Depends on who is using it. It's either "Aware of structural institutional and social conditions that affect outcomes absent individual intent" or "Everything I personally feel is bad or makes me uncomfortable." Most people use it to mean the latter these days, and it's a meaningless shibboleth that describes everything in general and nothing in particular. Trans is woke, LGBT+ is woke, race is woke, education is woke, government is woke, private companies are woke, my stove is woke, beer is woke, whiskey is woke, Christianity is woke, Atheism is woke, everything is woke, and nothing is woke, and no one knows or cares what it means but they're very mad about it.
Very true. But the fact that it sounds black allows it to be used to efficiently encode white supremacy with plausible deniability. It's probably why it's still used by racist ghouls more than a decade after it was regularly used in the traditional sense. Like, Elon Musk starts ranting about the "woke mind virus" about six years after anyone was regularly using the term. And it really only returned to common usage for a few months.
As a definition? Someone covered it already: aware of social injustices at bare minimum. As a flag? Basically a stand-in for a word that would get someone else banned on a platform. Woke to a rightoid means a woman, ethnic, or of a culture that isnt white/christian/cishet nuclear family profile. I have heard "woke" used to describe Latin Jazz before. It literally just meant ethnic to him.
Initially used by Black USAmericans to mean "aware of the racist reality we live in". Then racists started mocking Black people for saying it and using it as a slur against social movements. Now people mostly treat it as a meme word meaning vaguely left-wing, but in a funny way.
Depends on the context: When used positively it means being aware of social injustice or having empathy for your out group.
When used negatively it means anything/anyone they don't like, and they mostly don't like people who are a different color skin, gender, ablement, or sexual orientation to themselves.
I have always thought of it as having just stopped sleeping, but I think it's been reworked into a slur used on people capable of empathy. I'm still not clear on why empathy is a bad thing though.
Actual meaning? Being "awakened" to the incompleteness of civil rights, aware of the long and difficult social justice work that needs to happen to make oppressed peoples equal, and willing to learn and act in response to that knowledge; particularly as it pertains to the position of Black people in the United States, but generalized more broadly to oppressed peoples outside that group.
But today? It's been co-opted by the Worst People You Know to mean "anything not regressively conservative," and synonymous with "socialist" (the actual definition of which they also don't care about). It is often a red flag that the person you're talking to holds an extremely propagandized view of modern life; and at best thinks that civil rights is done, and at worst thinks that people of color are subhuman.
Calling something “woke” is basically saying “I am an idiot.” The usage of the word means indicates literally nothing about the subject and only reflects the speaker’s lack of education.
"Woke" is the latest term used by American Republican strategists to paint the left as self-righteous, superficial and condescending. It's taken over for "Social Justice Warrior"
Originally, it was all about the awareness of systemic injustice, particularly surrounding African Americans.
Eventually, it shifted to an awareness of systemic flaws in general, and social imbalances and injustice, outside of purely governmental bounds.
Now? It's turned into a clear and easy way to tell someone is a moron because nobody else uses it any more, so it's always someone saying that woke is bad without eve. Understanding what it is
Awakened to the historical and contemporary socio-economic and political realities surrounding colonialist and native populations' ruling classes' manipulation, subjugation, and exploitation of marginalized peoples who were and are deemed as the "others".
Woke is not caring about how someone who uses the handicap bathroom stall.
Trans people, disabled people, elderly people. If you stand and watch someone go in and out of the handi-cap bathroom, and think that them existing is not fair to you.... you're anti-woke.
To me personally, "woke" means living in the real world.
A lot of people nowadays reject reality and prefer to live in a world of falsehood. They desire a simpler world, so they refuse to acknowledge the complexities of the world.
Woke people don't do that. They engage with reality, not fiction. Which is what makes them a danger to those that do prefer to escape to a simpler fictional world. Hence them denying and opposing woke. It's a defensive reaction to a perceived threat to their alternate worldview.
Or at least that's how I see it.
Woke means being good and genuinely accepting of all human beings regardless of anything. Also being accepting of human rights also and not being afraid to speak up for goodness too.
Honestly, it's not really a part of my vocabulary, but I think a bit of history on the term is interesting here.
The word "woke" actually came from a certain segment of the left, originally, to describe themselves. They were using it as to say "we're awake and are aware of the way things are", almost the way some people (with vastly different opinions) talk(ed?) about being redpilled. Mind you, it was often used as a kind of virtue signalling, which already gave it a fairly snobby undertone. Add to that that it implied that everyone else was asleep or dreaming, and it was not well received by many, not just amongst the right. That's where it was picked up by the right to be used to this day as "anything that seems left of my position that I want to rail against", taking advantage of that poorly received undertone and painting everything to the left of them with that brush. Meanwhile, it's been ages since I've seen someone on the left use the term to describe themself unironically.
The term "woke" was used back during the civil rights era in the 60s to describe someone who is awake to the injustices against people of color. Its not a new term.
