Monday, March 20, 2023

What is Woke?




Recently, some smart-alec of my acquaintance asked me if I was "woke". My response was that it was not a word that I normally use.  Woke is a feeble attempt to compress many different things into a single word: empathy, compassion, enlightenment, an aversion to racial prejudice, and so on.. "If the question is: am I an enlightened man? then the answer is yes, I believe that I am", I told him.

Woke is really a bumper sticker word, the kind that I usually try to avoid at all costs. In fact, this is the first time I have ever used it in this context on this site since it first came into vogue a couple of years ago,

Now the right wing SCREAM MACHINE are attempting to turn woke into an extreme menace that is a tangible threat to the peace and security of the free world; much in the same way their political forebears did with the so-called communist menace seventy years ago. Governor Ron DeSantis (and 2024 presidential hopeful) recently said of his overrated state: 

"Florida is where Woke goes to die".

And I believed he meant every word he said. If the American people are stupid enough to send DeSantis to the White House on January 20, 2025, empathy compassion and enlightenment will have no place in or part of his administration's worldview. Racial bigotry will be mainstream in the DeSantis White House in a way it hasn't been since Woodrow Wilson lived there over one-hundred years ago. The difference between Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump is quite simple: Trump is a moron. DeSantis is not. The man is a real and existential threat to American Democracy in a way that The Donald - on his worst day - never was. Ron DeSantis is a radical extremist of the first - and worst - order.

The most shocking thing about DeSantis is his youth. In researching his history I was stunned (and quite depressed) to learn that he was born in September of 1978 - one month after my twentieth birthday. Can you believe that? I tend to equate such a demented and reactionary thinking to bitter old white men. How DeSantis got to this point in his thinking in a mere forty-four years is perplexing - to say the least. A woman who went on a date with him when they were in their twenties, says that while dining out she corrected him on his pronunciation of the term "Thai food". He mispronounced it as "thigh food". She says he got up from his seat, walked out of the restaurant and left her paying the bill. She says she never saw him again. What does that tell you about the man's character?

Even though (in my humble opinion anyway) "woke" is an incredibly silly and simplistic term for a very broad and complicated movement, it's a good thing that more and more Americans in recent times are describing themselves as such. "The New Enlightenment" would be a nicer way of putting it. "Woke" sounds to me like it was cooked up in the bathroom of some grammar school. 

So let's all pledge ourselves to this New Enlightenment - or whatever the heck you want to call it. This is definitely a direction that America needs to go.  

Happy Spring, everybody!

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY

17 Comments:

At 5:49 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

What is a woman?

 
At 6:10 PM, Blogger mothernatureearthmom said...

good lord...he's younger than my oldest son. Sigh.
How does one get so twisted in so few years? cough...putin...cough

 
At 9:14 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

School suspends black students for anti-black racism: 'This is the third time we’ve had perpetrators of a racially motivated incident identified as African-Americans'

A school in Sacramento, California, suspended two black students after fake money containing racist imagery against black people circulated throughout the campus last week, the Sacramento Bee reported.

 
At 11:52 AM, Blogger Dave Dubya said...

The radical Right bastardized the term "woke" to agitate the racists. Works every time.

Merriam-Webster - Woke: aware of and actively attentive to important societal facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice)

Conservative writer Bethany Mandel: “It is sort of the understanding that we need to totally re-imagine and redo society in order to create hierarchies of oppression.”


As they’ve shown over the years, the radical Right notoriously refuses to discuss or debate in good faith. Every high school debate team learns a debate depends on mutual agreement on definitions of terms.

This becomes a problem in today’s political discourse. The Right will often reject accepted meanings of terms to suit their bias, dishonesty, bigotry, racism, and political agenda.

Being authoritarians, they have usurped the unilateral authority to redefine terms. It's one of their primary propaganda tools.

 
At 5:22 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

More "Woke" lies from Woke Dave.

 
At 9:35 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

DA Alvin Bragg is Woke: Soros-Funded DA Alvin Bragg
CAUGHT HIDING Nearly 600 Pages of Exculpatory
Evidence from NY Grand Jury in Trump Case

 
At 1:28 PM, Blogger Dave Dubya said...

Anonymous is too cowardly to even define his twisted idea of "woke".
Hint: It's the same as every other white supremacist.
"Soros funded" is also the neo-Nazi antisemitic dog whistle white supremacists respond to.
Can he prove me wrong with HIS "woke" lies?

 
At 1:44 PM, Blogger Dave Dubya said...

"Trueblooded" Vern's fascist Trump Cult is becoming more antisemitic than ever.

https://www.jta.org/2023/03/20/politics/trumps-calls-for-protests-condemn-george-soros-echo-jan-6-and-draw-jewish-concern

Trump’s calls for protests condemn George Soros, echo Jan. 6 — and draw Jewish concern

Oren Segal, vice president of the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism said, “The danger of referencing Soros in a call for protests like this, is that you never know what bad actors are interpreting that as. It’s not unreasonable for the Jewish community, who feels particularly vulnerable, to hear that in a way that is uncomfortable as well.”

Soros, a Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor and financier, has been at the center of countless conspiracy theories for decades, and was the target of a 2018 bomb scare carried out by a pro-Trump antisemitic attacker. He featured prominently in the conspiracy theories embraced by the gunman who massacred 11 worshipers at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018.

 
At 8:46 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dave Duba is making it up FASTER than liberals can dream it up...
Hey DAVE, define for us what makes a person a "White Supremacist? According to you.

