The "Black Hole" of woke....

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Here’s another definition:



https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dic ... /prejudice

If people experience feelings of discomfort towards a group of people and refuse to try to accommodate their identity in a very small way, I’d say that the most likely culprit is prejudice.

Most of us would prefer to be referred to by the pronoun we identify with, so we should respect the preferences of others to the best of our ability.

You don’t want to be called “sweetheart” by a friend. If somebody told me that, I would certainly respect it.

Many people here have mentioned memory or attention problems that make this difficult for them, but you continually brush them aside; would you describe them as motivated by prejudice? If not, why are you assuming that most people who object to non standard pronouns are?

I have also observed, however, that people who have experienced a lot of negative attention based simply on who they are will build up defensive walls and will instinctively start from the assumption they are being attacked again. I don't blame them.

But what do you do if you are the person they are reacting unfairly to? You have to establish some trust if the interaction is going to resolve without bad feeling on both sides, but that takes some careful thought and isn't where instinct takes most people.

When you exhibit a sincere interest in the other person's perspective, it goes a long way towards showing that your own intentions are positive.

I have stated repeatedly that people should try or put forth an effort. My last post was referring to those who choose not to use different pronouns for other reasons.

And you think that those other reasons are primarily prejudice? Based on what evidence? Remember, we're not talking about someone throwing around slurs, but someone just saying "no, I don't think I will".

See, I just don't think that (the first sentence) is true, that A has to mean B. It isn't what the concept was trying to get at. I agree that people instinctively run that way which messes everything up, but it isn't a requirement of the concept.

Clearly, people who want to increase inclusiveness need to do a better job of trying to understand the actual intentions of people they see as being racist/sexist/homophobic. I'm not going to argue they don't; I've seen too many examples of overly judgemental reach in real life. But attacking them back and being harshly judgemental isn't going to move the dialogue forward.

First, let's not use the word "woke." It carries too much political baggage at this point. I prefer to focus on what you mentioned, as in: being sensitive to and knowledgeable about how our actions affect others, how the past affects how different groups of people experience the world, and how cultural factors in our own upbringing affect how we see the world.

Second, I apply one simple phrase to my part in it all: I am a work in progress. Aren't we all?

I think that as long as you are personally committed to being the best you that you can be with a focus on kindness, fairness and equality; as long as you are willing to keep your eyes and ears open to the experiences and feelings of other people; you are on the right journey.

What you do will never be perfect. You learn and you move on. Increasing awareness does not require guilt or self-reproach; it requires a commitment to doing better going forward. And "doing better" is a never ending process full of fits and starts and mistakes and moments of beauty.

We do not need to lose history. We need to give history context and place. Instead of celebrating a Confederate war leader, for example, history records and teaches about his accomplishments/failures, but does not place a statute to hold him up as a shining example of power. We don't have to LOSE anything. The point is to GAIN a deeper understanding of how historical actions and beliefs echo into life today, in order to make choices that bring us closer to our long term goals for society.

It doesn't have to be a black hole. I think that the first time you realize all is not what you once thought it was you will naturally feel a lot like you just fell into a hole, but then you get comfortable with the feeling of slightly sifting sands under your feet and realize that the road human beings need to be on as they travel their life journeys was never meant to be smoothly paved. You can't get anywhere without accepting you won't always have everything right and, so, you let go of the idea that you do. In the process, you end more centered than you were before, and less lost, if that makes any sense. Give yourself a moment to feel what you are feeling, and then embrace it rather than running from it. The point is to move forward, fits and starts and imperfections and all.

Kind of like insisting that you use a non-standard form of address, and being extremely judgemental if you don't?

You use "they" for a group of people as far as I'm concerned.

... and for a singular person of undetermined gender.

e.g. "If that person ever finishes work, they will go home."

It's more common than you realise to say "they" for an individual.

This actually dovetails with another thread relating to whether people with autism should care about other disabilities.
I don't really know if trans should be a disability but you could argue they are nuerodivergent.

I should qualify the statement that being verbally attacked because of your identity can have the equivalent impact of being hit in the face in public. The humiliation experienced will depend on the individual. Some people have higher resilience and higher levels of emotional intelligence not to react than others. But for people who are trans they experience microaggressions probably every few minutes in public I can pretend to know what that feels like.

And more often than not an anonymous person of undetermined gender....... I'm on about calling an person who is already know as "They" which goes against every meaning in the word that I "eventually" learned.

Being "aggressed" against every few minutes sounds outlandishly implausible. I think you just made that up.

Hi everyone, I'm struggling with wokism at the moment. I'm not struggling to understand what it means to be woke but I'm struggling because I'm worried that the more woke society becomes then the more things it might find to be woke about and that in turn will mean that it will become a kind of "black hole" that will just suck the life and soul out of society.

For me personally woke is about as important as having a mutual respect for my friends, neighbours, acquaintances, associates and the general population etc.

I hate the thought that at some point in the future every P and Q that I dare to utter will be under some kind of big brother type scrutiny and it bothers me that cancelling out so much of history and culture due to wokism could also lead to people losing the very essence of who they actually are whether that be good bad or somewhere in the middle.

Anyway, just wondering what you guys think of this.

Do you think that too much woke could have a detrimental effect in the future?

Also I'm here to be educated and not to start a fight.

Thank you in advance for your input.