"Philosopher Balzer ponders the moral brankruptcy of the ideological wings of the woke and the postcolonial movement as illustrated by the reactions to the attack of islamofascist terror organization Hamas on Israel on 10/7/23. By replacing the actual, progressive root of the concept of wokeness, namely a constant critical awareness of the state of the world and one's own attitudes (as the term was used by Erykah Badu in "Master Teacher"), wokeness has been turned into a truth regime (Michel Foucault), so a rhetorical power tool that is employded as a means to govern: The majority vs. the subaltern - where do you stand? This essentialist, quasi-religious dualism is anachronistic, as it ignores the postmodern insight that all cultures are hybrid and ever-changing, that people cannot and should not be put into boxes because of their skin, their sexuality, their religion.

During the Hamas attack, the terrorists killed, abducted, and raped innocent people, Jewish people they do not consider human at all - and while Hamas is of course not the same as the Palestinian people, it is outrageous to claim that this terror attack was some effort to fight white settler colonialism and stand up for justice: Postcolonial forces arguing that terrorists are freedom fighters when they torture and slaughter innocent civilians who belong to a historically persecuted minority have lost their moral compass, Balzer rightfully argues. The claim that Jewish people are white and thus part of the colonial oppressors (really? and all Muslims are brown? and how did the Holocaust happen?) is abused to let antisemitism run free. Balzer also points to queerfeminists who justify Hamas tactics, so people who claim to defend the rights of people Hamas persecutes: Good luck explaining to an islamofascist that trans rights are human rights.

Balzer wants to protect the original idea of wokeness: A state of viewing the world and oneself critically in order to promote a more egalitarian society, not a means to categorize people and execute discursive power. The author points to Jürgen Habermas' concept of discourse ethics to fight essentialism and Manichaeism. Sure, one could argue that Balzer does not talk about failures of Israeli politics, but the short volume only aims to show how antisemitism has found its way into allegedly progressive movements, and the dubious moral justifications - and it does make this argument convincingly."