Liberal Dem Rep. DeLauro Admits Inflation “Killing People,” “People Do Live Paycheck To Paycheck” Under Biden...is she Woke. Or is Biden a killer?

 
At 11:33 PM, Blogger Dave Dubya said...

OK. Since Vern asked...

Vern can't figure out white supremacists define themselves for all to see.

I've learned from people like Vern that racism isn't racism to racists. Polls show many will even believe white people are the "real victims" of racism.

White supremacists love to say Democrats and progressive and Blacks "hate America". Of course most Jews and Blacks vote Democratic.

Tucker Carlson attacked Rep. Ilhan Omar for “hating America,” saying, “We have every right to fight to preserve our nation and our heritage and our culture.”

This echoes the "14 Words" popular white supremacist slogan: "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children."

We remember Klan Leader David Duke wanted Carlson to be Vice-President.

"President Trump! You have one last chance to turn the tables, win this election and save America—and yourself! Nominate Tucker Carlson for Vice President. This would energize your campaign beyond belief." Duke tweeted.

Vern's rabid enthusiasm to smear a Black prosecutor doing his job and a Jewish Holocaust survivor in the same breath reeks of the same hate from every white supremacist.


 
At 9:53 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Who would have thought the day would come when Dave Dubya defended a Nazi?

 
At 10:26 AM, Blogger Dave Dubya said...

Facts:

1. Soros is a Jew.
2. Vern has no evidence Soros was a member of the German NAZI Party, because he wasn't.
3. Every American white supremacist and neo-Nazi hates Soros.
4. DA Bragg is Black.
5. Trump calls Black Prosecutors Bragg and Willis "racists" for investigating his crimes.
6. Every American white supremacist and neo-Nazi hates Bragg and Willis for doing their job.

Conclusion:
Vern agrees with every American white supremacist and neo-Nazi.

 
At 10:44 AM, Blogger Dave Dubya said...

White supremacists and neo-Nazis won't read the LA Times article. Will Vern?


These readers survived the Holocaust. This is what worries them about America today
Since Donald Trump was inaugurated in 2017, our letter writers have occasionally compared the current political situation in the U.S. to Germany’s crumbling democracy both before the Nazis were elected into power and before the start of World War II. Since the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, those comparisons have been made more frequently by letter writers.

With the United Nations 2022 Holocaust Remembrance events underway, we asked some readers and letter writers who survived the Holocaust what they thought about those comparisons, and what they want people today to know about that era, less than 80 years ago, when 6 million Jews in Europe were murdered and millions more were enslaved or forced to flee their home countries.

— Paul Thornton, letters editor

A few quotes:

"I wanted to believe that America had saved Europe from the worst evil in modern times. Alas, “never again” is now."

"Where were the ruling bodies then? And where will ours be in 2022 and 2024 if so many election officials have been ousted or quit because they failed to cheat for a would-be fascist dictator? I pray for our democracy, which seems irrevocably on life support."

"I fear not enough good people remember history. Why are so many Republicans on board with Trump, even a year after the Jan. 6, 2021, coup attempt?"

More:

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2022-01-21/holocaust-survivors-what-worries-them-about-today

 
At 1:51 PM, Blogger Dave Dubya said...

Would Vern care to help us understand him and his kind, and explain why only Trump voters wave a Confederate flag?

If Soros was a "Nazi" without joining the NAZI party or waving their flag, what does waving Confederate flags make them??

This is Vern's big chance to educate and enlighten us with his radical Right version of "wokeness". Or does "wokeness" just mean the opposite of "whiteness" to him?

 
At 4:58 PM, Blogger Dave Dubya said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

 
At 5:01 PM, Blogger Dave Dubya said...

"Woke" is the opposite of "white" to racists. This is why they lie and use the term to attack people they hate.

“The Life of Rosa Parks,” a biography of a civil rights hero who fought segregation, is one of 176 titles that schools in Duval County, Florida, removed from classrooms for review, per Insider. According to nonprofit PEN America, the books in review have been in storage for months “with little indication of when they might return to classrooms.”

A textbook publisher used in 45,000 Florida schools recently removed any reference of Rosa Parks’ race in a draft lesson plan, per The New York Times. The publisher, Studies Weekly, said this was done to comply with Gov. Ron DeSantis’ (R) “Stop WOKE Act.”

“In Florida we are taking a stand against the state-sanctioned racism that is critical race theory,” said DeSantis in his 2021 proposal of the law. “We won’t allow Florida tax dollars to be spent teaching our kids to hate our country or to hate each other.”

Remember Governor Ron DeSantis’ lawyers were forced by the court to define “woke.” The lead lawyer described it as “The belief there are systemic injustices in American society and the need to address them.”

He lies about CRT just as he lies about "woke". DeSantis is a racist liar. MAGAts will love him after Trump faces justice.

 
At 5:29 PM, Blogger Dave Dubya said...

Trump called the Manhattan DA a “Soros-backed animal” in one post on his Truth Social website, and appearing in a photo holding a baseball bat next to a photo of Bragg in another post.

“What kind of person can charge another person, in this case a former President of the United States, who got more votes than any sitting President in history, and leading candidate (by far!) for the Republican Party nomination, with a Crime, when it is known by all that NO Crime has been committed, & also known that potential death & destruction in such a false charge could be catastrophic for our Country? Why & who would do such a thing? Only a degenerate psychopath that truely hates the USA!”

The day after Donald Trump warned about the "potential death & destruction" if indicted by Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, he received a letter containing white powder that said, "ALVIN: I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!"

What kind of person defends this man? What kind of person lacks the decency to condemn him for inciting yet more violence?

Knowhatahmean, Vern?

 

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