Posted by:
Cold-Dodger
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Date: August 29, 2022 03:11PM
Sometimes "woke" seems to mean anything coming from the culturally liberal side of the aisle going back as far as 50 or 60 years, the way conservatives use the word. Pro-choice is "woke" to them, even though it's been around half a century.
If I've ever used the word and meant it, I meant it to mock liberal positions that have gotten belligerently stupid and self-eating in their effect on the streets of social media (the sort of stuff Fox News takes and makes the face of non-conservatism), not as put-downs for the general ideas behind what they're fighting for.
There are a string of comedians cashing in on the "anti-woke" movement including Bill Burr, Dave Chapell, and even Bill Maher. Here is a clip of Maher explaining that the "woke" are a bigger threat to liberal democracy than the Christian rightist theocrats:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0iZEFHOE4g&ab_channel=SecularTalkObama has come down against the "circular firing squad" on the left. The Chinese have a word for it: "baizuo" or the white left. There is a thing that people across the political spectrum are trying to describe with various words that you might call "left authoritarians" or "left puritans." Some call it "cancel culture". Some call it "extreme political correctness." It's when people claiming to be outraged for and in behalf of various vulnerable and historically marginalized protected groups make you feel like you can't breathe too loudly or else you get a target put on your back by the mob.
BUT... liberal morality or modern cosmopolitanism is not invalid just because some have taken it obnoxiously too far. That is the argument the extreme right is trying to make when they whine about "wokeness," like that excuses making women carry their rapists' babies or other pregnancies that were doomed away to full term. The original puritans and the original social justice warriors are still with us and their larger and more in charge than ever: the movement that killed Roe and wants to roll back everything sixty or seventy years across the board.
There is a good example from this board I dare to bring up: when I tried to make a post to defend the pro-choice position from a new angle that makes people think, people like LW swooped in to make sure everyone knew that unauthorized descriptions of political issues involving women belong only to women. Anyone writing posts or making content about anything without her express permission is sexist, and they must cease and desist while she pretends to pass judgement and lay down the law. I understand that Roe had just been repealed and feelings were raw, but that's no reason to lay in to your own allies right when you need them the most.
So left authoritarianism, leftist sectarianism, wokeness, intersectionalists, postmodern neomarxists, or whatever term ultimately sticks, there is a real thing people are trying to label that is a problem, but we need to make sure that we are separating extremists and those who are annoyingly bad communicators from the issues themselves which need defended.