[Edit]
Apparently it has been used since the 1930s
15 years ago when woke was more a liberal word I just thought it was dudes pretending to be feminists to get laid. Now that conservatives took it over, they seem to use it as a label for anything they don't like. So that means anything woke is now good.
Its kinda like how conservatives used to call the left snowflakes but now we call them snowflakes because they throw temper tantrums about the smallest things.
Originally it meant being aware of racial inequality and injustices
The way it is currently used seems to mean being in favour of diversity and it's said like that's a bad thing somehow
I don't understand why the people referred to as woke don't seem to be reclaiming the word. They take it as an insult when it should be taken as a compliment to be aware of injustices and in favour of correcting injustice. Why don't we start using it as a compliment and erase its power as an insult?
Originally it meant what it sounds like: to be awake and alert about what is really going in around you, and not being pulled into a false sense of security or fooled by propaganda. This is as old as the 1930s, then got repopularized by Eryka Badu in the 90s. There were some minor memes about it like "wake up sheeple!" poking fun at truthers, or "woke vs broke". Sometimes a meme, sometimes legit messaging.
Broke: Racism is over bro, and slavery was a million years ago.
Woke: Racism has gotten more hidden and insidious. There have been systematic changes to keep racial minorities in the poor parts of town with lots of crime, the FBI introduced crack cocaine to inner cities in the 80s, and then fake post racism truthers glorified gangs and the drug trade and praised it as "black culture". Then they proceed to have private prisons and have young black men perform slave labor in jail when they are inevitably arrested, as a way to get around traditional slave labor."
Then the state of high budget media devolved into what it now is: pandering, fake "woke" garbage with race swapping popular characters. Inevitably this rage baited a lot of people, even minorities that are supposedly being "represented" now. So "woke" became an ironic term to mean "fake woke", rainbow capitalism as one example.
Then this ironic use got way out of hand and just means "any positive messaging about anything remotely progressive" or "acknowledging that nonwhite males exist sometimes" or even "something that I don't like". In a way, this in a way is back to the original meaning. Reactionary conservatives hate anything that breaks them out of their fragile bubble and makes them consider reality for what it is.
Both original meaning and ironic meaning is somewhat usable still, but only if I have already gotten to know someone and where they stand politically and ethically. To have someone I don't know well bring up the term unprompted in a non joking way throws up red flags.
In a way, this in a way is back to the original meaning.
You know I haven't thought about it like that but you're right. I was still on "everything they don't like is woke now" but yeah that's sort of the same idea from the other side.
Being 'awake' to the fact that there are many injustices built into the systems and laws that society uses to govern itself. At the end of the day, people are people. We all deserve the same respect and dignity as each other, no matter what our differences may be. We also deserve to be treated equitably, meaning that those below our standard may need much more help than we do to get to the same level. There's nothing unfair about this.
Wake the fuck up, Dude! You’re getting fucked in every direction. Food, health care, housing, transportation, retirement, local services, weather, entertainment, financials, news, human rights, security. Not just you but everyone else different from you too. It’s not the majority that’s on the same level as you, it’s those handfuls of bad and corrupt people on all political sides at city hall control level and up. From your town, to your county, to your state, to your country’s capital and even everyone else outside our shit hole that’s stinking up this planet. Wake. The. Fuck. Up. Dude!
When I became aware of this word, well before it became an insult in the mouths of people like Trump and Tucker Carlson, it meant:
Realizing that mainstream American culture actively buries and lies about its worst oppressions of people in a fog of falsehood that stifles progress in favor of soothing the masses. Once you “wake up” from this collective dream, you can’t fall for it anymore: that America is a land of freedom, democracy equality and opportunity for all. It is in fact a deeply class-stratified society built on Indian and Black holocausts which has toppled democratically elected governments around the world, rules by military might, and habitually refuses to face its racism, sexism, and religious bias. It is a place where nationalism is called patriotism. Once you scrape the scales from your eyes you will see this everywhere. You will have woken up.
It's a word people use to communicate that they hate anymore who shows any signs of intelligence, compassion and/or critical thinking skills.
Climate change? Yeah it may be over 98f for the 9th of the ten last days in Wisconsin, and there's literally visible/smelly smoke haze from the wildfires in Canada hundreds of miles north of us. But climate change is just woke libtard bullshit. If gas was $1 a gallon like in my childhood, everything else would be like how I remember, and there wouldn't be any global warming.
It's the same stupid half cocked logic for all of their propaganda
Consider why conspiracy theorists always "they don't want you to X", "they" could mean the Illuminati, Deep state, Freemasons, the Catholic church, Jewish cabals or whichever group you think has power. As long as you say "they", everyone will nod and fill in the blank to their personal boogeyman.
Now woke originally meant being aware of racism, but since 2020 and the George Floyd protests, which the right demonized as woke riots. It then became a catchall term for any acknowledgment of structural imbalances.
