Are you woke?

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Victoria Raverna
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Are you woke?

Post by Victoria Raverna »

I think I'm woke. My wife not as much but still probably count as woke, too.

My 8 years old daughter is also woke. Seem like spending a lot of time on internet watching youtube made her woke. She is anti racism, pro LGBTQ, against body shaming, etc.

Are you?
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hepcat
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Re: Are you woke?

Post by hepcat »

It’s 6:35 in the morning and I wish I was still unawoke. :(
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Re: Are you woke?

Post by LordMortis »

I'm not only woke, I've already had my coffee and done a 4 mile walk. Yay me!

Also, I think this is probably meant for R&P.
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Re: Are you woke?

Post by hepcat »

I hope I can stay woke the rest of the day. But it’s supposed to be a stormy, dismal day today.
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Victoria Raverna
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Re: Are you woke?

Post by Victoria Raverna »

LordMortis wrote: Wed Mar 22, 2023 7:39 am I'm not only woke, I've already had my coffee and done a 4 mile walk. Yay me!

Also, I think this is probably meant for R&P.
Why? Woke doesn't have to be political or religious.
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Re: Are you woke?

Post by LordMortis »

I think wokeness had become a connotative political term and was even so when it merely refereed to people who considered themselves more in touch with environmental and social situations (and governance was merely alluded to or implied)
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Victoria Raverna
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Re: Are you woke?

Post by Victoria Raverna »

To me woke just means to be a nice person or someone that is trying to be nice. :)
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Re: Are you woke?

Post by LordMortis »

I'm not expert on the subject matter so here is wiki, which at least knows more than I do. I have conflated the rise of the term with reviving racial awareness with the Wallstreet protests of the late 2000s but wiki says I'm wrong, the re-rise seems to come from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woke
2000s and early 2010s, #Staywoke hashtag

Through the 2000s and early 2010s, woke was used either as a term for literal wakefulness, or as slang for suspicions of being cheated on by a romantic partner.[4] In November 2016, the singer Childish Gambino released the song "Redbone", which used the term stay woke in reference to infidelity.[16] In the 21st century's first decade, the use of woke encompassed the earlier meaning with an added sense of being "alert to social and/or racial discrimination and injustice".[8]
"Master Teacher", a 2008 song by the American singer Erykah Badu (pictured in 2012) included the term stay woke.

This usage was popularized by soul singer Erykah Badu's 2008 song "Master Teacher",[9][13] via the song's refrain, "I stay woke".[14] Merriam-Webster defines the expression stay woke in Badu's song as meaning, "self-aware, questioning the dominant paradigm and striving for something better"; and, although within the context of the song, it did not yet have a specific connection to justice issues, Merriam-Webster credits the phrase's use in the song with its later connection to these issues.[9][17]
My memory got the time frame right but the means to common parlance wrong.
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Re: Are you woke?

Post by malchior »

My experience is that 'woke' is a deep ocean in the context of the United States. It ranges from 'be nice to people' all the way to cancel culture mind police zealots. It's ultimately is a useless label that is often used pejoratively. IMO it doesn't really mean anything in particular without context so I personally avoid it.
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Re: Are you woke?

Post by pr0ner »

LordMortis wrote: Wed Mar 22, 2023 7:39 am Also, I think this is probably meant for R&P.
That's what I was thinking.
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Re: Are you woke?

Post by Madmarcus »

Victoria Raverna wrote: Wed Mar 22, 2023 6:53 am anti racism, pro LGBTQ, against body shaming, etc.

Are you?
Yes to the list above. No to woke in that I feel it is a label that is used differently by different people but always as a way to separate and segregate.
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Re: Are you woke?

Post by dbt1949 »

I have no bad feelings about anybody who means me no harm but am I woke? No.
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Re: Are you woke?

Post by ImLawBoy »

I don't think that this is a discussion that we can have today removed from R&P, so I'm going to move it there.
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Re: Are you woke?

Post by ImLawBoy »

To the extent "woke" means "awake to/aware of systemic racism and other forms of bias/prejudice (such as anti-LGBTQ+ prejudice) in our (US, for me) society", then I'd say I'm woke (or at least waking up). Part of the problem with the question, though, is that there's no solid definition of woke. For some, it's merely a catch-all phrase for liberal or progressive. It benefits them to not have a clear definition of woke, because if you define it in more innocuous terms (anti-racism, pro-LGBTQ+, anti-body shaming, etc.) it becomes a lot less scary and loses its power as a negative label.
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Re: Are you woke?

Post by Exodor »

Spent last weekend with an old friend who kept using the term until I asked him to define it - then it suddenly it vanished from his vocabulary.

