Microblog Memes @lemmy.world NickwithaC @lemmy.world 4d ago

Woke means eyes are open

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Pretty sure being anti-slavery is woke at this point
- Woke doesn't have a real definition outside of "anything fascists don't like", so of course anti-slavery would be termed woke.
  
  Woke is an adjective derived from African-American English used since the 1930s or earlier to refer to awareness of racial prejudice and discrimination, often in the construction stay woke. The term acquired political connotations by the 1970s and gained further popularity in the 2010s with the hashtag #staywoke. Over time, woke came to be used to refer to a broader awareness of social inequalities such as sexism and denial of LGBTQ rights. Woke has also been used as shorthand for some ideas of the American Left involving identity politics and social justice, such as white privilege and reparations for slavery in the United States.
  
  This is why right wind douche canoes who go onto talk shows and news panels are always coming up short when asked what "woke" actually means. Because without a couple of paragraphs of obfuscating bullshit to attempt to offset the actual meaning, their points of view come off like Nazi racist assholery. And if they actually just described the real definition they would find the audience agreeing with being "woke".
  
  I’ve long looked for a succinct definition of the pejorative sense of the word. Wikipedia delivers:
  
  Insincere form of performative activism
  
  …
  
  Some leftists, such as writer Daniel Bernabé and philosopher Susan Neiman, criticize wokeness as a form of tribalism which divides the working class and distracts from the universalist class struggle
  
  Though to be fair, tribalism is really hard to escape. Everyone seems to have a tribe.
  
  I personally don’t identify with any of the large social movements taking place right now, on the right or the left. I do have a group of similar, like-minded friends. Now it seems like they’re my tribe.
  
  I personally don’t identify with any of the large social movements taking place right now, on the right or the left. I do have a group of similar, like-minded friends. Now it seems like they’re my tribe.
  
  This sounds like it makes you feel very safe. The fascists will likely come for you last.
  
  No it doesn’t make me feel safe at all. It feels like 1920s Germany all over again!
  
  Funny enough, it was the rightwing conspiracy theorists who used the term first. It's one of the few terms that actually moved from the right to the left.
  
  This isn't even remotely true.
  
  Remember "wake up sheeple"?
  
  Yeah, that was only around 10 to 15 years ago. The usage of "woke" by left wing anti-racist anti-distlcrimation activists dates back over 50 years.
- Ya, its some wokeism to not love slavery. Massively woke. So woke, you'll be tired of wokeing.

89 comments