Anti-woke author struggles to define woke on TV appearance

[iknownuurthing]

@evadrepus

While I’m far from a linguist or social specialist, my armchair view is that woke means both “anything I find yucky/too different from myself” AND “the positive state of realizing that ‘the man’/‘mainstream media’ is against you”.

It’s basically a generic word that fits in in the same way “like” does for a valley girl.

I can’t agree with you there. See above.

[erroneus]

Yeh, I agree that we should stick close to the original meaning as it was being communicated before it was hijacked. Hijacking this word was deeply unfortunate, and it really sucks that it’s used as means to harm the very communities and peoples it was meant to support. But the right really doesn’t care about healing, they only care about winning.

[Mindysan33]

@erroneus

But the right really doesn’t care about healing, they only care about winning.

I’m aware of that… which makes it doubly critical to not let them dictate the landscape. But I see this happening all the time. We’re constantly accepting being on the defensive. We keep acting as if they’ll at some point act as “rational” actors. They aren’t doing that, because they only care about winning. The more we can take away the control of the landscape, the firmer ground we’re on for fighting them.

[erroneus]

Amen to that. We need to do better despite these games.

[iknownuurthing]

@evadrepus

It’s basically a generic word that fits in in the same way “like” does for a valley girl.

I want to clarify a bit on my last post, in case you think I was just being snippy.
Yes, the word has become overused - but only by right wing media who are trying to twist it into a bad word - like the misuse of the word antifascist.

[knoxblox]

@Mindysan33

This is a very old pattern used by the far right - the twisting of language for their own ends. Most certainly, Orwell would very much understand how the far right is currently wrenching this term right out of it’s original meaning.

One would think it had been decimated. /s

[Melizmatic]

@erroneus

I do have some academic background in linguistics,

The word ‘woke’ or any usage thereof ISN’T the problem.

@iknownuurthing

@sdmikev

No, dude. You just need to be respectful

This is all it is.

For reals; it’s not rocket science:

[erroneus]

“Woke” as a word isn’t a problem, but it is a problem that enough people have a strong enough belief in unaccountability that this is a thing (to use woke in the way it’s used by this author). I see the use of “woke” to communicate anti-accountability as a side-effect of the underlying problem.

I do agree it is straightforward and potentially helpful to define things clearly, and I am hopeful that being clear and consistent can illuminate the underlying social disease that’s behind this whole anti-woke movement.

[evadrepus]

The definition you used is how the word was being used, prior to it being hijacked. The definition I gave is the one used by the person mentioned in the post.

The problem (or, as I understand it, the intended effect by the right winger who started it) is that multiple conflicting definitions are being used.

[iknownuurthing]

I do get that.
(Which is why I didn’t want you to think I was being snippy).

I didn’t think the person in the original post had any definition for the term, hence my confusion.
Anyway, it appears we’re on the same page here.

[Melizmatic]

@erroneus

“Woke” as a word isn’t a problem

Agreed.

Which means that bringing up anyone’s background in linguistics isn’t actually germane to the current discussion; the issue at hand is a moral one, not a grammatical one.

[chicagobee]

@iknownuurthing

the word has become overused - but only by right wing media who are trying to twist it into a bad word - like the misuse of the word antifascist.

Exactly this. They can’t define it because if they did, they would realize they are defining a good thing. ie: Enlightened, educated, aware, etc…

[erroneus]

@Melizmatic

Which means that bringing up anyone’s background in linguistics isn’t actually germane to the current discussion; the issue at hand is a moral one, not a grammatical one.

Yeh I acknowledge bringing up my background was self-serving, but I do believe it’s useful to dive into what precisely the anti-woke crowd is trying to communicate that is freed from what I perceived as a focus on dictionary-like definitions.

[smulder]

Anti-wokers are trying to undo the Enlightenment

[agro]

[Brainspore]

@ZamboniWogglebug

Bethany Mandel, author of “We Need to Start Befriending Neo Nazis.”

Something tells me that she isn’t equally eager to befriend “woke” progressives.

[gatto]

@PurpleFlower

Wasn’t there something floating around the internet several years ago about a black man who had gotten many klansmen to quit simply by befriending them

that’s painfully close to “why can’t black people fix racism” and “black people aren’t trying hard enough.”

these white bigots are adults. they know what they’re doing.

step 1, wrest political, economic, and social power from their hands. step 2, nope. never mind, step 2 isn’t necessary

[johnnyFresh]

So sick of these people.

They’re now capitalising on people’s lack of understanding of transgender people to demonise the LGTBQ community and reverse the progress made over several decades. And it is working.

I’m noticing a big increase in homophobia on social media and I worry about the attitudes of young men and teenage boys in particular. The right wing are using the lie that the “woke” want to perform gender reassignment surgery on your child to normalise homophobia.

[Gyrofrog]

@iknownuurthing

the word “woke” is the shortened form of “respectful”.

It reminds me of the complaints about “political correctness” but now it’s turned up to (at least) 11. (Or it was already at 11, now that’s the baseline and this is 11. Gahhh…)

The Ongoing Gallery of Trump-Inspired Assholes

It just occurred to me that I first heard the phrase “politically correct” used in a positive context – and in that sense, it was synonymous with “woke”. Now they both might as well mean “Niagara Falls,” soon to be joined, I guess, by “considerate” and “polite.”

[Mindysan33]

@evadrepus

The problem (or, as I understand it, the intended effect by the right winger who started it) is that multiple conflicting definitions are being used.

Yes, and one is the correct one, and one is the disingenuous BS version of the word. Let’s stop letting them dictate terms. Truth matters here, and playing these BS twisted, bigoted “post-modern” wanna-be language games that they are trying to bring us into does exactly 2 things to help the people current under attack: jack and shit.