Discussion
Okay, this guy is really good actually.
Still watching the second video...
YouTube
YouTube
@woozle "Woke" originated in the US Black community and got co-opted by conservatives who distorted the meaning beyond recognition
@elplatt Yeah, he gets into the history pretty well.
One thing I do dislike is when he says "it originally meant X, but now it really means Y" -- as if many people weren't still legitimately using it for X.
One thing I want to look into is who is actually calling themselves "woke", as opposed to being labeled that way by right-wingers. My impression was that actual egalitarians don't use the word as an identity, and only occasionally as a sort of lyrical metaphor.
His point about phrases like "white/male/etc. privilege", "microagression", and "defund the police" being more divisive than helpful is... interesting. On the one hand, it's good to have succinct terminology for discussing complex ideas -- but it seems valid to ask if we could come up with more precise and descriptive terms, and to wonder where the popular terms came from.
@woozle Not gonna sit through a long video or its transcript, but the terms you mention are succinct to people familiar with Black feminist works, including a goodly portion of trans and disabled people who wish to exist in public.
@thatdawnperson I really want to research some of the terms that he claims originated with covertly-authoritarian programs. If there's any truth to it, that could explain a lot of the backlash around some of these ideas -- although I think there are other possible explanations as well.
Unfortunately, can't do it this week...
Defund the police is divisive because people choose to believe propaganda over facts. Because if people had all the facts, rather than the TV shows and cop PR departments filling the news with stories, they would want to abolish the police.
That said, I'm not sure where he's getting his ideas about the malignant version of "woke" -- I've only ever heard the term applied as an identifier by right-wingers talking about how terrible it is, never by a group claiming to support it.
...but that could easily be a social media bubble effect; I don't get out much.