What is wrong with being 'woke'?

[Whyistheteacold]

The original meaning of being 'woke' was being aware of social inequalities, specifically racism. It's usage seems to have been subverted to a negative thing, it suggests an insencere concern for issues, being overly sensitive or just plain silly.

If being woke is an insult, the subtext is that speaking out/being concerned about injustice or issues likes racism is also bad... Am I missing something obvious?

When did it become wrong or a weakness to make yourself aware of the issues that other people may have?

[MrsBrunch]

When did it become wrong or a weakness to make yourself aware of the issues that other people may have?

When people started virtue signalling.

[FTMF30]

It's a typical tac tic used by people to shame others into not feeling or thinking something, or dressing a certain way. Mock the shit out of something so people want to disassociate with it.

[Seriouslymole]

When it became at the expense of logic.

[Baycob]

I don’t think it’s wrong.

It’s just annoying when people point these out in such a vocal and aggressive way. It’s almost like they think you are bad if you don’t think the same way.

By all means be woke, but don’t be a militant environmentalist pushing down my throat.

Also hypocrites! Can’t stand a wile hypocrite!

[HermioneWeasley]

It has become about pointless virtue signalling, or being needlessly offended at inconsequential things while ignoring the actual problem.

As an example, the bloke who said recently that gardening is steeped in racism because of language like “native” and “heritage”.

[DesdemonaDryEyes]

I don’t know. It’s like woke is stating the bleeding obvious that the younger generation have just become aware of.

[Christmashottubintheshed]

I think people are just pretty sick of being told off in general this year.

[FTMF30]

At the risk of sounding super woke, I also think the term has been appropriated and gentrified, with it's original intended meaning being completely lost.

[RaymondSpectacles]

Being woke has negative connotations because it's always performative, and a competition. A bit like right-wingers berating everyone for not wearing a poppy the correct way. I agree with speaking out about injustice, but it's no longer enough to be a good, kind person who helps people, you have to be seen to be saying the right things in the right way.

I'm a left-leaning person but have always been perturbed by the left's tendency to shut down debate by policing language and no-platforming.

[DrDetriment]

Because woke people generally can't accept any other opinion than their own, which leads to cancelling, virtue signalling and incredible self-righteousness.

[Djouce]

@RaymondSpectacles

Being woke has negative connotations because it's always performative, and a competition. A bit like right-wingers berating everyone for not wearing a poppy the correct way. I agree with speaking out about injustice, but it's no longer enough to be a good, kind person who helps people, you have to be seen to be saying the right things in the right way.

I'm a left-leaning person but have always been perturbed by the left's tendency to shut down debate by policing language and no-platforming.

This. With a side order of difficulties in comprehending that women are adult biological females.

[Somethingkindaoooo]

I love that we live in a world where hatred is called out.

I don't love that if someone makes a genuine, innocent verbal slip, they can get fired / vilified, and generally cancelled.



I love we live in a world where gender stereotypes are questioned. I hate being called 'cis' like it is the exception to the norm.

Thay feels like what ' woke ' has become- for me, just a step too far

[Woeismypants]

When someone is woke they jump on the train of whatever is popular and fashionable. They blindly support the fashionable cause or group over other causes or groups that are actually just as important. They are so extreme and ironically black and white and rigid in their parroted performatory views all the while claiming to be the opposite. Very hypocritical and shallow.

[InTheNightWeWillWish]

I don’t think the problem is having an awareness of social inequalities but signalling to everyone that you not only perceive that social inequality but also vocalise it. As PPs have said, for many being woke is about proving how woke you are, it’s virtue signalling.

For example, during the BLM movement over the summer, someone I have on Facebook turned the posts into how woke she was. This was a white woman so determined to prove that she was aware of the social injustices that black people face by making statuses about how she was victimised because she argued against ‘all lives matter’. I’m in complete agreement with her on the sentiment but I think it’s beyond a joke that she used that movement to publicly say how much she was victimised for standing up for BLM. The posts became about her. About her standing up for black people. She wasn’t sharing stories of black people, she wasn’t posting links to charities and organisations that are trying to tackle racism. It was all about how aware she was and how she was fighting the good fight. She didn’t give a shit about the social injustices highlighted by the BLM movement and certainly hasn’t continued to post that Black Lives Matter now that the initial momentum has died down.

