The word "woke" is misused

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Each political side can claim that they are "woke" to the issues that the other side, in their opinion, neglects. So using the word "woke" in reference to leftists would assume that both you and your audience are taking left side, which is not always true. Wouldn't right-wingers want to call themselves as "woke" and leftists as "asleep" in their own rhetoric?

I don't think that word is misused at all.

No, the term refers to a style of identitarian beliefs and politics, the underlying meaning of the word "woke" itself is largely irrelevant.

Woke means different things to different people I see this word being tossed by the right about things they don't like and this word has lost its meaning now I have decided to quit using it because no one will know what I mean by it. They can't read my mind and I don't want to say what I mean everytime whenever I use the word.

"Woke" originated in the black community. It originally meant being hyper-aware of racism. Due to the weaponization process, it has evolved into meaning an ideology based on these beliefs.
1. The United States has been systematically racist from the get-go.

2. Groups you are born into are central to your identity.

3. All white people are racist due to being privileged.

4. Blacks can be prejudiced but can not be racist because they are members of an oppressed group.

5. Privilege is not a matter of individual circumstances but group power dynamics. If an individual is in a privileged group they often do not realize the racist things they say and do because they do not have the lived experience of being a member of an out-of-power oppressed group.

6. Presentism - We should judge historical figures, not by the times they lived in but by woke orthodoxy.

7. Individuals are judged primarily by their racism, other factors are secondary or irrelevant.

8. Equity - Equality of outcome.

9. People espousing core tenets of the 1960s Civil Rights movement such as integration, equality of opportunity, "judging people by the content of their charactor, not the color of their skin", merit is further entrenching systematic racism by deflecting from the 24/7 examination of how systematic racism infects nearly all aspects of life.

10. Allyship refers to members of privileged groups who support oppressed groups by "doing the work" to understand how the seemingly innocuous actions that they do contribute to systematic racism and by not questioning woke orthodoxy. If don't have lived experience, they don't have the right to criticize.

11. People who are unwilling or unable to be allies need to be canceled along with all ideas that deviate from woke orthodoxy. This is done by various methods of intimidation, getting people fired, having protests at homes, doxing, online shaming, tearing down statues etc.

I have been using race but this goes to all types of ists and phobics. There are what are known as "hierarchies of oppression /privileged" groups. Those groups that are close enough in skin color to mooch off the privileges of being white are known as "white adjacent". Asian-Americans and Jews are the groups most often associated with "white adjacent"

IOW "All white people are the Devil!"


I would ask why can't we all just get along but apparently there was a guy who got brutally beatened up by the police back in the 1990's for asking that exact same question.

I will make my standard observation on this word: if you don't like it, please suggest an alternative, as we're using "woke" entirely due to the fact that this ideology (ASPM described it quite well) refuses to accept a label.