Acknowledging racism is woke. MLK and Lincoln fixed it. Stop protesting.
Acknowledging sexism is woke. Suffragettes fixed it. Stop protesting.
Acknowledging homophobia is woke. They can get married, so it's fixed. Stop protesting.
Acknowledging transphobia is woke. Trans folk are evil pedophiles. Stop protesting.
Acknowledging ICE killings is woke. Immigrants are dangerous. Stop protesting.
Woke is used as a pejorative to describe someone who doesn't think the world is perfect. If you think the world could be improved for any particular group then your woke and should be ignored.
It means to not be unconcious. To be awake and aware of reality. To take many valid frames and experiences into concideration. To be woke is a compliment about your ability to think holistically.
Being woke plays on the idea that most people are asleep. This is true in the sense that we live inside a machine that destroys the foundation of life on earth. We could also say that we live in a matrix and have to wake up from the simulation/dream.
Being asleep can also be seen as sufficiently consenting to the matrix, because you are either with the matrix or against it. Being silent is to be with it.
The positive use has been covered by other comments. Aware of things.
The negative use is much like certain red hats. It helps show which people to avoid having discussions with, as they'll beat you with their experience in idiocy. My usual response to them if any at all is "the opposite of woke is sleeping".
realizing bs around you. global warming is real and we are on the worst case trajectory because we are practically trying to accelerate it and if it was not a thing the pollution we do is just as bad but not as definitive. in the us realizing the constitution is being regularly violated by the current administration. Recognizing the vast wealth disparity is setting our economic systems up for collapse beyone anything seen before. and that all these things when left to fester will lead to crazy wars and such that we can't even guess at will happen.
Yeah, I think the word means the same to both groups, and the ones using it in a positive sense just needs to own it. Don't let the ones using it sarcastically take ownership of that use.
If someone called me "wOkE" to my face, I'd say "yes I'm woke, do you have problem with that?"
It means anti- fascist.
If I'm called that,
it means the person who called me that,
Needs to have lesson taught or elimination from the species based on thier current position in leadership.
People joining movements without shred of struggle to support them and after they had already succeeded
For me woke people are privileged loud members of communities that are missing basic principles those communities stand for, and you can find them absolutely everywhere in every grouping ever, nationality based grouping, religious based grouping, ideology based grouping, i see all those as "woke" in my view
Well, seeing as it kinda comes from the "waking up" of those who thought we didn't have any problems just because they never experienced them personally. Hence them now being woke to ths problems they had been sleeping on.
There's no woke groups, there's only woke individuals in groups
Woke individual leftists that vote fascists into power due to believing electoralism can never fail making their actions valid, going against empowering the people principles leftists stand for
Woke individual LGBTQ members that scrutinize any work not favoring their agenda with belief it's done to normalize it making their actions valid, going against principles of inclusivity the movements stands for
Woke individual religious members that advocate for enforcing their beliefs and traditions on others or turning blind eye to violence from their members with the idea that spreading the belief is the right thing, going against the aspect of free will and choice advocated by the religions
Woke individual nationalists that target minorities in their own country as not fitting the right identity or image the country stands for for the sake of establishing unity, going against national pride with all it's diversity of culture that "nationalism" stands for(i have to put this one in quotes as the word's meaning has been completely ruined from this by now)
Woke individual competitors that in pursuit of being the best at an activity decide to result to cheating or sabotaging other competitors for the sake of breaking records and making the competitive scene more competitive, going against the fairness principles that those activities and competitors in it stood for
This is how i see the word woke, nothing to do with any group, any title, any identity, i see it as individuals who violate the principles they claim to stand for, and it always gets done with the belief it's right, the "woke" in my definition are people i have to actively disassociate from their identities no matter how hard they try to make the two inseparable
You're only ever going to find matches for this in places that lack suffering, leftists in struggle never compromise in for stability, struggling inclusivity movements never isolate people, religions under antisemitism never enforce their beliefs, countries in crisis never infight over identity, competitors in dying or new activity never indulge or tolerate unfairness
Struggle is what kills wokeness, it brings people back to the roots of their beliefs, i think there's nothing more pure than niche communities because they stand behind the principles that brought them all there 10 times out of 10 or they end up dissolving
It is a term as old as language with all sorts of different meanings, but the specific modern meaning used in modern media was definitely invented by them.
You have unfortunately just fallen prey to their propaganda and revisionist history about the usage of the term if you believe otherwise.
i remember there being some twitter trend around it, kind of like the "me too" movement too. I think that is what started the current usage of the word.
Also, why would they invent such a word and not some more derogatory one? "Woke" has quite positive spin, being aware and stuff. The reason they use it as negative word is because its against everything they believe in. Woke people are literally a threat to them because they want to keep hating and abusing others. They want to keep doing the shit they are doing and anyone no indifferent to it is a problem.
saying they invented it is more akin to propaganda and revisionist history to me because it takes something away from the word, makes it lesser.
