Why does 'wokeness' annoy people so much?

[twwindow]

Isn't it just trying to make the world a better place but making people feel accepted no matter their race, gender etc?

It seems to wind some people up so bad - and it's usually those that are part of a majority group that gets wound up most by it (usually white/men) - is it because they feel threatened?

Whenever anyone stands up for a cause they are automatically called woke - and it's now as if it's a bad thing.

It's sad, I see people fed up with 'wokeness' as code for 'we can't get away with our racist, sexist BS anymore as people are calling us out'.

@Longcovid21 - fighting over leftovers from the table. Quite so.

This is such an interesting subject. I am fascinated by how my children and their friends speak so passionately about environmental matters, but are often relatively careless in their own personal behaviours. Especially around consuming. People seem to be able detach themselves quite easily from ‘the cause’ (whatever that is - it feels very transient as per identity politics).

@sweetbellyhigh

Dinosaur thinkers label anything they're uncomfortable with as "woke", they use it as a put down to make themselves feel better about being racist, sexist, ageist, homophobic, ableist, greedy and all up awful.

Anyone who uses the word woke has self identified as an arsehole.

Anyone? Lovely irony.

I think there are some extremes of 'wokeness' and virtue signalling for sure. But I hate that it's just become another stick to bash millennials and younger generations with. Old people hate young people trying to challenge order of things, even if it's trying to make positive change. Their non-woke system has worked well in favour of them. What if marginalised groups actually became equals? God forbid.

@buttercuplizzy

Because its the epitome of virtual signalling: do as I say, not as I do.

It is borderline Orwellian it its beliefs. Re-writing history and language to push its regressive ideology and 'cancelling' anyone who doesn't swallow the narrative. They have zero tolerance and believe in 'one' truth.

It also isn't about making the world a better place. It is regressive in all ways. It paints a picture of inclusively, but scratch the surface and it isn't.

Couldn't agree with you more. Well said.

And also @BrightYellowDaffodil

Many older people, not all*

Totally agree OP.

‘Virtue signalling’ is a phrase that gets thrown about a lot when someone isn't virtue signalling but genuinely concerned about an issue.

Not read through.
Majority of posts I’ve seen on here slating “wokeness”, clearly don’t understand it, tbh.
It was a phrase coined to encourage awareness and action.
Actually, some also understand it but are too comfortable in their position to want to be challenged or asked to change.
I avoid posts that mention wokeness ( yours is taking a different angle which I appreciate).
I imagine people who are enraged by the idea of wokeness use the terms “snowflake” and “pc gone mad”

As far as I can see, wokeness seems to involve being very vocal about standing up for the rights and needs of hypothetical people you dont actually know by being cruel and threatening towards actual people who are stsnding right in front of you

@littlepieces

I think there are some extremes of 'wokeness' and virtue signalling for sure. But I hate that it's just become another stick to bash millennials and younger generations with. Old people hate young people trying to challenge order of things, even if it's trying to make positive change. Their non-woke system has worked well in favour of them. What if marginalised groups actually became equals? God forbid.

Exactly this. Absolutely, that's why it sickens me when people cry 'too much wokeness'. I feel it is a disguise for their biased views towards other people and fear of them becoming equals to be honest

Apparently as this thread demonstrates you can slag off old people and still be woke. The irony

It seems like the older generations don't like being held accountable for their wrong actions/views on things. "Woke" really isn't an insult, just a sarcastic little dig from the oldies.

Again you are part of the problem; who appointed you the arbiter of what constitutes wrong actions/veiws? Finishing with a little casual ageism perfectly demonstrates what's wrong with wokeness.

It's the lack of critical thinking and insight that gets me. Virtue signalling whilst being massively part of the problem. An example: Emma Watson's dress at the earthshot event, loads of wedding dresses cut up to make one dress, look at me, I'm so fucking virtuous I used 10 dresses to make one dress. And I've distanced myself from the person who made me famous because of some imaginary slur that has been distorted by social media so much that it must be true. Look at me I'm so fucking virtuous. None of you would ever have heard of me if it wasn't for the brave and eloquent woman who I'm now helping to denigrate in the name of progressiveness. I'm so fucking virtuous, I'm woke.

