What is "woke," and why do Republicans hate it so much?

[dutch508]

Star Member vlyons (8,245 posts)
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100216633543

What is "woke," and why do Republicans hate it so much?

"Woke" is a black slang term for awake or aware. Awake to the legacy of slavery. Aware of the lies about blacks and immigrants being lazy and criminals. Awake to the suffering of poverty. Aware of the unfairness of the American justice system. Awake to the violence of some police towards blacks. Awake to the stupidity and waste of war. Aware that climate change is real. Awake to the suffering of others. Aware that non-Christians and gays can be wonderful people and great neighbors.

As a Buddhist, I find "woke" to be quite ironic, because every Buddhist aspires to become awakened, to become enlightened. Everyday, I begin my meditation practice with taking refuge in the 3 jewels and clearly stating my greatest aspiration:

I take refuge in the Buddha, the dharma, and the sangha.
I aspire to become a completely and perfectly enlightened Buddha.

So yes I don't get insulted, when a RWNJ labels me "woke." Unbeknownst to them, it's a compliment. Although from my perspective, I'm a long long way from being enlightened. Probably many eons before I get there.

The hard part about being a Buddhist is having compassion for all sentient beings, yes even the hateful and selfish RWNJs, because they don't know any better. They are unaware of how much suffering they bring into the world. Having compassion for ALL sentient beings, yes even RWNJs, is the ultimate in wokeness.

 

Beastly Boy (4,365 posts)

2. The irony is, white Christians have also been singing hymns to "wokeness" for centuries.

"I once was lost but now I'm found" is the definition of it without actually using the term "woke".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazing_Grace

They never before had a problem with it.

 

RAB910 (1,856 posts)

4. "woke" means you care about and are nice to their Americans (and people in general)

one only need to listen to their toxic anti-American propaganda to understand they the hate and fear those concepts

 

Star Member tanyev (37,215 posts)

20. It's basically the updated version of their hatred for anything "politically correct".

Which, when you look at most of the specific things they complained about, was just being respectful and polite.

 

Star Member Walleye (14,319 posts)

7. If it is Black slang, they just use it as a code for their racism as everything else

They know what they’re talking about to each other. Woke means Black people. And they hate them

2Gingersnaps (790 posts)

17. I was unaware it was black slang, I would have credited it more with a Bhuddist mind set,

I really took it as some more authoritarian anti hippie projection of silliness we saw in the 60's and 70's. Like we were gonna nail sandals to their feet and force them to eat tofu. So thanks for the origin story there, makes sense.

The only thing I would disagree on is that "they don't know what they are doing." Yeah they do, it gives them a sense of power when they feel powerless to stop evolution of civil society. Luddites throwing sandals into the machinery to stop the industrial revolution.

 

Cuthbert Allgood (3,877 posts)

8. I'm a comic book fan, and this trend has made me realize how many comic book fans

are RWNJs. The number of "I'm not going to the new Thor movie because I'm sick of this woke shit" replies I see in comic related groups online is just tiresome. Any time there is a woman in the lead. Or they bring in a character that's LGBTQ+. Or, god forbid, make a character a POC when they weren't in the original source material.

The fragility of their world is so obvious when they get mad about things like this.

Star Member ProudMNDemocrat (11,027 posts)

18. To Republicans, being 'woke" is a THREAT to their rule.

The Genie has been out of the bottle for such a long time. Their efforts to put it back in is being met with a resistance they had not anticipated.

INFORMATION is POWER. TRUTH is POWER.

Keep up the pressure.

 

Star Member gab13by13 (9,554 posts)

19. Love your thread.

I have read a lot of Buddhist books, I like the path they follow. I had a satori moment one time in my life while driving through the countryside of New York on my way to work in Toronto. I will never forget how at peace I was for those several minutes, just looking at the scenery.

I have found there are common threads that run through Buddhism and other inspirational books.

Ekhart Tolle's books, beginning with "The Power of Now," have common threads with Buddhism.