I remember there being some twitter trend around it, kind of like the “me too” movement too
No you don't, that is exactly what I am talking about. You are remembering the right wing press explaining this term to you and accepting their explaination.
Also, why would they invent such a word and not some more derogatory one?
You are talking about fascists who spun "social justice warrior" as a negative term. Who the fuck is against social justice? Social justice is a good thing. Fascists, that's who. And who on the left labelled themselves "social justice warriors", noone, because it was a term invented by the fascists, despite its literal meaning.
saying they invented it is more akin to propaganda and revisionist history to me because it takes something away from the word
Who cares if somebody takes something from the word. Stop using it. It is not important. It means nothing, it is a Grundbegriff to use the language of Koselleck. It means everything and nothing, it is a term which has been used for so many things that anybody can claim anything about its meaning. It is literally meaningless.. Use your own language, stand up to the fascists and find your own words for things, instead of mindlessly accepting their nonsense.
look, i live in country with fortuitous lack of facists. or at least ones we have seem to keep mostly to themselves. I have never read anything regarding this from press or other source so that memory is pretty much only thing i have on the matter. it was black lives matter during ferguson protests that started using it, according to wikipedia.
though i kind of agree that on this point its quite pointless word to use beyond shitty people self-identifying themselves by raving how woke everything is.
84 Comments
ArseAssassin@sopuli.xyz · 94 pts · 19d
daggermoon@piefed.world · 6 pts · 19d
classic
wake@quokk.au · 4 pts · 19d
Should update this somehow to include "communist" and "socialist".
naught101@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 19d
I think technically that would be a downdate
Steve@communick.news · 94 pts · 19d
Currently, it's a largely meaningless buzword used exclusively by a hate group to smear something as bad.
criss_cross@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 18d
It’s my barometer of “should I take this person seriously”. If they use the term it tells me they’re a bit too far in the deep end.
unmagical@lemmy.ml · 68 pts · 19d
Aware of social injustices and a desire for them to be removed.
GreenBeard@lemmy.ca · 41 pts · 19d
Depends on who is using it. It's either "Aware of structural institutional and social conditions that affect outcomes absent individual intent" or "Everything I personally feel is bad or makes me uncomfortable." Most people use it to mean the latter these days, and it's a meaningless shibboleth that describes everything in general and nothing in particular. Trans is woke, LGBT+ is woke, race is woke, education is woke, government is woke, private companies are woke, my stove is woke, beer is woke, whiskey is woke, Christianity is woke, Atheism is woke, everything is woke, and nothing is woke, and no one knows or cares what it means but they're very mad about it.
Hairyfishnuts@sh.itjust.works · 6 pts · 19d
IWW4@lemmy.zip · 36 pts · 19d
To me woke is a term that right wing, sexist, racist, miserable, shitty people use.
breakfastmtn@lemmy.ca · 12 pts · 19d
Hey now, don't forget about the racists! It was adopted as a pejorative by the racist far-right because it "sounds" black.
Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world · 19 pts · 19d
Technically, it IS black. That's where the term started.
breakfastmtn@lemmy.ca · 5 pts · 19d
Very true. But the fact that it sounds black allows it to be used to efficiently encode white supremacy with plausible deniability. It's probably why it's still used by racist ghouls more than a decade after it was regularly used in the traditional sense. Like, Elon Musk starts ranting about the "woke mind virus" about six years after anyone was regularly using the term. And it really only returned to common usage for a few months.
IWW4@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 19d
Oh man,good point.
Eddited.
daggermoon@piefed.world · 4 pts · 19d
It didn't use to be. Lead Belly was an early user of the word.
1egg4u@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 19d
As a definition? Someone covered it already: aware of social injustices at bare minimum. As a flag? Basically a stand-in for a word that would get someone else banned on a platform. Woke to a rightoid means a woman, ethnic, or of a culture that isnt white/christian/cishet nuclear family profile. I have heard "woke" used to describe Latin Jazz before. It literally just meant ethnic to him.
communism@lemmy.ml · 13 pts · 19d
Initially used by Black USAmericans to mean "aware of the racist reality we live in". Then racists started mocking Black people for saying it and using it as a slur against social movements. Now people mostly treat it as a meme word meaning vaguely left-wing, but in a funny way.
Venator@lemmy.nz · 13 pts · 19d
Depends on the context: When used positively it means being aware of social injustice or having empathy for your out group.
When used negatively it means anything/anyone they don't like, and they mostly don't like people who are a different color skin, gender, ablement, or sexual orientation to themselves.
VinegarChunks@lemmus.org · 12 pts · 18d
Caring about other people
reksas@sopuli.xyz · 11 pts · 19d
at this point its more of a way for assholes to out themselves by raving about how "woke" everything is.
but essentially it means to me being aware of things (more than just racism)
BradleyUffner@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 18d
Being aware of, and trying to fix structural inequality
AstroLightz@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 19d
The past tense of wake of course.
