It’s strange how certain words trigger the right wing mind. To be fair, certain words can trigger the left wing mind, too. Words that assault people and marginalize them. The word “woke” makes right wingers apoplectic. Somehow those four letters terrify the right wing mind like nothing else. Ironically, right wingers spend their days dreaming up new ways to “own the libs” (instead of crafting good legislation or building good arguments); I hate to break it to them: the libs really couldn’t give a shit.
Meanwhile, all a lib has to do to own the entire right wing? Just be “woke”.
Why does someone “being woke” annoy right wingers? Why has Ron DeSantis made attacking “wokeness” the entire point of his governance? I know what our side means by “woke”. What does their side mean by it?
What Being “Woke” Means
When we say “woke”, we’re talking simply about being as aware as possible of everyone’s needs – and not just the needs of a few. Being woke means caring. Seeing America’s diversity and embracing it. It means not just telling part of our story, but all of it. Every last detail – even the unseemly bits some of us would rather the rest of us forget.
What other verb do Republicans think while sneering the word “woke”? What should people do instead? Well, since being woke is being awake to everything, right wingers must want people to nod off instead. Be unconscious. And, being unconscious, we won’t know or care about anything.
We won’t even know how bad our problems are. We’ll slumber along, oblivious of the power grab taking place. If and when we ever did wake up? We’d discover the bed in which we’re sleeping sat inside a prison cell. That cell could be practical or theoretical. The bars would be real nonetheless.
Conservatives loathe “woke” because, to them, it encapsulates everything dangerous about liberals and progressives. The irony? That conservative loathing encapsulates everything dangerous about conservatives. People asleep to their own problems will never imagine or innovate solutions. Even new problems will get old answers – that stopped working eons ago.
Athwart History Yelling Stop
Conservative icon Bill Buckley proudly stood “athwart history, yelling Stop”. That, Buckley pointed out, is conservatism’s mission. Progress is anathema to them. They want to maintain as much of the past as possible in the present. If they could figure out a way to literally regress us into the past, conservatives would do it! They would drag the rest of us – kicking and screaming – all the way back to the 50’s. The 1850’s.
That’s the point in history right wingers would like to stand athwart yelling “Stop!”.
As the last few elections have proven – with clear trend lines even a journalist could read correctly – the majority of Americans don’t want what the GOP is selling. That’s why the GOP has gone from selling their bullshit to outright ramming it down our unwilling throats.
The last thing on earth right wingers want is for Americans – for America – to be woke. I’ve got bad news and worse news for right wingers. Not only is America woke, we’re just starting to wake up.
We’re not just being woke, we’re getting woke.
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