“woke” is an attempted slur by the same people that unironically go around saying “wake up sheeple”
What does woke mean to you? Good, bad, good intentions with flawed execution?
Submitted 1 year ago by Blamemeta@lemm.ee to conservative@lemmy.world
Comments
charliespider@lemmy.world 1 year ago
hightrix@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Against my better judgement, I’m going to answer this from the perspective of an outside observer.
“Woke” means including societal issues such as race an identity when they add nothing to the content.
For example, in a hypothetical horror movie with a group of people in a van stopping to get gas.
Woke: as the group pulls in, the attendant steps out and says, hi I’m Gay Ken. I’m here to be your gay serviceman. The group gets gas and then back into their car to keep driving.
Not: as the group pulls in, the attendant says, “what do you want?”. The group gets gas and then leaves.
This is one of the phases of what woke means. It started as “being conscious to modern racial issues”. It then transitioned to “forcing racial and identity issues where they don’t add to the content”. And has finally found its current state as “ anything conservatives don’t like”.
The first definition makes a lot of sense. The second definition, when taken in context with the first, makes some sense to some people. The third definition means the word is useless.
Blamemeta@lemm.ee 1 year ago
You make a good point, its lost the original meaning.
tallwookie@lemm.ee 1 year ago
woke is something that has been used so often that it really has no meaning.
Blamemeta@lemm.ee 1 year ago
Truer words have never been spoken
betwixthewires@lemmy.basedcount.com 1 year ago
To me it means disingenuous attempts to change the social structure for malicious goals, and useful idiot tools with their minds tied in knots of the people who are doing it.
PeepinGoodArgs@reddthat.com 1 year ago
I disagree with the notion of “useful idiots”. My study of rhetoric indicates these people are rarely idiots. They likely understand their actions to some degree, even if not fully, and accept the uncertainty.
It’s a common misconception that Hitler manipulated otherwise upstanding German citizens into committing genocide through his charismatic leadership. However, antisemitism and scapegoating of Jews existed in Germany before Hitler’s political rise. Concerns about national decline already resided in the German psyche. Similarly, Trump did not originate the homophobia, racism, and violent rhetoric accompanying his ascent to power. In both cases, the leaders and public held pre-existing prejudiced beliefs that enabled their movements.
How does being “woke” relate to this? Many sincerely believe changing society’s structure is desirable and actively pursue it. It would be difficult to prove those seeking social change are inherently malicious. They are useful to the cause because they genuinely believe in it. Unless directly told otherwise by a woke proponent, one cannot reasonably conclude their moral goals are nefarious. This explains why reading partisan news often mischaracterizes progressive views. Commentary disagreeing with other perspectives frequently misrepresents them, outside of academic discourse.
More broadly, overcoming polarization requires acknowledging people genuinely hold different beliefs. Some currently hype a race war, convincing themselves I want them dead. In contrast, I do not want anyone dead. I oppose capital punishment. However, without communication, they will never know how much I wish their lives were as safe and abundant as mine. Overcoming their beliefs requires exploring being wrong. Instead, they will persist in believing I am a useful idiot aiming to destroy Western civilization.
People hold ideas you do not comprehend. The immature reaction is to dismiss them as useful idiots under a spell. The intellectually honest response is to understand why they believe as they do. As Aristotle stated:
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
betwixthewires@lemmy.basedcount.com 1 year ago
Wow, real discussion!
I think you’re probably right they aren’t idiots, well most of them anyway, there are idiots in this world and no political ideology has a monopoly on them. But I do think they’re tools; they want to see change in the world, and they’ve been convinced to want a certain set of changes by some smooth talkers. I don’t think the people that formulate and articulate these sets of ideas to their followers are being honest about their end goals. This goes for just about every political ideology out there, but the predominant political force stirring trouble right now is the woke one so that’s the one I focus on.
I don’t think trans rights is about trans rights, that critical race theory is about equity, that UBI is about opportunity or leveling the playing field. I think the adherent masses to these ideas do, I don’t think the academics that come up with this stuff or the politicians that shill it believe that for a second. They’re Tooheys and Fagins.
JustZ@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Pretty much means fairness and due process of law.
waterbogan@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Good intentions but information poor
BigBlackCockroach@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Woke means having opened your eyes to the realities of the world, instead of remaining ignorant of them. Woke means you stopped believing what you have been falsely taught and have woken up to what is really going on.
asleep, vietnam was neccessary woke, vietnam was started by a false flag and should never have happened
SatansMaggotyCumFart@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Woke means the things that scare me.
Woke means all the things I don’t understand.
Woke means I can blame others for the shortcomings in my own life.