Pissmidget@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 19d
I have always thought of it as having just stopped sleeping, but I think it's been reworked into a slur used on people capable of empathy. I'm still not clear on why empathy is a bad thing though.
ilinamorato@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 19d
Actual meaning? Being "awakened" to the incompleteness of civil rights, aware of the long and difficult social justice work that needs to happen to make oppressed peoples equal, and willing to learn and act in response to that knowledge; particularly as it pertains to the position of Black people in the United States, but generalized more broadly to oppressed peoples outside that group.
But today? It's been co-opted by the Worst People You Know to mean "anything not regressively conservative," and synonymous with "socialist" (the actual definition of which they also don't care about). It is often a red flag that the person you're talking to holds an extremely propagandized view of modern life; and at best thinks that civil rights is done, and at worst thinks that people of color are subhuman.
Diddlydee@feddit.uk · 10 pts · 19d
Recently stopped sleeping.
Or.
How twats refer to anything they don't agree with, anything that involves a minority, or any person or thing or institution they don't like.
disregardable@lemmy.zip · 10 pts · 19d
Calling something “woke” is basically saying “I am an idiot.” The usage of the word means indicates literally nothing about the subject and only reflects the speaker’s lack of education.
ChristerMLB@piefed.social · 9 pts · 18d
"Woke" is the latest term used by American Republican strategists to paint the left as self-righteous, superficial and condescending. It's taken over for "Social Justice Warrior"
bstix@feddit.dk · 3 pts · 18d
The word has existed in American politics since the 1930s.
It is only recently that it is being used by Republicans as a negative term.
ChristerMLB@piefed.social · 1 pts · 16d
sure, yeah, and I'm sure they didn't invent "Social Justice Warrior" either, or "Politically Correct" before that
the_xboxkiller@lemmy.zip · 8 pts · 18d
Eyes open, you can see thru the bs.
southsamurai@sh.itjust.works · 8 pts · 19d
Originally, it was all about the awareness of systemic injustice, particularly surrounding African Americans.
Eventually, it shifted to an awareness of systemic flaws in general, and social imbalances and injustice, outside of purely governmental bounds.
Now? It's turned into a clear and easy way to tell someone is a moron because nobody else uses it any more, so it's always someone saying that woke is bad without eve. Understanding what it is
pineapplelover@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 8 pts · 17d
Anything the right doesn't like basically. Solar panels? Woke. No war crimes? Woke. Trans rights. Absolutely woke.
Burninator05@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 17d
Agreed. It's whatever conservative leaders want their base riled up about.
EffortlessGrace@piefed.social · 8 pts · 19d
Awakened to the historical and contemporary socio-economic and political realities surrounding colonialist and native populations' ruling classes' manipulation, subjugation, and exploitation of marginalized peoples who were and are deemed as the "others".
UpAndAtThem@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 18d
It's just a new flavor of an old shit sandwich, In my lifetime:
Bleeding heart
PC thug
SJW
Woke mob
It's all the same bullshit class warfare in reality.
piskertariot@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 19d
Woke is not caring about how someone who uses the handicap bathroom stall.
Trans people, disabled people, elderly people. If you stand and watch someone go in and out of the handi-cap bathroom, and think that them existing is not fair to you.... you're anti-woke.
gibmiser@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 19d
Caring about people outside of your friends and family.
AdolfSchmitler@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 18d
When someone wants a group of people to not like something without giving them a reason to, they label it "woke", usually for political reasons.
neidu3@sh.itjust.works · 6 pts · 19d
A combination of "Awareness of systematic biases" and "thoughtfulness of people different from me"
Pamasich@kbin.earth · 6 pts · 19d
To me personally, "woke" means living in the real world.
A lot of people nowadays reject reality and prefer to live in a world of falsehood. They desire a simpler world, so they refuse to acknowledge the complexities of the world.
Woke people don't do that. They engage with reality, not fiction. Which is what makes them a danger to those that do prefer to escape to a simpler fictional world. Hence them denying and opposing woke. It's a defensive reaction to a perceived threat to their alternate worldview.
Or at least that's how I see it.
WingsofLove03@retrolemmy.com · 6 pts · 18d
Woke means being good and genuinely accepting of all human beings regardless of anything. Also being accepting of human rights also and not being afraid to speak up for goodness too.
daggermoon@piefed.world · 6 pts · 19d
I started calling myself a woke libtard ironically. Woke just means you give a shit about your fellow human beings. A wild concept for right wingers.
unknownuserunknownlocation@kbin.earth · 6 pts · 19d
Honestly, it's not really a part of my vocabulary, but I think a bit of history on the term is interesting here.
