You knew this piece was coming, and it is hilarious how predictable liberals react when faced with something that resonates with the broader public that makes them look like lunatics. The term ‘woke’ doesn’t need a deep dive—it’s the agenda set forth by leftists that are geared toward destroying certain societal norms by any means necessary to facilitate a more equitable cultural foundation. Contrary opinions are silenced, and those who promote such views are canceled. There is no debate, and if you think this comes from the vein of Soviet Russia—you’d be correct. Freedom of speech is a societal norm here that is heavily targeted for erasure as it lends a place for opinions the far left views as problematic and offensive to be voiced.
These knee-jerk reactions go beyond what is universally accepted as heinous acts of racism; stating biological facts, like what J.K. Rowling has done, could land you in the gulag. Rowling is also a devoted left-winger, but disagreement on one issue risks ostracization. Everyone must obey without question for a more woke, diverse, and inclusive society. Oceania is paradise compared to the state the ‘woke’ Left wants to establish. With the public seeing the insanity, the Washington Post must explain what they think woke means, as if this will reshape the debate. As the saying goes, when you’re explaining—you’re losing (via WaPo):
Republicans run on a message of anti-wokeism — but struggle to define just what that means. And it’s unclear how successful a strategy it will be out, outside of the hardcore base. W @lizcgoodwin. https://t.co/N9AwamyL9y
— Ashley Parker (@AshleyRParker) February 21, 2023
The concept has already enmeshed itself in the 2024 presidential race, with declared and potential Republican candidates deploying the phrase to attack what they view as wayward leftist ideology.
Republican politicians and voters alike have differing definitions of wokeism — and some struggle to define it at all. The rallying cry has recently been used to denounce everything from climate change policies and socially responsible investing to transgender rights, critical race theory and the Black Lives Matter movement.
“What we’re seeing is a kind of standard practice of conservatives and conservative reactions to Black political movements — to weaponize the words and concepts they’ve used to undermine efforts of social movements,” said Candis Watts Smith, an associate professor of political science at Duke University and co-author of “Stay Woke: A People’s Guide to Making All Black Lives Matter.” “History shows that you can rally voters around issues of difference, issues that suggest that people are losing power, issues where their values are being challenged.”
Much like the “cancel” of “cancel culture,” “woke” is another word that originated in Black culture before being co-opted by White people. Some credit blues singer Huddie “Lead Belly” Ledbetter for helping to popularize the term in his 1938 protest song, “The Scottsboro Boys,” in which he urges Black America to “stay woke” to social and political injustice as well as physical violence.
More recently, when conservatives began using “woke” in pejorative terms to undermine Black and liberal ideals, it was not an accidental choice, Smith said. “It’s important for us to remember that woke initially became a way to mean Black and to derisively refer to Blackness, and so to use this word that evokes Black folks or Blackness on other things kind of spills over,” she said. “I don’t think that’s a mistake.”
Republicans, however, say their concerns about wokeism stem from their belief that liberals are trying to use government to impose their values, in the process reducing people and issues to crude identity politics.
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Is the irony not lost on these people? Also, the fact that some writers felt compelled to pen something about this is in keeping with the liberal ethos of being insufferably didactic, as if we must sit down and hear their lecture about what ‘woke’ really is and why the GOP is wrong to attack their illiberal action items accurately. The incessant need to be correct and for all to bow to their word consumes liberals, which is why this political ideology is mentally ill. Our society is meant for various opinions, not one predominating one on multiple issues. It’s okay to be wrong, but the Left cannot tolerate that principle, so they veer into undemocratic methods of controlling the discussion.
Do you guys read your own newspaper? pic.twitter.com/cHuWCrcywR
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) February 21, 2023
And in all of that text, the piece only listed what other Republicans and some Democratic strategists felt the word meant—maybe that’s because there’s a kernel of truth in what everyone said about, and nearly all of it bad.
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