM VI). WDD appears widespread in many corners of American culture, where it confuses citizens and causes them to vote against the interests of a properly regulated woke society.

Development of the Test

The Woke Consciousness Inventory was developed by a cross-disciplinary team with expertise in psychological testing, social psychology, cultural criticism, and philosophy. Our team has been assisting people struggling with WDD and its PC precursor for many years, so we are well placed to advocate on behalf of WDD survivors.

Taking The Test

The WCI consists of 40 pairs of statements. For each pair, select the statement with which you more nearly agree. This is a forced-choice test. For some statement pairs, you may not feel comfortable with either choice, but do the best you can. The correct woke answer is marked with a hash sign (#) — add one for each such answer. The test is short and will take only a few minutes to complete.

Participation

Use of this inventory is strictly for educational purposes. It must not be taken as offering psychological diagnosis, proving the presence or absence of WDD. Take this test only if you are interested in learning about wokeness and how it is assessed.

Interpretation
Scores close to zero indicates someone with a severe case of Woke Deficit Disorder. For others there may be hope.

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THE TEST:

1.
• To be happy in life, children need to be taught to have self-esteem. #
• Self-esteem is overrated and needs to take a second seat to genuine accomplishment.

2.
• Primary education should give children as much freedom as possible to express their personalities. #
• Primary education should teach the “three R’s” and instill traditional values in children.

3.
• All corporal punishment of children is cruel and counterproductive; it should be outlawed. #
• Corporal punishment, properly administered, has its place in raising children to be virtuous and happy adults.

4.
• Competitive games in which there are clear winners and losers are a valuable preparation for real life.
• Competitive games are psychologically damaging to children; all children should receive ribbons and medals. #

5.
• Bullying must be stamped out at all costs. #
• Bullying needs to be controlled, but children must also learn to stand up for themselves.

6.
• Sex education should be mainly left up to parents.
• Educators know best what children should be taught about sex. #

7.
• Colleges should teach students what is right to think and say. #
• Colleges should teach students to think for themselves and to say what they think.

8.
• Speech codes are the price we pay for civility. #
• Civility should be taught by example, not enforced by speech codes.

9.
• Protecting everyone’s feelings is more important than free speech. #
• Free speech is more important than protecting everyone’s feelings.

10.
• Nowadays, the highest virtue we can practice is to reduce our carbon footprint. #
• The traditional virtues retain their preeminence today: temperance, prudence, justice, and courage.

11.
• The main purpose of literature is to cultivate our appreciation of beauty and educate our moral sensibility.
• The main purpose of literature is to empower excluded social groups. #

12.
• Who’s to say that classical music is “better” than hip hop? #
• No contemporary popular artist is of the same caliber as J.S. Bach.

13.
• Non-traditional families are every bit as healthy for children as traditional ones. #
• Children thrive best when raised by both of their biological parents.

14.
• There is no good reason why heterosexuality should be considered “normal.” #
• Normal psychosexual development results in attraction to the opposite sex.

15.
• Marriage is an outdated institution and the distinction between men and women is arbitrary. #
• Marriage properly applies to the union of one man and one woman, and among its chief aims is procreation.

16.
• Children should be encouraged to play with both dolls and trucks to avoid gender stereotyping. #
• Boys and girls should play with whatever toys they like.

17.
• Men on average do better than women in math because women have been oppressed and kept from achieving their potential. #
• Men on average do better than women in math because, as a group, they have more natural ability in math.

18.
• Abortion is wrong in most circumstances.
• A woman has the right to terminate a pregnancy at any time for any reason. #

19.
• Religion has no place in the public square. #
• Citizens have the right to express their religious convictions openly.

20.
• Saying “Merry Christmas” to strangers may be offensive and should be avoided. #
• Fair-minded non-Christians take no offense if you wish them a “Merry Christmas.”

21.
• Transgender rights must be respected even if this allows people assigned male at birth to compete in women’s sports and be incarcerated in women’s prisons. #
• Biological men should be kept out of women’s sports and prisons.