The word "woke" actually came from a certain segment of the left, originally, to describe themselves. They were using it as to say "we're awake and are aware of the way things are", almost the way some people (with vastly different opinions) talk(ed?) about being redpilled. Mind you, it was often used as a kind of virtue signalling, which already gave it a fairly snobby undertone. Add to that that it implied that everyone else was asleep or dreaming, and it was not well received by many, not just amongst the right. That's where it was picked up by the right to be used to this day as "anything that seems left of my position that I want to rail against", taking advantage of that poorly received undertone and painting everything to the left of them with that brush. Meanwhile, it's been ages since I've seen someone on the left use the term to describe themself unironically.
9tr6gyp3@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 19d
The term "woke" was used back during the civil rights era in the 60s to describe someone who is awake to the injustices against people of color. Its not a new term.
[Edit] Apparently it has been used since the 1930s
unknown@piefed.social · 6 pts · 19d
I use 'woke' and 'sjw' with a heavy dose of irony when dealing with bullshit from people who get off on tone policing and acting holier than thou.
It's truly sad how many of these bigots are lefty/liberal/anarchist identifying, hence the irony.
blindbunny@lemmy.ml · 6 pts · 18d
As an American, the acknowledgement that we live in a state that was started by slavers on land that was stolen from indigenous people.
hardcoreufo@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 17d
15 years ago when woke was more a liberal word I just thought it was dudes pretending to be feminists to get laid. Now that conservatives took it over, they seem to use it as a label for anything they don't like. So that means anything woke is now good.
Its kinda like how conservatives used to call the left snowflakes but now we call them snowflakes because they throw temper tantrums about the smallest things.
FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca · 5 pts · 19d
Originally it meant being aware of racial inequality and injustices
The way it is currently used seems to mean being in favour of diversity and it's said like that's a bad thing somehow
I don't understand why the people referred to as woke don't seem to be reclaiming the word. They take it as an insult when it should be taken as a compliment to be aware of injustices and in favour of correcting injustice. Why don't we start using it as a compliment and erase its power as an insult?
BladeFederation@piefed.social · 5 pts · 19d
Originally it meant what it sounds like: to be awake and alert about what is really going in around you, and not being pulled into a false sense of security or fooled by propaganda. This is as old as the 1930s, then got repopularized by Eryka Badu in the 90s. There were some minor memes about it like "wake up sheeple!" poking fun at truthers, or "woke vs broke". Sometimes a meme, sometimes legit messaging.
Broke: Racism is over bro, and slavery was a million years ago.
Woke: Racism has gotten more hidden and insidious. There have been systematic changes to keep racial minorities in the poor parts of town with lots of crime, the FBI introduced crack cocaine to inner cities in the 80s, and then fake post racism truthers glorified gangs and the drug trade and praised it as "black culture". Then they proceed to have private prisons and have young black men perform slave labor in jail when they are inevitably arrested, as a way to get around traditional slave labor."
Then the state of high budget media devolved into what it now is: pandering, fake "woke" garbage with race swapping popular characters. Inevitably this rage baited a lot of people, even minorities that are supposedly being "represented" now. So "woke" became an ironic term to mean "fake woke", rainbow capitalism as one example.
Then this ironic use got way out of hand and just means "any positive messaging about anything remotely progressive" or "acknowledging that nonwhite males exist sometimes" or even "something that I don't like". In a way, this in a way is back to the original meaning. Reactionary conservatives hate anything that breaks them out of their fragile bubble and makes them consider reality for what it is.
Both original meaning and ironic meaning is somewhat usable still, but only if I have already gotten to know someone and where they stand politically and ethically. To have someone I don't know well bring up the term unprompted in a non joking way throws up red flags.
Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk
Bongles@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 19d
You know I haven't thought about it like that but you're right. I was still on "everything they don't like is woke now" but yeah that's sort of the same idea from the other side.
SuiXi3D@fedia.io · 5 pts · 19d
Being 'awake' to the fact that there are many injustices built into the systems and laws that society uses to govern itself. At the end of the day, people are people. We all deserve the same respect and dignity as each other, no matter what our differences may be. We also deserve to be treated equitably, meaning that those below our standard may need much more help than we do to get to the same level. There's nothing unfair about this.
panda_abyss@lemmy.ca · 4 pts · 19d
Doing the bare minimum to not be an asshole in every situation is considered woke.
SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca · 4 pts · 19d
Used to mean awareness of inequality.
