"Woke"

[Tom Montgomery]

.
"Woke" seems to be a popular term being recently used by 21st century GQP politicians.

Woke is a slang term that is easing into the mainstream from some varieties of a dialect called African American Vernacular English (sometimes called AAVE). In AAVE, awake is often rendered as woke, as in, “I was sleeping, but now I'm woke.”

'Woke' is increasingly used as a byword for social awareness.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/word...meaning-origin

I would say increasingly used as a byword for "progressive thought" by 21st century GQP politicians. They all appear to have tin ears. It sounds ignorant when used in that context. Of course that begs the question.

[Norman Bernstein]

It's the new replacement for 'virtue signalling'

[Jim Bow]

Example:
”My friend, Joe, said that the chant, “Jews will not replace us” is shocking and disgusting. Joe must be woke.

[Ron Williamson]

Enlightened.
R

[Tom Montgomery]

.
A one-time, frequently posting, right-wing Forumite claimed he never understood the meaning of "begging the question."

In the case of the op the question being begged is, "Well... AREN'T they all ignorant?"

[Hallam]

[Hugh Conway]

A meaningless term Republicans use to dismiss anything.

[bluedog225]

Woke at 6:50. Worth the wait.

[Tom Montgomery]

.
I'm awake. Let's ride on over this afternoon and give them a piece of our mind.
.

[Tom Montgomery]

.
I once hoped that people would become awake.

Now anyone who does so is disparaged as "woke."

We are living in a very sick society.

Now

[Chip-skiff]

Is there an equivalent term that liberals use to deride knuckle-dragging, gun-worshipping, racist a-holes (oops) I mean conservatives?

[Osborne Russell]

Is there an equivalent term that liberals use to deride knuckle-dragging, gun-worshipping, racist a-holes (oops) I mean conservatives?

Reds.

Not just in "the country" but in the suburbs, and the cities. Putinismo, como machismo.

[Ian McColgin]

The use of 'woke' to indicate an awareness of, sensitivity to, systemic anti-black racism goes back at least to the '30s. I heard it used that way at university in the latter '60s around the Black Students' Union.

In the last few years, the racist right Republicans have shown their penchant for turning almost any good adjective or phrase into a sneer, an insult, and a threat to racial purity.

[Osborne Russell]

In your indiscipline, you gave it to the Reds and now you complain that they abuse it.

"Defund the police!"

"E=mc2 is a sexed equation!"

"White girl, take off your hoops!"

[David G]

In your indiscipline, you gave it to the Reds and now you complain that they abuse it.

"Defund the police!"

"E=mc2 is a sexed equation!"

"White girl, take off your hoops!"

https://news.yahoo.com/why-racism-st...trk=fb&tsrc=fb

[David G]

The use of 'woke' to indicate an awareness of, sensitivity to, systemic anti-black racism goes back at least to the '30s. I heard it used that way at university in the latter '60s around the Black Students' Union.

In the last few years, the racist right Republicans have shown their penchant for turning almost any good adjective or phrase into a sneer, an insult, and a threat to racial purity.

Yes, this. Lacking the ability to rationally justify their positions, they look to attack. And they will 'weaponize' anything they possibly can (justified or not). Sometimes they're pretty clever at it. But clever is not the same as substance.

[Jim Bow]

“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” Luke 6:31

Nah, that’s woke.

[dutchpp]

The first man who used the word publicly was probably the blues singer Lead Belly in 1938.

"The earliest known examples of wokeness as a concept revolve around the idea of Black consciousness “waking up” to a new reality or activist framework and dates back to the early 20th century. ....The phrase “stay woke” turned up as part of a spoken afterword in the 1938 song “Scottsboro Boys,” a protest song by Blues musician Huddie Ledbetter, a.k.a. Lead Belly. The song describes the 1931 saga of a group of nine Black teenagers in Scottsboro, Arkansas, who were accused of raping two white women."

<font color="#1D2129"><span style="font-family: system-ui">

[leikec]

Woke at 6:50. Worth the wait.

Not really. What point do you think you’re making?

Jeff C

[Chip-skiff]

Reds.

Strikes me as funny, having grown up with a John Bircher/RWW dad, that his term for the commies is now used to refer to the know-nothing reactionary right.

Who decided to use blue and red for those election maps?

"Starting with the 2000 United States presidential election, the terms "red state" and "blue state" have referred to U.S. states whose voters vote predominantly for one party — the Republican Party in red states and the Democratic Party in blue states — in presidential and other statewide elections.^[1]
. . . .