[Whyistheteacold]

@MrsBrunch and @HermioneWeasley that's a fair point about virtue signalling, which seems to be especially bad on my Facebook this year 🙃😂 I guess I don't see virtue signalling the same as being woke. Also HermioneWeasley I completely understand about your example with the word native etc, ridiculous!

@seriouslymole what do you mean?

@DesdemonaDryEyes is being woke something that you associate with only the younger generation?

@christmashottubintheshed 🙌 completely get that, especially on MN 😂😅 please don't come for me!

@FTMF30 that's completely how I feel, you articulated it spot on.

@RaymondSpectacles "I'm a left-leaning person but have always been perturbed by the left's tendency to shut down debate by policing language and no-platforming" really great point, overly policing language makes it hard to have a serious discussion.

[WeatherwaxOn]

Dunno if I am woke or not.
I call people by the names or pronouns they request.
I abhor and call out racism, sexism, ageism, ableism.
I do my best to be an ally for those who need one.
I'm of the older generation.
I accept that other people have different opinions. Usually I respect those opinions unless they relate to being racist, sexist, ageist or ableist.

[BlueThistles]

the word.. even the word makes me cringe...

[Porridgeoat]

I consider myself a leftie and PC but not woke. Woke to me is being so open minded the brain has fallen out. It’s not about caring about protected characteristics. It’s about making lesser mortals brains tie in knots with skewered logic and also about virtue signalling for brownie points.

[gurglebelly]

@Somethingkindaoooo

I love that we live in a world where hatred is called out.

I don't love that if someone makes a genuine, innocent verbal slip, they can get fired / vilified, and generally cancelled.



I love we live in a world where gender stereotypes are questioned. I hate being called 'cis' like it is the exception to the norm.

Thay feels like what ' woke ' has become- for me, just a step too far

Totally agree with this. 'Woke' in December 2020 seems to be a complete bastardisation of what it was originally and I detest 'cancel culture' because someone has a difference of opinion

I also hate how people with no lived experience seem to feel the need to be offended on behalf of others, particularly if the group they are offended on behalf of don't seem to have an issue with the cause of offence (eg some misplaced cultural appropriation concerns)

[TaraRhu]

Generally being woke is a good thing. It implies that oh have awareness of wider issues and injustices. The issue for is when it goes too far and there is no tolerance for alternative views and there's a cancel culture that takes away others right to speak. There's also people that capitalise off being woke for their own benefit or practice hypocritical wokenes. Meghan and Harry fall into these latter categories. They preach against climate change yet travel by private jet. They are commercialising wokeness to keep up their lavish lifestyle. They damage what is essentially a good movement where people aspire to live in a fairer world.

[NewAndUnusual]

Because woke people generally can't accept any other opinion than their own, which leads to cancelling, virtue signalling and incredible self-righteousness.

Yes. And when taken to the that degree, they end up believing in/supporting positions that are explicitly incompatible with each other and will state things that are entirely contradictory. And woe betide you if you point it out...

[Gobbeldegook]

Genuinely thought this was going to be a thread asking why people complain their kids woke them up at 5am. Fyi it's cause I enjoy sleep.
I'm not even going to try and get my head around this.

[AgeLikeWine]

The problem is that the word ‘woke’ has come to be associated with privileged, middle-class activists who think demonstrating against statues of people who have been dead for centuries Is fighting for ‘social justice’, while completely ignoring the fact that white working class boys are the most underrepresented section of society in British universities.

[NoToMisogyny]

When it became totalitarian. Cancelling people, no platforming, abusing anyone who disagrees with their orthodoxy, ‘no debate’ etc. They really aren’t the good guys anymore.

And that’s before we get onto the fact that ‘woke’ essentially means ‘misogyny’ now. It’s become a men’s rights movement. If you’re a women who believes in biological reality - you are ‘othered’ and dehumanised as a ‘terf’, which justifies violence towards you by men. Men who would swear reducing women to a ‘feeling’ is incredibly progressive

[Whyamiwastingtime]

I think the problem lies in that often it becomes a purity spiral exemplify by the knitting world. here is a link unherd.com/2020/01/cast-out-how-knitting-fell-into-a-purity-spiral/