Now it's just a lazy way to express dislike for pretty much anything.
thirdBreakfast@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 19d
"Kind" - any action or position where you consider the effect of your actions on others. It's the opposite of selfishness.
xSikes@feddit.online · 4 pts · 19d
Wake the fuck up, Dude! You’re getting fucked in every direction. Food, health care, housing, transportation, retirement, local services, weather, entertainment, financials, news, human rights, security. Not just you but everyone else different from you too. It’s not the majority that’s on the same level as you, it’s those handfuls of bad and corrupt people on all political sides at city hall control level and up. From your town, to your county, to your state, to your country’s capital and even everyone else outside our shit hole that’s stinking up this planet. Wake. The. Fuck. Up. Dude!
scarabic@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 19d
When I became aware of this word, well before it became an insult in the mouths of people like Trump and Tucker Carlson, it meant:
Realizing that mainstream American culture actively buries and lies about its worst oppressions of people in a fog of falsehood that stifles progress in favor of soothing the masses. Once you “wake up” from this collective dream, you can’t fall for it anymore: that America is a land of freedom, democracy equality and opportunity for all. It is in fact a deeply class-stratified society built on Indian and Black holocausts which has toppled democratically elected governments around the world, rules by military might, and habitually refuses to face its racism, sexism, and religious bias. It is a place where nationalism is called patriotism. Once you scrape the scales from your eyes you will see this everywhere. You will have woken up.
passenger@sopuli.xyz · 4 pts · 19d
Red flag. Person who uses it is somewhere from just plain dumb and slightly toxic to downright fascistic.
Fishnoodle@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 19d
It's a word people use to communicate that they hate anymore who shows any signs of intelligence, compassion and/or critical thinking skills.
Climate change? Yeah it may be over 98f for the 9th of the ten last days in Wisconsin, and there's literally visible/smelly smoke haze from the wildfires in Canada hundreds of miles north of us. But climate change is just woke libtard bullshit. If gas was $1 a gallon like in my childhood, everything else would be like how I remember, and there wouldn't be any global warming.
It's the same stupid half cocked logic for all of their propaganda
sunsofold@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 18d
To save time, we (as in the world of English speakers) are not on the same page regarding woke.
inb4_FoundTheVegan@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 19d
Consider why conspiracy theorists always "they don't want you to X", "they" could mean the Illuminati, Deep state, Freemasons, the Catholic church, Jewish cabals or whichever group you think has power. As long as you say "they", everyone will nod and fill in the blank to their personal boogeyman.
Now woke originally meant being aware of racism, but since 2020 and the George Floyd protests, which the right demonized as woke riots. It then became a catchall term for any acknowledgment of structural imbalances.
Woke is used as a pejorative to describe someone who doesn't think the world is perfect. If you think the world could be improved for any particular group then your woke and should be ignored.
vegafjord@slrpnk.net · 3 pts · 18d
It means to not be unconcious. To be awake and aware of reality. To take many valid frames and experiences into concideration. To be woke is a compliment about your ability to think holistically.
Being woke plays on the idea that most people are asleep. This is true in the sense that we live inside a machine that destroys the foundation of life on earth. We could also say that we live in a matrix and have to wake up from the simulation/dream.
Being asleep can also be seen as sufficiently consenting to the matrix, because you are either with the matrix or against it. Being silent is to be with it.
bender223@lemmy.today · 3 pts · 17d
not Republican
Rhaedas@fedia.io · 3 pts · 19d
The positive use has been covered by other comments. Aware of things.
The negative use is much like certain red hats. It helps show which people to avoid having discussions with, as they'll beat you with their experience in idiocy. My usual response to them if any at all is "the opposite of woke is sleeping".
bryndos@fedia.io · 2 pts · 19d
Not being asleep any more. Like Bill and Ted after they meet Woke-rates.
Bwaz@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 17d
Woke: Give the slightest damn anout anyone less lucky than yourself.
I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 18d
Anything conservatives are told to hate.
HubertManne@piefed.social · 2 pts · 19d
realizing bs around you. global warming is real and we are on the worst case trajectory because we are practically trying to accelerate it and if it was not a thing the pollution we do is just as bad but not as definitive. in the us realizing the constitution is being regularly violated by the current administration. Recognizing the vast wealth disparity is setting our economic systems up for collapse beyone anything seen before. and that all these things when left to fester will lead to crazy wars and such that we can't even guess at will happen.
bigchungus@piefed.blahaj.zone · 2 pts · 19d
Based, epic, good. I need to become more woke.
bstix@feddit.dk · 1 pts · 18d
The definition is one thing. You can easily look it up.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woke
The use is another. People are obviously not on the same page in the way it is used.
Hairyfishnuts@feddit.online · 2 pts · 17d
bstix@feddit.dk · 1 pts · 17d
Yeah, I think the word means the same to both groups, and the ones using it in a positive sense just needs to own it. Don't let the ones using it sarcastically take ownership of that use.
If someone called me "wOkE" to my face, I'd say "yes I'm woke, do you have problem with that?"
mrdown@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 18d
It means nothing. It is a conversention ender to shut down arguments.
Bluedragon012@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 18d
It means anti- fascist. If I'm called that, it means the person who called me that, Needs to have lesson taught or elimination from the species based on thier current position in leadership.