The colors red and blue are also featured on the United States flag. Traditional political mapmakers, at least throughout the 20th century, had used blue to represent the modern-day Republicans, as well as the earlier Federalist Party. This may have been a holdover from the Civil War, during which the predominantly Republican north was considered "blue".^[5] However, at that time, a maker of widely-sold maps accompanied them with blue pencils in order to mark Confederate force movements, while red was for the union.^[6]

Later, in the 1888 presidential election, Grover Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison used maps that coded blue for the Republicans, the color perceived to represent the Union and "Lincoln's Party", and red for the Democrats.^[7] The parties themselves had no official colors, with candidates variously using either or both of the national color palette of red and blue (white being unsuitable for printed materials).

There was one historical use, associated with boss rule, of blue for Democrats and red for Republicans: during the late 19th century and early 20th century, Texas county election boards used color-coding to help Spanish-speaking and illiterate voters identify the parties;^[8] however, this system was not applied consistently in Texas and was not replicated in any other state. In 1908, The New York Times printed a special color map, using blue for Democrats and yellow for Republicans, to detail Theodore Roosevelt's 1904 electoral victory.^[9] That same year, a color supplement included with a July issue of The Washington Post used red for Republican-favoring states, blue for Democratic-favoring states, yellow for "doubtful" states and green for territories that did not have a presidential vote."^[10]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_st...nd_blue_states

[skuthorp]

So how about McCarthy and the 'reds inder the bed" anti union campaign?

[CWSmith]

I do think there is a condescending tone to the term. It implies you became aware late and before that were oblivious. It's a poor way to bring people over to your cause. There are better ways to do it.

[sandtown]

I do think there is a condescending tone to the term. It implies you became aware late and before that were oblivious. .

In Spanish it is called Conscientization,

happens all the time. We need more of it.

Sort of the opposite of . . . what is sometimes called "moral blindness",

knowing that what one is doing is wrong, but doing it anyway.

But "moral blindness" does not work that well either.

It is actually deliberate.

[Osborne Russell]

Strikes me as funny, having grown up with a John Bircher/RWW dad, that his term for the commies is now used to refer to the know-nothing reactionary right.

Look on the bright side, now they can't call us Reds.

[David G]

[CWSmith]

It is actually deliberate.

I have no doubt.

When a friend shows up to help you and you insult him for being late, you should expect them to leave.

[Ralphie Boy]

I see the term “Woke” as meaning that (1), you aren’t racist; and (2) that you recognize that people of color suffer from institutional racism, that has been essentially ‘baked’ into many of our systems.

BTW, I think the biggest “snowflakes” in our country are the right wingers. These are the people who want to ban books that might make their (white) children feel any sort of guilt for the atrocities committed by people of their own skin type.

[David G]

The Abilene Reporter-News

Opinion

Oh, to be 'woke'

https://www.reporternews.com/story/o...e/69937160007/

[Peerie Maa]

Look on the bright side, now they can't call us Reds.

True dat
You pinko commie tree hugger

[Tom Montgomery]

The Abilene Reporter-News

Opinion

Oh, to be 'woke'

https://www.reporternews.com/story/o...e/69937160007/

A fine opinion piece worth posting in its entirety:

Oh, to be 'woke'
John Powell


Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis are the two most vocal Republican governors who have declared war on “woke education.”

Kevin McCarthy says the nation can save lots of money by getting rid of wokeness in the military. He promises congressional investigations into how a woke agenda is making our military weaker. I guess being “woke” is a bad thing, right?

“Woke” has become a favorite word among conservative politicians. However, it’s not clear they know what it means or what they mean when they use it. They do know it is a word that stokes anger and fear in their faithful followers who also likely do not know its meaning.

“Woke” is an adjective derived from Black dialect meaning “alert to racial prejudice and discrimination.” Those leaders who use the word to stir up their base are asking them to be willfully uninformed about racial prejudice and discrimination. If we are to join the war on woke education, we are joining the ranks of those who wish to be purposefully ignorant about racism and other forms of discrimination.

DeSantis has given us a perfect example of willful ignorance. He has blocked the teaching of an advanced placement high school course on African American studies. The course asks advanced high school students to explore, among other topics, the history of slavery and to think critically about the impact of slavery on our history, our government, and our economic system. Oh no!

DeSantis sees this course as violating his ban on teaching Critical Race Theory (CRT). Of course, CRT is not taught in public schools. CRT is a legal theory that seeks to explore the way racism has shaped American legal systems and institutions. But the term has become a favorite of conservative leaders who wish to gin up fear and anger about any discussions of race, discrimination and even diversity, DeSantis’ latest target for elimination in higher education in Florida.

