Editor: The latest round in the iterative saga of critiques of “woke” and North American culture wars.
It started with a post on X by Brivael Le Pogam on 15 May 2026 which has of the current date attracted 55.5 million views (by no doubt a mixture of humans and bots) and 4.1k replies. The post was subsequently translated into English here.
Crispin Sartwell replies in a short piece Is French Theory to Blame for Woke? ‘Naw, it was more American “linguistic constructivism.”’ (Splice Today, 18 May 2026)
“It’s anachronistic and arbitrary, but a post on X by Brivael Le Pogam apologizing on behalf of “the French” for “French theory” (he mentions the work of Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, and Gilles Deleuze) has set off a flap. Le Pogam blames French Theory (FT) for woke, the particular brand of leftism that, I agree, vitiated American academia from 2015-2025 or so.
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But I don’t agree with him in blaming FT for “an entire generation [that] knows how to suspect and no longer knows how to admire. An entire generation [that] sees power everywhere and beauty nowhere.” Le Pogam’s thesis is that wokeism arises from the combination of French theory with American puritanism. The puritanism would help explain the “church lady” or “he said a bad word” quality of woke, because the role of Michel Foucault, about the least puritanical person who ever lived, definitely cannot.”
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Foucault News 