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Quoting from Wikipedia: “ Woke (/ˈwoʊk/ WOHK) is an English adjective meaning 'alert to racial prejudice and discrimination' that originated in African-American Vernacular English (AAVE). Beginning in the 2010s, it came to encompass a broader awareness of social inequalities such as sexism, and has also been used as shorthand for left-wing ideas involving identity politics and social justice, such as the notion of white privilege and slavery reparations for African Americans.”

I’m wondering what specifically you disagree with and why that is a cult?


Before the mid 2010s, we talked about how the 99% could avoid concentration of power and wealth in the 1%. Now the richest and worst companies in the world paste BLM rainbow flags on their website, and suddenly large swaths of society have decided that, coincidentally, the folks with the big money are the good guys, while random middle and lower class people with slightly outdated beliefs are the actual problem.

There are many long magazine articles discussing whether wokeness is a religion or cult. Either way, it has completely derailed all political discourse for the benefit of the most privileged (as defined by money).

And in the media world, it means that everything is now over-the-top preachy, and that scoring political points has become more important than making good art. Sucks, but at least there are plenty of classic movies to re-watch.

That Wikipedia definition is one part only of what the woke movement is. There are not just "alert". They are actively trying to censor, burn books (Tintin in some Canadian school), remove statues, etc. They invent words, have weird ceremonies, etc... (cf. the university of Evergrande), which are indeed the signs of a cult.

And by the way, any cult of group of thoughts, will define themselves as "we are for the good and against the evil; therefore, what exactly do you disagree with ? are you for the evil ?"

In the case of removing civil war statues most of the ones being removed were erected long after the civil war ended, and were erected in opposition to rising pressure for civil rights for black people. See [1] and [2].

What's the case for not removing them?

[1] https://www.history.com/news/how-the-u-s-got-so-many-confede...

[2] https://www.npr.org/2017/08/20/544266880/confederate-statues...

Did “woke” actually originate in AAVE instead of whatever the technical term for twitter-speak is?
I saw it used a bunch in early 2000s to reference hip hop that strongly focused on class struggles, race issues, etc.

It was also used in stoner / party culture around that time to describe being in on the secret that the government was bad, capitalism was bad, etc.

Maybe directly influenced by the movie “waking life” but not sure on that. I was a stoner party kid and my memories of that time are pretty hazy. The culture was super accepting, early advocates for lgbtq before it was an acronym, etc. I also remember that group being very very accepting of everyone who had good intentions regardless of views. “___ is good people” was what we used to say. Probably why I dislike the modern version of woke so much.

Given that the early uses predate Twitter by a few decades: yes, unless you argue that it has shifted enough to be a "new word" now.
That's not what it means now, or at least it has grown a more popular meaning which is clearly what the original poster was using. The alternate definition is explained in the 3rd paragraph on wiki

"The terms woke capitalism and woke-washing have arisen to describe companies who signal support for progressive causes as a substitute for genuine reform. By 2020, parts of the political center and right wing in several Western countries were using the term woke, often in an ironic way, as an insult for various progressive or leftist movements and ideologies perceived as over-zealous, performative, or insincere."

But perhaps you knew that already.

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