By Shane Smith

In modern-day America, a new religion has emerged, forcing mainstream culture to its knees in a total, bloodless revolution. What is this new fundamentalism? Evidence for its existence can be seen in our schools, in our sports, in hospitals and therapists’ offices, in television and film, and probably most conspicuously in corporate advertising, i.e., in commercials for beer, shoes, food, et cetera. It can be seen in politically correct speech, where we are forced to abide by a bizarre ritual of pronouns, and are expected to keep up with everyone else’s pronouns lest accusations of bigotry are leveled. We see it when a Supreme Court Justice nominee refuses to give a definition of woman during her confirmation hearing. Ketanji Brown Jackson replied to Senator Marsha Blackburn’s question with, “I’m not a biologist.” Maybe she should’ve been asked what she believes to be the traits that make her a woman.

Is femalehood biologically determined or can a man become a woman? How is it possible that we’ve arrived at such cultural nadir where this can’t be discussed in polite company without arousing the ire of the woke congregation?

Take Bud Light’s recent marketing innovations. This one-time all-American beer now has as a spokesperson a man who makes a mockery of women by pretending to be one. This poorly-conceived marketing strategy did ignite a cultural backlash, as many saw this as a bridge too far, this vile masquerade in service of beer sales. The man in question, Dylan Mulvaney, who decided to become a woman via surgery, hormones, and prosthetics and now prances around like a little girl, has also secured contracts with many other female-centric businesses.

This new fundamentalism can also be seen in women’s sports, where biological males grow their hair, don makeup, and then proceed to invade and dominate women’s sports. Transgender swimmer Lia Thomas was William Thomas for the first 19 years of his life, lived as male, swam competitively as male, and lost every single race as male. But sometime after 2020, he decided to become a she, and then “Lia” competed in women’s swimming, winning the women’s 500-yard freestyle event. Whether this is fair or not wouldn’t even have been considered a decade ago. But the new religion forbids us from questioning the evenness of the playing field in women’s sports when men decide to compete.

Just look at how Riley Gaines was treated when she spoke at San Francisco State University (SFSU) in April. Gaines raced against Lia Thomas, but tied for 5th place. She has become outspoken against the forced inclusion of transgender athletes in women’s sports. She spoke on this subject at SFSU, and was violently assaulted by male protesters as she attempted to leave campus. She was forced into a classroom and held prisoner by the woke mob outside until their “demands” were met. But the corporate press, along with the political class, fully support this mob and their actions, and so the story was buried by all but conservative outlets and social media.

We now have transgender wrestlers, transgender power lifters, transgender golfers, transgender bicyclists, transgender skateboarders, all dominating the female fields. We witness the existence of this new religion when we make the mistake of criticizing the unfairness to actual women – not only threats of violence from the fringe, but ruined careers and marred reputations are the outcome.

What to call this new fundamentalism? Many refer to this phenomenon as “gender ideology” or some variation thereof. But I think “Woke ISIS” is far more appropriate. The dehumanizing intolerance of anyone refusing to bend the knee to its ever-changing pronouncements, the unbridled hatred of free speech, the desire to conquer mainstream culture, it’s all indistinguishable from the Islamic fundamentalists who rely on intimidation and violence to spread their creed of hate. And yes, it is hate and intolerance that lies at the heart of this woke ideology – a hatred of anyone outside the fold, any and all infidels. Look at the hatred heaped upon JK Rowling for her defense of biological women against the male invasion of female spaces. The Wokes have placed a virtual fatwa on her head, a la Salman Rushdie. The rainbow-draped fundamentalists coordinate their attacks at conservative speaking events, in a violent attempt to shut down the speaker and prevent anyone hearing what they have to say. Woke ISIS attacks in waves, in mobs, and the ranks of their faithful always in an attempt to conceal their identities.

As with all fundamentalist cults, Woke ISIS targets our children. This religion has swept our schools and children’s hospitals just as thoroughly as it has corporate America. And, it’s taken state-level legislation to hold it back even slightly. Many pediatric clinics throughout the country perform sex-change operations on minors, as well as offering dangerous hormones and puberty-blocking drugs, the effects of which, in many cases, are irreversible. This is referred to as “gender-affirming care” by Woke ISIS and medical and corporate establishment that backs them.

Books that our school libraries make available to students explicit, x-rated tracts like This Book Is Gay, Beyond Magenta, Gender Queer, and others, contain degenerate passages and illustrations that have no place in a child’s hand. But any attempt to remove the age-inappropriate filth is met with cries of “censorship!” from the same degenerate cultural movement that spawned the books themselves. Books on gender dysphoria populate public school bookshelves even in red Oklahoma, and serve only to confuse impressionable youth into believing that they could really have been born into the wrong body, and in need of irreversible, traumatic surgeries and drugs in order to become their true selves. The many young adults who were allowed to undergo these procedures, and now feel enormous grief and regret, are attacked and ridiculed by Woke ISIS, and their stories rarely are heard.

Can a man become a woman? That’s the question that summons Woke ISIS, who demands that you answer in the affirmative, and if not, then demand your money, your career, and finally your head on a platter. While I dub this violent activist movement “Woke ISIS,” the irony is that traditional Muslim families, when confronted with the degeneracy being pushed onto their kids, also react with disgust and outrage. And so we have the phenomenon of Muslim parents and Christian parents banding together to oppose what amounts to a cultural and ideological pandemic targeting their children, seeking to convert them to this degenerate faith while they are young.

How did the West arrive at such a place, where women are no longer allowed to be defined in any sane way, and are no longer allowed spaces to separate them from their male counterparts? How have we found ourselves in a place where we must constantly police what our children are taught, and what they are exposed to in school? American culture has degraded to such a point, over a period of decades, that a vast moral and spiritual vacuum has opened, allowing room for such an ideological movement to grow.

Beating back this woke fundamentalism means reclaiming a moral vision that few today hold, and even fewer pass on to their children. But if the rainbow revolutionaries, armed with the backing of corporate America, academia, and the White House, are to be driven back, the only way to do so is to offer an alternative social philosophy. It is a philosophy of decency, morality, culture, and true tolerance – not the counterfeit “inclusivity” preached by the acolytes of the Woke. The West is in dire need of a spiritual reawakening, one that will sweep the degeneracy of our age aside in one fell swing.

Shane Smith is a pro-liberty writer based in Norman, Oklahoma. He blogs at: RepublicReborn.com