Once again, today’s entry comes as a result of the Wordle Words Stories a few of us play every day. Linda Stowe, friend of mine, and amazing writer, came up with this a few weeks ago.
It has to do with being “woke” in today’s culture.
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Woke
By Linda Stowe
Woke seems to be the new four-letter word. I know I’m late to the table on this, but I’ve been busy trying to figure out where and what the Deep State is and why Antifa is bad if it means anti-Fascist.
As often is the case, my literal mindset causes me to miss a lot of what is going on. I once walked directly into a fight because I didn’t realize that the two combatants were building up to fisticuffs. I’m clueless when it comes to reading subtleties. A taunt is wasted on me because it just flies right by, unnoticed. You have to punch me in the nose to get my attention.
So, it took me a while to become aware of the term “woke.” It seemed to be a pejorative adjective favored by the MAGA crowd, but I was never clear about what it meant. A while back, I asked someone who sometimes used the term to define it for me. He said a woke person is one who is oversensitive to every perceived injustice in the world. It’s like political correctness gone overboard.
I can’t think of a case where I have heard the word “woke” used that seemed oversensitive, overboard, or over the line. It always seems to be used to label the people who are trying to overcome injustice of some kind. In other words, it’s okay to discriminate against a person of minority, and it’s “woke” to try to change this discrimination. It seems to me that the people using the term “woke” are the ones who need to wake up.
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I love this piece by Linda. The “political right” throw the term “woke” around, poking fun at progressive people who are doing nothing more than being aware of other people’s feelings and life concerns.
Yet, as Webster tells us, “woke” is the past tense of waking or being awake. Or, to emerge from a state of sleep.
So when someone tells me I am woke, I take it as a compliment. They are saying, as such, that I am not asleep to the world around me. They are telling me I am awake and aware. I’m proud to be called woke.
But Webster changes with the times, and now, in the modern sense, the new meaning of the word was officially added to the dictionary in 2017. Woke is described as “chiefly U.S. slang,” and the dictionary defines the word as: “Aware of and actively attentive to important facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice).”
I see this as a compliment too.
But then there are other worlds, like FOX news, under the bubble of their own making.
The FOX News site describes the woke meaning as this:
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“But the meaning of woke evolved again with the rise of “cancel culture” — as the two terms saw increased use, they became intertwined in the public consciousness. Often, someone gets canceled after they say something insensitive – something not woke.
So in addition to meaning aware and progressive, many people now interpret woke to be a way to describe people who would rather silence their critics than listen to them.”
https://www.foxnews.com/us/what-does-woke-mean
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The followers of FOX News, the MAGAs, all see the world in a much different way than the rest of us. I have observed attitudes of entitlement, prejudice, and superiority within their group. As Linda mentioned, they are the ones who need to wake up.
I wonder if they will ever come out of their deep, dark sleep.
I wonder if they will ever open their eyes.
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“I had a dream I was awake, and I woke up to find myself asleep.”
― Stan Laurel
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It is a matter of shame that in the morning, the birds should be awake earlier than you.
— Abu Bakr
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Our species needs, and deserves, a citizenry with minds wide awake and a basic understanding of how the world works.
— Carl Sagan
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Being Woke. Thank you very much.
