What to call the wokerati

Is it about 'calling people names' though? Or an attempt to find a way to describe someone's general political leanings?

No idea why this is in the feminism section. I'm not on board with gender ideology but am a feminist. I think critical race theory is grounded in well researched academic principles and people who bung it under an umbrella of 'woke' as an insult are either thick or haven't bothered to look any of it up. I also think Charlie Kirk was a misogynist right wing nut and in any case a mouthpiece for American Christian Conservatism - nothing to do with British conservatism which is not really all that Christian at its root. Not sure how any feminist could have any respect for him alive or dead (though people being murdered is wrong whether they are shot by a lunatic, killed in a school shooting, or put to death by the state).

So perhaps don't try to have a catch-all term when only people who are trying to brainwash you try to create a word for "the kind of people who scare you"?

Agree. I can't bring myself to call people 'woke' because for me it has the same ring as 'gammon' when used by the other side. It sounds like a playground insult. I hope to find a better descriptor in this thread.

Edited for spelling

I've reported this thread anyway because really "wHaT NAmEs cAn We cAlL PpL WhO DiSAgREe WiTh Us?" Is bottom of the barrel stuff for the site. Wholly embarrassing.

I find the blanket use of “left” hugely problematic.

No it was invented by the Black community to describe something very particular. It wasnt used by them. It is used by others to talk about being socially progressive or to mock those who are. It is cultural appropriation when it is used outside of its original context.

If you want to cancel anyone who has a different view of the world to you then bigot is a description, not an insult.

Woke may be used by some of the black community in the way described but it's used by others to try and avoid discussion about anything they dislike.

I think it is important to use the term 'populist' when referring to the left-wing variants of mob-like, authoritarian, social media empowered dogma (such as gender ideology).

Historically we have used the term for right-wing movements of this sort. But there is the same dynamics on the left, the same set of manipulated angry mobilisation on a set of ideological beliefs that really just serve as distraction from economic issues.

So I'd go with "the populist left", to match "the populist right".

Woke is word used by the Black community to describe someone aware of systems of white supermacy.

naacp.org/resources/reclaiming-word-woke-part-african-american-culture

Instead of appropriating a term or dishing out insults. Why not just say "people who believe x" and you can also say "I disagree with people who believe X because Y". Why do you need call themselves names?

Bigots.

Anyone who uses the term 'woke' to describe something outside of the context of a joke is an absolute walloper, in my experience.

I am not sure "progressive" is wrong.

A big part of the problem with this ideology is that it thinks there is some objective kind of progress, that we are moving, if we pick the right side of history, to some kind of utopian vision. History is an arrow, not just in time, but in terms of social arrangements and morality.

It is left wing too, in that it comes out of a Hegalian/marxist view of history, which is leading to some higher form of community or enlightenment.

They typically do not accept the idea that differernt kinds of social arrangements and policies involve various negotiations of interests and trade offs.

People who have this kind of view of political progress tend to treat their political opinions as things which are opposed only by the morally corrupt, and don't listen to what others who disagree say. These are the people who say things like "Never kissed a Tory".

I think progressivism is integral to the "woke" perspective.

Black Lives Matter is a political movement, not a description of what anyone thinks about black people. People don't support it for a variety of reasons, including the stated beliefs of the founders that include things like dismantling the family, the actual actions of the founders that include using funds raised for buying fancy houses, because they don't support the kind of race essentialism that features within the movement, because they don't think their analysis of police violence in America is particularly honest or accurate, or because they think the policies they want make black communities worse.

Reducing that to "you don't think black lives matter" is why the word "woke" is now so often being used ironically.

Woke is everything that Melanie Phillips disagrees with. I have found this yardstick very reliable.

I don't go round looking to put all right wingers in one bucket, call them names, and say if you disagree with me you're a fascist. So maybe I'm woke.

"Tools" works well on several levels I think.

I call them "identarians".

I know you're looking for something sensible, but my 19 year on son just calls them The Pronoun People and gets his point across.

motte: "black lives matter"
bailey: "Black Lives Matter Foundation, Inc".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motte-and-bailey_fallacy

Angry Identity Obsessives

Absolutely this. There’s nothing leftwing about identity politics, the most solipsistic movement I‘ve ever encountered.

Your earlier comment also hits the nail on the head: It’s driving me crackers hearing these people described as liberal - when they’re authoritarian, progressives - when they promote regressive policies, kind - when they seem incapable of common decency.

How about we don't bother? As a far left leaning supporter of womens rights, who believes TW are men, doesn't call other people fascist or bigot, thought CK spouted a load of regressive/racist nonsense and that his murder was a heinous crime, I just know that whatever you come up with could be used to describe me. So I'll be both a fascist bigot and the new opposite insult all at the same time. Which will mess with my sense of 'identity'.

Pseudo-progressives?

I'd rather get into arguments than labels, but for a shorthand I find that 'wokelords' works fine.

It also helps me remember a late friend who was the first person I knew to see through Stonewall. She used to call them 'the Gaylords'.