At this point "woke" is just shorthand for "progressive policies I don't like".
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Re: Are you woke?

Post by coopasonic »

ImLawBoy wrote: Wed Mar 22, 2023 9:42 am To the extent "woke" means "awake to/aware of systemic racism and other forms of bias/prejudice (such as anti-LGBTQ+ prejudice) in our (US, for me) society", then I'd say I'm woke (or at least waking up). Part of the problem with the question, though, is that there's no solid definition of woke. For some, it's merely a catch-all phrase for liberal or progressive. It benefits them to not have a clear definition of woke, because if you define it in more innocuous terms (anti-racism, pro-LGBTQ+, anti-body shaming, etc.) it becomes a lot less scary and loses its power as a negative label.
What he said.

Some time in the past decade I went from a completely selfish asshole completely ignorant of the experiences of others to a selfish asshole more aware and empathetic of the experience of others. I give a lot of credit there to the people I work with and the groups I associate with at work (Women in Tech, Allies, Blacks in Tech, Hispanics in Tech, etc) which has had me attending many seminars and calls around identity and intersectionality. If you don't come out of those experiences more aware, you are trying not to.
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Re: Are you woke?

Post by GreenGoo »

Exodor wrote: Wed Mar 22, 2023 10:08 am Spent last weekend with an old friend who kept using the term until I asked him to define it - then it suddenly it vanished from his vocabulary.

At this point "woke" is just shorthand for "progressive policies I don't like".
I saw an article in a Canadian newspaper about an American mother who lost her freaking mind when her son lost his wrestling match in the NCAA. She threw a karen (threw a wobbly in UK lingo) and smashed her own glasses and generally acted the fool.

In the comments (Canadian newspaper remember) it turned into an anti-woke tirade. One of the first comments was "kids, remember to spay and neuter your woke parents".

There was nothing woke related in the article. At all.

Trolls gonna troll, I guess. But holy fuck. This world...

Also, bank failures. Apparently.
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Re: Are you woke?

Post by Kraken »

I'm liberal and progressive and woke compared to its opposite, which is sleepwalking. But I don't embrace the label because of the extremist baggage that comes with it.
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Re: Are you woke?

Post by coopasonic »

Kraken wrote: Wed Mar 22, 2023 11:02 am But I don't embrace the label because of the extremist baggage that comes with it.
I may embrace the label because of the extremist baggage. If an old, successful white guy who is otherwise rather unremarkable and inoffensive can claim to be woke, can it really be that bad?
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Re: Are you woke?

Post by YellowKing »

It's unfortunate because it was originally a word with a positive connotation that was twisted and skewed to become a negative. It's hard to fathom how someone could turn "tolerance and inclusivity" into a negative, but that's the only way people who are intolerant bigots can justify their behavior to themselves.

To me "woke" just means you've been made aware of societal injustices and embrace efforts to correct those injustices/inequalities. If you know about those injustices and think embracing those efforts is a bad thing, that just makes you an asshole.
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Re: Are you woke?

Post by Jaymann »

I woke up this morning, convinced as ever in the value of proper word usage.
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Re: Are you woke?

Post by geezer »

Proudly prettty damn woke. But not as woke as my wife, whose Trumpy parents (mom and stepdad), ironically, blame *me* for turning *her* into a liberal. If they only knew :lol:
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Re: Are you woke?

Post by Carpet_pissr »

As woke as Bill Murray in Groundhog Day.
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Re: Are you woke?

Post by hepcat »

malchior wrote: Wed Mar 22, 2023 8:25 am My experience is that 'woke' is a deep ocean in the context of the United States. It ranges from 'be nice to people' all the way to cancel culture mind police zealots. It's ultimately is a useless label that is often used pejoratively. IMO it doesn't really mean anything in particular without context so I personally avoid it.
Ditto
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Re: Are you woke?

Post by Smoove_B »

Am I more self-aware than I was 20 years ago? 10 years ago? Yes. If that makes me "woke" then so be it.
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Re: Are you woke?

Post by hepcat »

If I say the word "Studebaker" over and over and over again, it soon loses all meaning and becomes just a sound. That's how I view "woke".
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Re: Are you woke?

Post by Alefroth »

To me, woke is just a rebranding of PC. Which to me stood in for, 'the society in which I am the default and dominant culture is shifting'.

I also like Sarah Silverman's take on the right's use of woke- “I’m terrified of what I don’t understand and I only know how to process that as anger because I can’t look inward.”

And woke is something I try to be.
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Re: Are you woke?

Post by hitbyambulance »

there are a number of descriptive labels that, due to their effectiveness of description, become more and more widely adopted. inevitably these labels will be picked up by the unthinking masses who now love to throw that term all around due to its novelty and with no regard for its rather specific use cases, thus leading to the quick dilution of the term to its complete uselessness.


another example:
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Re: Are you woke?

