Skip to main content

Taking back words: Woke

It is very often important to use correct words in arguing/debating with political opponents. However, it is also very important to protect the words we do use from co-optation by our opponents who would attempt to render them meaningless.

Take the word, Woke, as an example. Woke, in its terminology, when used by Black activists was used as a shorthand for knowing about Institutionalized Racism. That government service agencies were often built with anti-Blackness right into their foundation. That someone was woke meant they knew things were wrong at a foundational level for Black people and other minorities.

Extreme right-wingers though have been working to co-opt this term, wanting to render it meaningless, using it to describe some "woke" army of people who'd tear apart the whole of society with "wokeness" to appease some special interest groups that are themselves anti-society. To be honest, it is laughable how far these extremists are going to use this form of the term to neuter its meaning and effectiveness as they have begun using it to describe government agency's policies, as though somehow these government agencies, which are often founded with institutional racism in their very core can somehow be woke. This is literally impossible: a contradiction. If government agencies could be aware of their own racialized policies, they could then excise these policies by replacing them with equitable policy immediately.

However, it not just extremist right-wingers misusing this term. Liberals have also worked to co-opt the term but instead for themselves, draping themselves in it to appear equitable, as though they themselves have never contributed to social welfare defunding, sky-high rents and housing prices, skyrocketing student loan debts, skyrocketing medical debts, red lining, police militarization, overcrowded prisons that have transformed into slave factories, and so on. Liberals have often contributed to these problems by often pushing through the laws, rules, regulations, and policies that have intensified these problems such as via the 1994 prison bill back by the current president Joe Biden.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The human 'superpredator' is unique -- and unsustainable, study says

Los Angeles Times I can't imagine the world in ten years time. Twenty years. It'll be different. As different as the world was even in my own childhood. As different as the world was from my parents' childhoods. My elders speak of our role on this Earth as caretakers. However, we've abandoned this role in favor of materialistic pursuits. Of finite beliefs that will quickly degrade into ash when stressed, as heated glass touching cold water. All cultures historically warn us away from over-indulgence, and yet our own modern society celebrates this behavior as exemplary. This self-interest is our fatal flaw. We take what we want, and we give nothing. This cannot last. There are limits on this Earth we cannot comprehend in full. It is simply too vast. However, what little we do know should terrify us into acting more responsibly, even if only marginally. However we do not even do that. Our leaders urge us on to continue on as we have done. This cannot last. Eventuall...

The On-coming Canadian Housing Market Crash

 It seems inevitable now. What was propping up Canadian housing prices even through the worst of housing market crashes elsewhere were banking rules forcing Canadian banks to keep 100% coverage and investors fleeing into Canadian housing when all else was failing. The latter however now is ready to give. Canadian banks will likely be fine due to well-enforced banking rules, but the housing investors are done for. They've driven up prices so high in Vancouver and other Canadian cities that once the homes begin losing value, that'll be that. Value will sink like a stone into water and trillions of dollars will vanish overnight. Three quarters of the economy, at least. And that's probably the conservative estimate. There is exposure everywhere by a great many players of this financial game. All interconnected with a great many of these companies playing at being investment companies the same way Mom and Pop investors play at the game: without clue and context that they're ...

The Earth is Alive

It is not a being in a manner we can absolutely comprehend. It's deeper mysteries are probably too much for our abnormally large monkey brains. We can make good guesses as to its nuances and behaviors, but how do we prove anything above the level of the idea we believe there to be a molten core at its heart? We believe it breathes and maintains its temperature through the trees, the air, and the ocean. We can make good guesses at all this, modeling to best of our knowledge what it all may look like, and predict its future behavior, but we don't actually know, for certain. Which may seem like a weakness to some. We're nothing more than animals, really. We follow the strong, and the strong are certain. Uncertainty seems alike to fear to some. The Earth is alive, and it is ancient. We are mere insects to it, really. Its age is unfathomable, honestly. We can only imagine a time before humans. We wish for a sense of superiority, as though we're somehow important in the gra...