What Is “Woke?”
Has something in the world has changed?
The words “woke” and “wokeness” have recently entered the political lexicon. Right-wing politicians like Ron DeSantis are absolutely obsessed with “wokeness.” They claim we need a “war on wokeness.”
These words puzzle me as to what they mean and why people use them. “Woke” and “wokeness” are used mostly, if not exclusively, as an insult. They are used mostly, if not exclusively, by the Right. In our current memeocene epoch, the “woke” insult is often attached to an attack meme, whining about an alleged “wokeness.”
The right-wing “anti-woke” memes are usually directed at people seldom specifically named. The “woke crowd” is mentioned with great derision, whoever they are. Occasionally, a particular person is insulted as being “woke,” with a connotation that the accused is on the value scale somewhere between dried cow dung and week-old sushi.