PotatoPie@lemmy.zip · 0 pts · 18d
People joining movements without shred of struggle to support them and after they had already succeeded
For me woke people are privileged loud members of communities that are missing basic principles those communities stand for, and you can find them absolutely everywhere in every grouping ever, nationality based grouping, religious based grouping, ideology based grouping, i see all those as "woke" in my view
HerbalGamer@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 18d
Well, seeing as it kinda comes from the "waking up" of those who thought we didn't have any problems just because they never experienced them personally. Hence them now being woke to ths problems they had been sleeping on.
Witchfire@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 18d
Exactly what "woke" groups do you consider "already succeeded"..?
PotatoPie@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 18d
There's no woke groups, there's only woke individuals in groups
Woke individual leftists that vote fascists into power due to believing electoralism can never fail making their actions valid, going against empowering the people principles leftists stand for
Woke individual LGBTQ members that scrutinize any work not favoring their agenda with belief it's done to normalize it making their actions valid, going against principles of inclusivity the movements stands for
Woke individual religious members that advocate for enforcing their beliefs and traditions on others or turning blind eye to violence from their members with the idea that spreading the belief is the right thing, going against the aspect of free will and choice advocated by the religions
Woke individual nationalists that target minorities in their own country as not fitting the right identity or image the country stands for for the sake of establishing unity, going against national pride with all it's diversity of culture that "nationalism" stands for(i have to put this one in quotes as the word's meaning has been completely ruined from this by now)
Woke individual competitors that in pursuit of being the best at an activity decide to result to cheating or sabotaging other competitors for the sake of breaking records and making the competitive scene more competitive, going against the fairness principles that those activities and competitors in it stood for
This is how i see the word woke, nothing to do with any group, any title, any identity, i see it as individuals who violate the principles they claim to stand for, and it always gets done with the belief it's right, the "woke" in my definition are people i have to actively disassociate from their identities no matter how hard they try to make the two inseparable
PotatoPie@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 18d
You're only ever going to find matches for this in places that lack suffering, leftists in struggle never compromise in for stability, struggling inclusivity movements never isolate people, religions under antisemitism never enforce their beliefs, countries in crisis never infight over identity, competitors in dying or new activity never indulge or tolerate unfairness
Struggle is what kills wokeness, it brings people back to the roots of their beliefs, i think there's nothing more pure than niche communities because they stand behind the principles that brought them all there 10 times out of 10 or they end up dissolving
holy_scroller@lemmy.zip · 0 pts · 17d
Abridging the liberties of a majority of people (maybe in a very small way) in order to fix a perceived wrong of a small minority.
Not a value judgement; these can be good and bad.
DioramaOfShit@lemmy.world · -1 pts · 19d
Something I dont like or agree with
Rothe@piefed.social · -1 pts · 19d
It is a derogatory term invented by fascists, and is used by them for anything they disapprove of.
reksas@sopuli.xyz · 3 pts · 19d
it wasnt invented by them
Rothe@piefed.social · 0 pts · 18d
It is a term as old as language with all sorts of different meanings, but the specific modern meaning used in modern media was definitely invented by them.
You have unfortunately just fallen prey to their propaganda and revisionist history about the usage of the term if you believe otherwise.
reksas@sopuli.xyz · 0 pts · 18d
i remember there being some twitter trend around it, kind of like the "me too" movement too. I think that is what started the current usage of the word.
Also, why would they invent such a word and not some more derogatory one? "Woke" has quite positive spin, being aware and stuff. The reason they use it as negative word is because its against everything they believe in. Woke people are literally a threat to them because they want to keep hating and abusing others. They want to keep doing the shit they are doing and anyone no indifferent to it is a problem.
saying they invented it is more akin to propaganda and revisionist history to me because it takes something away from the word, makes it lesser.
Rothe@piefed.social · 1 pts · 18d
No you don't, that is exactly what I am talking about. You are remembering the right wing press explaining this term to you and accepting their explaination.
You are talking about fascists who spun "social justice warrior" as a negative term. Who the fuck is against social justice? Social justice is a good thing. Fascists, that's who. And who on the left labelled themselves "social justice warriors", noone, because it was a term invented by the fascists, despite its literal meaning.
Who cares if somebody takes something from the word. Stop using it. It is not important. It means nothing, it is a Grundbegriff to use the language of Koselleck. It means everything and nothing, it is a term which has been used for so many things that anybody can claim anything about its meaning. It is literally meaningless.. Use your own language, stand up to the fascists and find your own words for things, instead of mindlessly accepting their nonsense.
reksas@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 18d
look, i live in country with fortuitous lack of facists. or at least ones we have seem to keep mostly to themselves. I have never read anything regarding this from press or other source so that memory is pretty much only thing i have on the matter. it was black lives matter during ferguson protests that started using it, according to wikipedia.
though i kind of agree that on this point its quite pointless word to use beyond shitty people self-identifying themselves by raving how woke everything is.
Cypher45@lemmy.dbzer0.com · -1 pts · 17d
Treczoks@lemmy.world · -2 pts · 18d
It's a bogus term invented by the right-winger conservatives as a general label for everything they can't comprehend with their tiny brains.