Wokeness Political Poison?

I didn't say far-right, I said just "right-wing". The press can be both mainstream and (culturally) right-wing. We have some examples of it here - the Telegraph isn't the Daily Mail or some other rag, it's meant to be a reputable and historical paper (emphasis on "meant to be"). But it's quite often called the "Torygraph" because of how closely it aligns with the party (specifically, more than any other party) ideologically.

That's why I gave links to a couple if examples.

In some ways though the left is just as bad as the right. If it's not slanted towards their beliefs they complain.

I treat BBC, RNZ, Reuters as mostly centrist in reporting, US media is mostly sensationalist and heavily biased for or against whoever's in the white house.

Hell I've used Al Jazeera and some Indian media last 24 hours vs listening to idiots blather in the UK or USA.
 
I mean Sullivan's a moron but this is very bad
I prefer "mongoloid" or "idiot" :mischief:

EDIT moron

Moron is a term once used in psychology and psychiatry to denote mild intellectual disability.[1] The term was closely tied with the American eugenics movement.
 
Last edited:
That's why I gave links to a couple if examples.

In some ways though the left is just as bad as the right. If it's not slanted towards their beliefs they complain.

I treat BBC, RNZ, Reuters as mostly centrist in reporting, US media is mostly sensationalist and heavily biased for or against whoever's in the white house.

Hell I've used Al Jazeera and some Indian media last 24 hours vs listening to idiots blather in the UK or USA.

According to our press the BBC is too woke.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1406974/BBC-woke-provide-value-for-money-viewers

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9334593/More-Britons-feel-BBC-woke.html

A terms becoming just a meaningless insult when its used to cover such a broad spectrum of people.
 
I suppose the more things change, the more they stay the same

Yeah. I mean, authorities in the US were pretty clearly clearly abusing terms like "Communist" and "anarchist" back in the late 19th century so it's not like this was new even when Orwell pointed it out (though fascism obviously did not exist as a term in the 19th century).
 
According to our press the BBC is too woke.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1406974/BBC-woke-provide-value-for-money-viewers

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9334593/More-Britons-feel-BBC-woke.html

A terms becoming just a meaningless insult when its used to cover such a broad spectrum of people.

I regard the BBC as mostly centrist.

We hard core right and left think it's biased because it's not woke enough or dingbat enough it's not a bad sign.

It's also close to the middle in a lot of media bias graphs.

Examples.

Trump deports immigrants. Centrist.

Trump deports immigrants he is terrible left wing bias.

Trump deports immigrants MAGA. Right wing bias.
 
For a while, a few years ago, "virtue-signaling" was the issue. Before that, it was "do-gooders". Now it's "wokeness". This is within about a decade. I don't remember how people denigrated endeavors to solve or merely talk about solving social problems in the early 2000s, but I assume they've been at it since the Stone Age. You could try to make concessions so that conservatives stop using mean language, but when do you think they'd be satisfied?

I don't think there's an equivalent contemporary term to that serves to stunt scientific development. That's a nice thought.
Welcome of Off topic!
 
For a while, a few years ago, "virtue-signaling" was the issue. Before that, it was "do-gooders". Now it's "wokeness". This is within about a decade. I don't remember how people denigrated endeavors to solve or merely talk about solving social problems in the early 2000s, but I assume they've been at it since the Stone Age. You could try to make concessions so that conservatives stop using mean language, but when do you think they'd be satisfied?

I don't think there's an equivalent contemporary term to that serves to stunt scientific development. That's a nice thought.

I guess sometimes if you want to do anything, you treat people as you find them. Not as a people you have defined.
 
When did you first hear the term?
It may have been used before but I never heard it before 2020.
Not that it particularly reflects on the subject at hand, I suppose, but I first heard the term "woke" when I was listening to the commentary by Jordan Peele on the movie Get Out (I like to listen to the director's commentary on many movies I enjoy). It has since absolutely been co-opted by the right as a pejorative term, but, at least for whatever my experience is worth, I first heard it from a left wing source.
 
George Orwell observed this in 1944.
1944 was also when Orwell was starting to go a bit batty, complaining that Labour's attempt to rebuild houses after the devestation of WW2 was insufficiently artistic, and the existence of ticket classes on railways was too hierarchical and should be abolished. (To say nothing of his crank lists sent to IRD complaining about various people he thought were communists or homosexuals.)
 
Looking at google trends, it looks like woke has been on a steady uptick in the search trends for years, with slight surges up in early 2013 and 2017, and a big surge up earlier this year. Obviously, the political term isn't the only thing that can mean, but it does suggest woke was a thing before this year (and just anecdotally, I also remember it being a thing for several years)

The relative interest by US state suggests it's getting searched more by right-leaning people than left-leaning people, though.
 
The relative interest by US state suggests it's getting searched more by right-leaning people than left-leaning people, though.

Makes sense because "woke" is the current big scary for conservative media. Now that its kind of stale it's being supplanted by the dreaded "critical race theory." Got to change it up to keep the fear machine chugging.
 
Last edited:
Makes sense because "woke" is the current big scary for conservative media. Now that its kind of stale it's being supplanted by the dreaded "critical race theory." Got to change it up to keep the fear machine chugging.

Doesn't help when academia throws around words average person doesn't understand.
 
Doesn't help when academia throws around words average person doesn't understand.
When you are actually doing academic studies jargon does fulfill a useful purpose. There are lots of concepts that cannot be efficiently described without technical language.
 
I would say the closer truth is undergraduates and their friends horsehockyposting.
 
I would say the closer truth is undergraduates and their friends ****posting.

Academia is kind of a bubble as well espicially the arts degrees.

Been there don't that a few actually have no idea how the real world works.
 
Top Bottom