Post by Blackhawk »

I'm aware and try to stay aware. I try to keep educated. I have compassion for human beings. I like to think that I wouldn't slink away if wrongs happened in front of me.

Whatever label you want to put on that is fine, but whatever label is used is just going to be picked up and used to 'other' people by those who disagree and can't come up with a real argument.

It's why I avoid name calling as a means of debate.
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Re: Are you woke?

Post by coopasonic »

Blackhawk wrote: Wed Mar 22, 2023 2:50 pm It's why I avoid name calling as a means of debate.
Sounds like something a woke socialist leftist commie would say.
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Re: Are you woke?

Post by waitingtoconnect »

Or a dirty Studebaker caller….

Don’t you wokeratis know there is a portal to hell above the White House since the Bidens moved in? Robert Stone said so. I can’t believe that’s not being talked about on the mainstream media. Personally I don’t like the Goebels term, mainstream media (he coined it).
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Re: Are you woke?

Post by LordMortis »

ImLawBoy wrote: Wed Mar 22, 2023 9:42 am waking up
This has been my state for probably close to 30 years. I'll get there... or not.

In a more general sense I think I really started waking up when I was going to school to be come a teacher, so around 93 or so and where I really started waking up was to the way the society I live in raises women so much differently than men. Once I started waking up there, I started waking up to racial injustices as well. Previous to that time, I was pretty naive on both fronts.
coopasonic wrote: Wed Mar 22, 2023 11:08 am I may embrace the label because of the extremist baggage. If an old, successful white guy who is otherwise rather unremarkable and inoffensive can claim to be woke, can it really be that bad?
I was pretty 'meh' to the label until the extremist baggage, now i am more empathetic toward it and hyper jaded against those that have weaponized the term as some sort of conservative championing.
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Re: Are you woke?

Post by hepcat »

waitingtoconnect wrote: Wed Mar 22, 2023 4:54 pm
Don’t you wokeratis know there is a portal to hell above the White House since the Bidens moved in? Robert Stone said so.
Roger’s lesser known brother?
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Re: Are you woke?

Post by Pyperkub »

Exodor wrote:Spent last weekend with an old friend who kept using the term until I asked him to define it - then it suddenly it vanished from his vocabulary.

At this point "woke" is just shorthand for "progressive policies I don't like".
McSweeney's has him covered

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/oka ... efine-woke



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Re: Are you woke?

Post by gbasden »

I think I'm as woke as a straight middle aged white dude can be. I don't know how you can have your eyes open and not see that systematic racism is still a force in this country. I'm also welcoming to our LGBTQ brethren and think child beauty pageants are super creepy but drag shows are fun. And I try to be empathetic as much as possible, although I keep having to tamp down my ever increasing rage more and more.
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Re: Are you woke?

Post by Blackhawk »

I'm tired of being woke. I'm going to bed.

Good night.
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Re: Are you woke?

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YellowKing wrote: Wed Mar 22, 2023 11:39 am

To me "woke" just means you've been made aware of societal injustices and embrace efforts to correct those injustices/inequalities.
Yep, and I wish people would just go and say that. 'Woke' has been thrown around so much over the last several years that I feel it's lost meaning, and I wager half the people throwing it around in angry tantrums aren't even aware of its meaning. I've come to hate the term because while it should technically be used for good, it seems to have become a mark painted on (with broad strokes I might add) anything people hate. Also sounds wrong to say from a grammatical perspective. So, while I generally approve of the sentiment wrapped up in the term, I'd actually much prefer a different term would be used, such as 'racially progressive', something that is actually descriptive of what it proposes.

Being progressive can be a truly wonderful thing in the righting wrongs, such as the aboriginal reparations going on in Canada, which IMHO has long been overdue. In our community, we've made strides such as including native language in city signs. Most new signs in parks or other city owned places in our city are now English, French and Native. We're getting a solar system walk installed on our boardwalk with signage in the 3 languages, just to use an example.
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Re: Are you woke?

Post by Malificent »

Woke is the new socialism.
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Re: Are you woke?

Post by LordMortis »



:pop: that MSNBC does this while CNBC does "Are woke politics destroying business? We're just asking questions... of the GOP."
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Re: Are you woke?

Post by Pyperkub »

Malificent wrote: Thu Mar 23, 2023 9:16 am Woke is the new socialism.
Nah, Woke is code for the Bill of Rights and 13th, 14th, 15th, 19th, 24th and 26th Amendments to the US Constitution.
Black Lives definitely Matter Lorini!

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