@DroopyClematis

Hmmm... two threads about drinking, one about six figure salaries and one about wokeness. All in the last couple of days?!

I smell an empty Daily Fail desk.

I promise I have absolutely no affiliation to journalism 😂

Being woke was a movement by African Americans and a very good thing as they fought for tolerance

However it's been high-jacked by mainly white people and turned into the complete opposite of what the original supporters stood for.

Currently it's about forcing a narrow one way view of the world. No shades of grey and no debate.
If you screw up in their eyes, you are cancelled forever. There's no sitting down and talking to the person or explaining their pov- you must comply or be cancelled.

I think it's fair not to get sucked into a cult who have basically co-opted another group's ideology and turned it into it's own monster.

@Broads93

It seems like the older generations don't like being held accountable for their wrong actions/views on things. "Woke" really isn't an insult, just a sarcastic little dig from the oldies.

Don't you understand that a lot of the faux-progressive things that people mean when they say "woke" are the exact opposite of genuinely progressive?

Leaving aside the daily mail set, quite a lot of us on the left find it quite useful to have a word that means "young people who think they are being progressive when they are actually being regressive".

Policies that white people claim increase racial diversity and representation when they actually don't, but do the reverse. "Anti-sexism" and "anti-ableism" policies that actually discriminate in practical terms against women and disabled people. "Queer" initiatives that are actually deeply homophobic.

"Diversity" initiatives that make it harder or impossible to gather accurate data about discrimination, or which misrepresent statistics so that they are counterproductive and harm the people they are meant to help. Ideas that when followed through to their conclusion are exactly the things that delight old white powerful men and the most exploitative extremes of capitalist commercial interests - like "sex work is work", for example.

If you don't like "woke", what should we call those people and ideas? Faux-progressive? Virtue signalling? Come up with a different word we can all use, please - to describe these deeply selfish people who are convinced of their moral righteousness, but are in fact useful idiots, or willing shills for entrenched white liberal male capitalist interests.

Old people are responsible for women now being allowed a mortgage , repeal of section 28 , changes to the law around " no dogs , no blacks no Irish"

Oh I can see why people think those claiming to be woke unlike the nasty old people are rather less woke than they believe

Its mainly Daily Express and Daily Mail readers,who use the word woke as an excuse to be rude to anybody that doesnt fit into their tiny world view.

I don't like woke used as it is in the UK. It has been stripped of the anti racist tones, the wakening up of people to racial injustice, another tool that black people created shorn from its roots and repurposed, with a sneer, by white people.

Wokeness is epitomised by the idiots that paint zebra crossing in rainbow colours even though they know this adversely affects the safety of blind people using those crossings. Wokeness means virtue-signalling with the rainbow is more important than disability equality

Barak Obama reads the Daily Mail?

Absolutely, that's why it sickens me when people cry 'too much wokeness'. I feel it is a disguise for their biased views towards other people and fear of them becoming equals to be honest

Thing is, those people already have words for their views and they've always hidden them behind euphamisms.

Most people are not bigots. The reason the rerm woke has come to popularly mean "pretending to be nice in a way which is attention seeking at worst and an exucse for bullying at worst" is because we needed a word for that.

Spend a little time reading the output of someone like the youtuber Owen Jones and you'll see why it's needed: bitter attacks on people dressed up as caring.

Woke is just Jingoism under a different brand: hiding hatred of others with a positive.

Not everyone uses it with a sneer
There are people in the uk who think they are woke and are at pains to say so
Which is how it had then gained its negative connotations

@Broads93

It seems like the older generations don't like being held accountable for their wrong actions/views on things. "Woke" really isn't an insult, just a sarcastic little dig from the oldies.

This is a perfectly executed woke post.

Woke is hypocrisy masquerading as caring about humankind, for the sake of making oneself feel intelligent and above others.

Stereotyping groups and judging them is typical behavior of the people who call themselves woke.