I appreciate their sentiment but I genuinely do not support giving credence to racist, fascist code words and terminology. It is bad enough that the media plays along with that bullshit. There is no such thing as “woke”, it is racism, sexism and all kinds of hate bundled up into a convenient word that allows them to feel better about themselves by shifting the label from themselves to their targeted group. Instead of THEM being racist, etc., YOU’RE “woke.”
Society absolutely needs to stop letting people get away with this. I have confronted people in my life for using that word and created some very uncomfortable situations for them. Why we allow this to propagate is baffling.
I don’t think your viewpoint is supported by history. It is common for marginalized communities to take on the code words of those who oppress them and turn them into their own. The hate mongers use those words in an attempt to “other” their targets and separate them from society. If society embraces those words, especially the communities that are affected by them, the hatemongers lose power.
If you are waiting on everybody to reach the same conclusions as you, you will die waiting. We all want to live in a perfect world. But perfect is different for each of us. So instead of fighting a losing battle with no real winner, look to how the community affected wants you to act. When we help others we should help them in the ways that they want, not the ways we think they should want.
It’s part of the cultural wars created by the right using the same tactics and strategy that were used to attack communism during the Cold war. Like most of America’s current problems, it can be traced back to the early 1970’s and Heritage Foundation offensive attacks on equality and the civil rights movement, disguised as defensive backlash to protect religious freedom.
It began as an attack on multiculturalism in the 70s. Then by the early 90s it had evolved to “cultural marxism” and political correctness. Then it became attacks on wokeism and DEI.
On the one hand I could see why you don’t want people to be using it, but they will use it bc it’s their attack strategy. It’s the modern day equivalent of accusing somebody of being a communist in the hopes you can intimidate them and create reactionary backlash against whoever is being accused.
Sadly it hasn’t been an unsuccessful strategy, but I don’t think that’s because of other people using it. I think it’s important people be made aware that this is just what they have always done and will always do. If the term “woke” isn’t being thrown around, it will eventually just be replaced with a new term anyway. Might as well learn to recognize what this is and popularize mocking it and belittling it when we see it being weaponized.
I would not be surprised at all to learn that they have been testing the waters with “toxic empathy” in the hopes that it becomes their next attack campaign/buzzword.
Woke absolutely is a thing, tons of people self describe as woke, it just doesn’t mean what the right thinks it does. Or more accurately, it’s a word with different meanings. They’re either using it as an actual self description or specifically to annoy the rightoids. Or both.
Woke has been around. It had a resurgence during the BLM era. The right latched on to the word and use it negatively, but it isn’t their word and they didn’t create it. If they want to use it, fine, but they don’t own it. And better yet throw it back in their faces.
I get your point, however as someone not really deep into that matter, I have a remark:
Instead of letting the right dictate what words we’re allowed to use I find the approach of the gay community more appealing: Change the connotation of words that were originally used to discriminate. ‘Gay’ was used as originally used as a slur to devalue male homosexuals but the community was able to reverse the negative connotation to a neutral or even positive one.
If I remember correctly ‘woke’ was initially coined as ‘woke up to everyday discrimination and injustice’. Somehow I am not willing to let the right wing have the final say on how our language is interpreted.
(As I said, I am a layman, and if I have made any mistakes here, please point them out to me without crucifying me.)
In general I agree with your POV, I always say people to use all the words they know with me, curse words included when they need them. But personally I’m into etymology because it gives me a sense of ownership of a word, if I know the old meaning hidden inside (or sometimes very different from) the current meaning, I can use a word exactly as it was intended. Or I’m just a nerd lol
I appreciate their sentiment but I genuinely do not support giving credence to racist, fascist code words and terminology. It is bad enough that the media plays along with that bullshit. There is no such thing as “woke”, it is racism, sexism and all kinds of hate bundled up into a convenient word that allows them to feel better about themselves by shifting the label from themselves to their targeted group. Instead of THEM being racist, etc., YOU’RE “woke.”
Society absolutely needs to stop letting people get away with this. I have confronted people in my life for using that word and created some very uncomfortable situations for them. Why we allow this to propagate is baffling.
I don’t think your viewpoint is supported by history. It is common for marginalized communities to take on the code words of those who oppress them and turn them into their own. The hate mongers use those words in an attempt to “other” their targets and separate them from society. If society embraces those words, especially the communities that are affected by them, the hatemongers lose power.
If you are waiting on everybody to reach the same conclusions as you, you will die waiting. We all want to live in a perfect world. But perfect is different for each of us. So instead of fighting a losing battle with no real winner, look to how the community affected wants you to act. When we help others we should help them in the ways that they want, not the ways we think they should want.
It’s part of the cultural wars created by the right using the same tactics and strategy that were used to attack communism during the Cold war. Like most of America’s current problems, it can be traced back to the early 1970’s and Heritage Foundation offensive attacks on equality and the civil rights movement, disguised as defensive backlash to protect religious freedom.
It began as an attack on multiculturalism in the 70s. Then by the early 90s it had evolved to “cultural marxism” and political correctness. Then it became attacks on wokeism and DEI.
On the one hand I could see why you don’t want people to be using it, but they will use it bc it’s their attack strategy. It’s the modern day equivalent of accusing somebody of being a communist in the hopes you can intimidate them and create reactionary backlash against whoever is being accused.
Sadly it hasn’t been an unsuccessful strategy, but I don’t think that’s because of other people using it. I think it’s important people be made aware that this is just what they have always done and will always do. If the term “woke” isn’t being thrown around, it will eventually just be replaced with a new term anyway. Might as well learn to recognize what this is and popularize mocking it and belittling it when we see it being weaponized.
I would not be surprised at all to learn that they have been testing the waters with “toxic empathy” in the hopes that it becomes their next attack campaign/buzzword.
Woke absolutely is a thing, tons of people self describe as woke, it just doesn’t mean what the right thinks it does. Or more accurately, it’s a word with different meanings. They’re either using it as an actual self description or specifically to annoy the rightoids. Or both.
Woke has been around. It had a resurgence during the BLM era. The right latched on to the word and use it negatively, but it isn’t their word and they didn’t create it. If they want to use it, fine, but they don’t own it. And better yet throw it back in their faces.
Rather be woke than a sleeping sheep
I get your point, however as someone not really deep into that matter, I have a remark:
Instead of letting the right dictate what words we’re allowed to use I find the approach of the gay community more appealing: Change the connotation of words that were originally used to discriminate. ‘Gay’ was used as originally used as a slur to devalue male homosexuals but the community was able to reverse the negative connotation to a neutral or even positive one.
If I remember correctly ‘woke’ was initially coined as ‘woke up to everyday discrimination and injustice’. Somehow I am not willing to let the right wing have the final say on how our language is interpreted.
(As I said, I am a layman, and if I have made any mistakes here, please point them out to me without crucifying me.)
Just a note that gay was not a slur ‘originally’; https://www.websters1913.com/words/Gay
In general I agree with your POV, I always say people to use all the words they know with me, curse words included when they need them. But personally I’m into etymology because it gives me a sense of ownership of a word, if I know the old meaning hidden inside (or sometimes very different from) the current meaning, I can use a word exactly as it was intended. Or I’m just a nerd lol
I agree about not falling into their usage of the words. But I think she is using MAGA’s language here to make fun of them.