22.
• Guns, in the hands of law-abiding citizens, enhance public safety; the Second Amendment is society’s friend.
• Guns are a menace to public safety and should be banned by executive order, regardless of the Second Amendment. #

23.
• Capital punishment is a relic of a savage past and should be abolished. #
• Capital punishment can be a proper response by society to certain heinous crimes.

24.
• The word “liberal” originally meant someone who sought freedom from arbitrary government power; it is too bad the meaning has changed.
• The word “liberal” now means someone who looks to government to redistribute wealth, protect disenfranchised groups, and free us from outdated moral restraints; this change is for the better. #

25.
• Censorship, cancellation, and demonization are legitimate tools of government and corporations for discouraging dis/misinformation. #
• To use censorship, cancellation, and demonization to discourage dis/misinformation is an affront to freedom of thought and expression and should itself be discouraged.

26.
• On a sinfulness scale from 1 to 10, misgendering someone ranks as a 10. #
• On a sinfulness scale from 1 to 10, misgendering someone ranks as a 1.

27.
• Merit is a ploy of white privilege to undercut diversity, equity, and inclusion. #
• Merit is about giving people what their actions have earned, and, aside from charity, it is the only fair way to distribute benefits.

28.
• How political candidates view evolution has little to do with their qualifications for public office.
• Political candidates who question evolution are probably unfit for public office. #

29.
• The wealthy will always take more than their fair share apart from punitive government measures to stop them. #
• The government has no business playing Robin Hood.

30.
• Fairness means people get what they deserve.
• Fairness means people get the same amount. #

31.
• Government should spend whatever it takes to get green technologies off the ground. #
• Like other businesses, green technologies need to prove themselves by competing in the free market.

32.
• Freedom is more important than health; government has no business dictating what we should do to be healthy.
• Health is more important than freedom; government can and should force us to do things that it deems best for our health. #

33.
• Killing human infants is wrong just because they are human.
• Moral value should be based on capacity for feeling, not species membership; it is all right to kill a newborn human but not a grown cow. #

34.
• All animal experimentation is wrong and should be outlawed. #
• Animal experimentation is vital for medical research and should be permitted under proper supervision.

35.
• Spiking trees, disabling bulldozers, and similar tactics are justified in order to save the Earth. #
• Violence to promote the Earth First! agenda is not justified.

36.
• Climate change is the most important challenge facing humanity today. #
• The moral decay of society is a more important challenge facing us today.

37.
• Climate change skeptics have the same right to free speech as anyone else.
• Climate change deniers are a menace to humanity and must be silenced by any means necessary. #

38.
• One of the greatest dangers facing humanity is the threat of a tyrannical world government.
• The best hope for humanity lies in an effective world government. #

39.
• The most important thing to know about the Founding Fathers is that they were rich, white, slave-owning, privileged males. #
• The most important thing to know about the Founding Fathers is that they were far-sighted political philosophers and statesmen.

40.
• On the whole, we should be ashamed of America’s history. #
• On the whole, we should be proud of America’s history.

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INTERPRETING YOUR SCORE:

Your score will land between 0 and 40. Where does your score place you on the Woke Consciousness Inventory scale? Here is a brief guide:

0 to 10 – Unwoke.

11 or 20 – Independent, neither woke nor unwoke.

21 to 25 – Functionally woke (can pass for woke in society).

26 to 30 – Strongly woke, but harboring some doubts.

31 to 35 – Overwhelmingly woke, but mildly inconsistent.

36 to 40 – Hardcore woke.

Scores close to 40 on the Woke Consciousness Inventory signify a thoroughgoing commitment to wokeness. Outside the extremes, scores signify one’s general commitment to wokeness as understood by what is taught in America’s universities and affirmed by our most influential media (such as The New York Times and NPR).

The WCI incorporates the key tenets of a woke belief system. It breaks new ground in assessing wokeness. Minimal woke orthodoxy, or “mere wokeness,” suggests a WCI score of at least the mid 20s. Scores close to 0 indicate full-blown Woke Deficit Disorder.

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We must reject intellectual excommunication as a valid form of dealing with criticism: the most important question for any society to ask is the one that is forbidden.
—Richard Halvorson, Harvard Crimson, 2003