What is 'woke' and why do we use it?

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D.P. said:
Not really, i am woke and proud to be woke. Every normal functional human should be woke, otherwise you literally are for racism, discrimination, and injustice. Which is why the the word, when used properly is relatively pointless because it essentially means you are not a despicable human. So the value now is more to those who self-identify as anti-woke
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More or less how I feel. I look at the term in a way of acknowledging that I am awake to some of my subconscious prejudices. I'm not perfect. I don't believe I hold any racist or sexist views and I feel like I'm supportive to those in my life who identify as homosexual etc but I am aware that I need to understand other things a bit more. I really struggle with understanding and accepting the whole trans movement, I don't necessarily agree with it but I'm aware enough to realise it's not my life and in 99.99% of cases, it has zero impact on my life how someone choses to live. I may struggle to agree or understand it but I try not to make my prejudice against the idea of it cloud the way I would treat someone/the group.

At least that's what the term means to me.
 
darkgen said:
It would seem some "out-groups" are, characteristically, what would have been considered as societal norms ergo to most would appear redundant and thus identity with, frivolous.
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Sadly, there are some people in the world trying to turn those characteristics back into ‘out-groups’, presumably for power and control purposes by making it an ‘us vs them’ thing.
 
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Junglist said:
More or less how I feel. I look at the term in a way of acknowledging that I am awake to some of my subconscious prejudices. I'm not perfect. I don't believe I hold any racist or sexist views and I feel like I'm supportive to those in my life who identify as homosexual etc but I am aware that I need to understand other things a bit more. I really struggle with understanding and accepting the whole trans movement, I don't necessarily agree with it but I'm aware enough to realise it's not my life and in 99.99% of cases, it has zero impact on my life how someone choses to live. I may struggle to agree or understand it but I try not to make my prejudice against the idea of it cloud the way I would treat someone/the group.

At least that's what the term means to me.
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Is ‘woke’ just another term for being open-minded?
 
Junglist said:
I suppose at it's core it's about being open minded and accepting that we're all different.
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From an intellectual point of view, the tolerant need to be tolerant of the intolerant. The problem arises when the intolerant start having a measurable negative impact on the lives of those who are tolerant.

It feels right in that situation for the tolerant to be given license to stop being tolerant, as a means to stamp out the attempts to discriminate by the intolerant. Otherwise the intolerant get to set the agenda and rule over everyone.
 
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mrochester said:
From an intellectual point of view, the tolerant need to be tolerant of the intolerant. The problem arises when the intolerant start having a measurable negative impact on the lives of those who are tolerant.

It feels right in that situation for the tolerant to be given license to stop being tolerant, as a means to stamp out the attempts to discriminate by the intolerant. Otherwise the intolerant get to set the agenda and rule over everyone.
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A tolerant society actually needs to be intolerant of intolerance , this is a well known dichotomy.
 
wesimmo said:
Is it not just the opposite of being a bigot?

Certainly anybody I encounter who is 'anti woke' tends to be a bigot.
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I think it's the same as the one doing the rounds before about how not every Brexit voter was a racist but all racists voted for Brexit.

Not all anti-woke people are bigots but all bigots are anti-woke I guess would be the equivalent. I mean I'd use a different word than 'bigot' but hey ho.
 
D.P. said:
Not really, i am woke and proud to be woke. Every normal functional human should be woke, otherwise you literally are for racism, discrimination, and injustice. Which is why the the word, when used properly is relatively pointless because it essentially means you are not a despicable human. So the value now is more to those who self-identify as anti-woke
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Firstly, I'd question the implication that every human must be this one thing you believe to be the only true way, otherwise they're utterly against you and painted as despicable undesirables who should be eliminated from the human race. Such things never go down well, in the end.
Secondly, such words are rarely used correctly anyway ('woke' as used here really isn't grammatically correct) and, as mentioned, societal meanings change - For example, 'gay' has three different meaning now.
Thirdly, woke has a different meaning to each individual. For some, it's about being aware of institutionalised racial prejudice in America. For others, it's about knowing all the 40+ sets of gender neutral pronouns without having to look them up. For others still, it's about virtue-signalling support for woke causes, in lieu of driving actual change.

Given how many intolerant idiots have hopped on the woke wagon as a means of bashing the general populace and beating their own drum about some overzealous personal ideology, I'd argue that the term is all but redundant and quite deserving of its current derogatory inference.

Good people don't need rules, and they don't need labels to show off how well they follow the rules. They certainly don't need to have such things forced upon them by others, who think they know better and who cry-bully people into submission.
 
Woke to me is someone that unwittlingly eschews identity politics that are so illogically flawed they literally manifest by doing the exact opposite of what they purport to do.

I see Woke people as probably worse (if that was possible) than a traditional 'bigot'..
 
mrochester said:
To make the opportunity to get to a higher floor equal, you provide a means for dis and able-bodied people to get there. You don’t even need a staircase, just have a lift or ramp that everyone can use.
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Then everyone dies in the fire. Seems pretty equal to me.
 
mrochester said:
Is ‘woke’ just another term for being open-minded?
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Meanings change all the time. Feminism used to mean fighting for equality, now it means you're a toxic entitled man-hating hag, woke used to mean open-minded, now it means your brain has fallen out along with all sense of reason, a useful idiot to those that want to manipulate the crowd because you don't have two brain cells to rub together.
 
wesimmo said:
Is it not just the opposite of being a bigot?

Certainly anybody I encounter who is 'anti woke' tends to be a bigot.
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I'm sure those in the Labour party saw themselves as Woke, then last weekend happened....:cry:

Demon said:
Woke to me is someone that unwittlingly eschews identity politics that are so illogically flawed they literally manifest by doing the exact opposite of what they purport to do.

I see Woke people as probably worse (if that was possible) than a traditional 'bigot'..
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It's just a different kind of bigotry but they somehow convinced themselves they're rightous.
 
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I see it as "aware of social issues". I have (rightly or wrongly) always seen it is a close synonym to "awake".
It can be used as a compliment or an insult.
It just seems to be a particular word the Right like at the moment, since, particularly the Republicans, love to use words like bricks to hurl at anyone they disagree with.
 
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robgmun said:
Meanings change all the time. Feminism used to mean fighting for equality, now it means you're a toxic entitled man-hating hag, woke used to mean open-minded, now it means your brain has fallen out along with all sense of reason, a useful idiot to those that want to manipulate the crowd because you don't have two brain cells to rub together.
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But that would mean the MAGA crowd in the US are also woke, but they would likely claim to be entirely the opposite.

Maybe they are woke and just don’t realise it, but the definition doesn’t seem to fit from my understanding of the word.
 
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I'd see it mostly as an insult, associated with soft virtue signaling men, but there's also the radical type who view everything as racist/sexist to the point of absurdity.
 
robgmun said:

Haha, loved how you turned that around, very clever, give yourself a pat on the back, well done with that, be proud of that one.
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My point being there are useful idiots on both sides of the political spectrum being manipulated, so the term woke doesn’t seem to fit. I’d just refer to those people as useful idiots with woke meaning something else.
 
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