“It was the first indication that I might not really understand what was going on in the world,” Smith told The Epoch Times. Social-justice warriors (SJW) were advocating for acts of aggression against supporters of former President Donald Trump, contradicting what she said she understood the essential nature of liberalism to be. For Keri Smith, deprogramming from what she calls the cult of “wokism” didn’t happen overnight.īut the behavior of her former friends within the social-justice world during the 2016 presidential election, with their support of violence, censorship, and gaslighting, certainly sped up the process, setting off a parade of red flags.