• RufusFirefly@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I’m 64 and still pretty far left, except I don’t get into the whole “woke” thing. The extreme left is a bit wacko but not as wacko as the extreme right.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      except I don’t get into the whole “woke” thing.

      It’s just liberalism. Mass Media publishers invented a synonym for being liberal and have been using it to define a rift between younger and older liberals, where none exists.

      • RufusFirefly@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Granted, the actual definition of “woke” is a far cry from what the media, especially you tubers and the Twitter mob make it out to be. People on both sides but especially the right call it the “woke virus”, when wokeism is basically just being aware of the societal pressures put on people of different races, genders etc.

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Granted, the actual definition of “woke” is a far cry from what the media, especially you tubers and the Twitter mob make it

          Well, that’s the whole problem with the term. Its pure double-speak.

          The same guys bitching and moaning about “Woke Cancel Culture” in 2023 were screaming “Wake Up Sheeple!!!” in 2013. There’s a billboard on my way to work sponsored by Houston’s Second Baptist Church that reads “Become Awake, Not Woke”. Pure gibberish. Its all meaningless pablum.

          People on both sides but especially the right call it the “woke virus”, when wokeism is basically just being aware of the societal pressures put on people of different races, genders etc.

          More broadly, it means to be aware of any culture war issue. Anti-abortion folks were as happy to co-opt the word in their messaging as talk radio jockeys were to sneer at it when discussing civil rights for minorities and immigrants. Tax protesters have made generous use of the term since at least the Reagan Era. Go back far enough and you’ll even see variations of it used in the Red Scare media campaigns of the 60s and 70s.

          It goes back to the presumption that agreement equals enlightenment. And the anti-Woke sentiment is functionally just a reworking of the old Know-Nothing politics of prior centuries.

    • meyotch@slrpnk.net
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      1 year ago

      If you don’t get ‘woke’ I question the sincerity of your entire belief system. ‘Woke’ just means ‘aware of systemic injustices’. If you aren’t aware, how can you be ‘left’ or even liberal?

      • RufusFirefly@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I’m aware of that, I was referring to how the extreme left tends to overcompensate for social injustices.

    • JargonWagon@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Others are pointing out that “woke” just means “being liberal”, though I do think there is more to it than that. The term “woke” is often used satirically by conservatives to describe decisions made by institutions to incorporate liberal ideals where they feel is unnecessary.

      Obligatory “I’m not conservative.” Fiscal conservative, social liberal checking in. Not saying that incorporating liberal ideas into decisions is a bad thing or anything, just stating that’s often how the term is used.

      Not sure why you’re being downvoted, honestly.

      • RufusFirefly@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Who cares about downvotes? That’s a Reddit thing. I’m an old white guy but I vote Democrat all the way down ticket every time. I was a big Bernie Sanders supporter. What I do not like is virtue signaling and forcing diversity into various media when it’s not necessary. Call that anti-woke if you want.