You know a governor is fearfully trying to score political points when he takes it upon himself to dictate school curriculum.

This fear extends into information about sex and sexual orientation. Governors and parents have taken aim at educators who broach the subject of sexuality or sexual orientation in even educationally approved and age-appropriate ways. This controversy has trickled all the way to Abilene where parents have lectured school board members about books in the library.

So, what underlies this fearful grasping for control? Why the sudden need to limit our understanding of history and social studies and human sexuality? Do our leaders want us to remain ignorant of such things? I suspect it’s bigger than that. Ignorance is not the goal. It is the means.

Education is by nature a progressive endeavor. Education’s purpose is to move a student from one place in their understanding to another place, usually a place with more information, a broader perspective and a greater ability to think creatively and critically. We never would send our kids to school with the demand, “You can learn new information, but no new ideas.” Life in general should be a progressive endeavor. As we live, learn, and grow, our world and our perspective should grow as well.

Education is about helping students acquire new information, but in the process, hopefully, they also learn to evaluate that information. They learn analytic and reasoning skills. They learn to think critically, about how the new information merges with or collides with their current ideas.

Race and gender are the topics currently being targeted in this educational debate, but this is not really about race or gender. It is about perspective. It is about the fear of acknowledging the world is changing, and those who are waging war against being woke - against being aware and responsive - are fighting that change.

We need to learn history from other perspectives. For more than 200 years, American history has been taught only through the narrow lens of white, heterosexual, Christian men. There’s not an educational discipline, business venture, political issue or religious belief that wouldn’t be expanded and deepened by adding the perspective of women, people of color and people of other backgrounds and sexual orientations.

The anti-woke movement is promoted by people who are afraid, people who equate democracy with white male Christian heterosexual privilege.

But that is changing.

Sadly, many of our leaders have not gotten the memo.

John Powell lives in Abilene.

[Tom Montgomery]

.
The very thing extremist politicans fear and wish to prevent:

"Education is by nature a progressive endeavor. Education’s purpose is to move a student from one place in their understanding to another place, usually a place with more information, a broader perspective and a greater ability to think creatively and critically. We never would send our kids to school with the demand, “You can learn new information, but no new ideas.” Life in general should be a progressive endeavor. As we live, learn, and grow, our world and our perspective should grow as well."

"Education is about helping students acquire new information, but in the process, hopefully, they also learn to evaluate that information. They learn analytic and reasoning skills. They learn to think critically, about how the new information merges with or collides with their current ideas."

[David G]

[Osborne Russell]

True dat
You pinko commie tree hugger

If they changed to Red, how come we're still pink?

[Peerie Maa]

If they changed to Red, how come we're still pink?

A lack of commitment? Wishy washy thinking?

Pinko is a pejorative coined in 1925 in the United States to describe a person regarded as being sympathetic to communism, though not necessarily a Communist Party member. It has since come to be used to describe anyone perceived to have radical leftist or socialist sympathies.

[gypsie]

The scary side of censorship;

Florida takes over Disney district to punish 'woke' politics

Florida's governor seized control of Walt Disney World's self-governing district on Monday, February 27, hailing the end of the "corporate kingdom" as he effectively punished the entertainment giant over its "woke" opposition to his political agenda.

The bill allows Republican Ron DeSantis to appoint his own board to oversee the services provided in the theme park by Disney, which attracted the governor's ire last year after it criticized a law banning school lessons on sexual orientation. "Today the corporate kingdom finally comes to an end," said DeSantis, who is widely expected to join the race for the White House in 2024, as he signed the bill. "There's a new sheriff in town, and accountability will be the order of the day."

The move is seen as part of a broader effort by DeSantis to reform institutions which he believes have been hijacked by "woke" progressive activists and addresses criticism that the arrangement gave Disney an unfair advantage over rivals. But critics have voiced fears that the arrangement will make Disney beholden to DeSantis and much less likely to feel able to speak out against his policies.

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/internatio...6017588_4.html

Democratic state congresswoman Anna Eskamani, who represents the area around Walt Disney World, pointed to what she called the "absolutely wild" scenario of a capitalist like DeSantis celebrating the government takeover of a private board. "Disney still maintains the same tax breaks but their First Amendment rights have been suppressed," she said in a statement. "And it sends a message to any private individual or company that if you don't purport to (want) what the governor wants, then you'll be punished."