Yeah, it can be tough, I find myself catching a bug in the house and releasing it outside instead of crushing it.

Old monk training a new disciple how to meditate. A mosquito lands on the trainee's ear and he flicks it away. The old monk shakes his head and says, I would have said hello my friend, drink your fill and have a safe trip home. I can't do that.

 

Star Member Cracklin Charlie (11,316 posts)

21. They don't hate it.

They stole it.

They steal everything from black people. Maybe stealing their culture is a way of keeping black people unorganized, or a way of diluting black people’s influence. I don’t know.

But the also steal from everyone, not just black folks. Maybe it’s just that they lack original ideas, so they are left to steal some.

 

Thomas Hurt (12,065 posts)

28. Just new christofascist newspeak for politically correct.

Cancelled means you have been called, challenged, insulted about your racist behavior.

What is new is that the christofascists are no longer going to be "cancelled" by their own christian morals. They have abandoned those entirely. When was the last time you family values bandied about? The culture war has escalated.

Star Member Martin Eden (11,261 posts)

29. Rightwing strategy is to turn something positive into a pejorative

Before "woke" they partially succeeded into making "liberal" a bad word to use in attacks.

 

[SVPete]

"Woke" - Street slang for grovelling acceptance that: whitey is to blame for all problems; everything whities like is racist; whities should surrender their possessions to POC (except for Asian POC); and every whitey is born and dies unchangeably and irredeemably racist.

I don't "hate" Woke-ism, I just reject it as the stooooooopid racism it is.

[USA4ME]

“Woke” is being told here’s what you must believe and if you don’t you’ll be harassed and ostracized. It’s not surprising that normal people would reject so silly and immature of a premise in a free society.

For example, I disagree that the justice system is grossly unfair and that global warming is a concern. “Woke” says that because I hold those positions, I should be punished in some manner by society, or by being deplatformed, or even by governmental authorities. I’ve read DUers and other leftists say as much. Reasonable people have a problem with that. Authoritarians don’t.

.

[ADsOutburst]

"woke" means you care about and are nice to their Americans (and people in general)

Wait, you have special terms for what other people call "basic social skills"?

21. They don't hate it.

They stole it.

Ooooh, almost! White nominal liberals stole the term "woke" for their own use. Conservatives use the term against these so-called "liberals" ironically, just like "social justice warrior", to suggest a person who only claims to care about such causes.

[SVPete]

Wait, you have special terms for what other people call "basic social skills"?
...

 

Thing is, DUpipo celebrate holidays by boasting about the friends and family members they cut off for having different political views. So there is a dearth of "basic social skills" on DU.

[enslaved1]

Star Member vlyons (8,245 posts)
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100216633543

What is "woke," and why do Republicans hate it so much?

"Woke" is a black slang term for awake or aware.

Does that mean y'all are appropriating culture by using the term? I thought that was against the rules.

[jukin]

Smartest. People. On. The. Internet.

Or so they think.

[Tess Anderson]

Virginia Lyons is just some batty old lady in Dallas, but the first time I remember hearing the term "woke" was from dumbass LadyDeeBug/baltimike at the dump.

[Ralph Wiggum]

Virginia Lyons is just some batty old lady in Dallas, but the first time I remember hearing the term "woke" was from dumbass LadyDeeBug/baltimike at the dump.

That was the first time I'd heard it in recent history (via LadyDeeBug) since hearing about it in a history class decades ago.

Our wonderful member Happy Fun Ball created a LadyDeeBug "Bingo Card" once that always elicited laughs for the amusing leftist terms.

[FlaGator]

Woke - Doing what masser tells you to do.

[ABC-2]

Does that mean y'all are appropriating culture by using the term? I thought that was against the rules.

 

As did I! 

[ABC-2]

Woke - Doing what masser tells you to do.

Go to the head of the class, FlaGator!

And boy, they almost trample each other in order to do so!