You can't wake a person who is pretending to be asleep.

The proverb draws a sharp distinction between ignorance and willful denial. Someone who is genuinely “asleep” (uninformed, unaware, mistaken) can be roused by evidence, experience, or patient explanation. But a person “pretending” to sleep is actively choosing not to engage; their posture is strategic, protective, or self-serving. The saying is often invoked in moral and political contexts to describe bad-faith refusal to acknowledge harm, responsibility, or inconvenient truths. Its force lies in shifting the problem from lack of information to lack of willingness—implying that persuasion has limits when the obstacle is deliberate evasion rather than misunderstanding.

You cannot awaken a person who is pretending to sleep.
You can’t wake someone who is pretending to be asleep.
You can’t wake up a person who is pretending to be asleep.