Comments

  6. imback says

    Maybe it’s a consipiracy to own the libs by enticing them into a game of taking a drink every time some illiterate cries woke, thereby destroying their livers.

  7. drew says

    It’s an incredibly reliable flag for conservative stupidity.

    No, it just means they’re likely not liberals.

    Most of us are neither liberal nor conservative. The vast majority of us then, are not liberals.

  10. birgerjohansson says

    Woke forced Trump to cheat on his wife, and made Matt Gaetz chase underage girls.
    Woke caused the rain storms in California… and all the future earthquakes.

  14. woozy says

    The majority may be neither conservative nor liberal but the majority don’t use “woke” as boogeyman. The claim it’s “incredibly reliable flag for conservative stupidity” still seems valid and irrefuted.

  15. birgerjohansson says

    Conservatives in Sweden do not use woke as an insult. That is a quirk of those parties in UK, USA and elsewhere that are into populism and demagoguery.

    Also, our conservatives are not allowed to accept huge $$$ donations from business. It is almost like a correlation between “not-corrupt” and intellectual honesty.
    But Republicans are notoriously indifferent to things beyond the border, unless it is oil fields.

  16. wzrd1 says

    @Drew, the problem is a No True Scotsman fallacy, as with the fascist minority that insists it’s a majority and isn’t, anyone not believing as they do are liberals who need to literally be put to death. I’ve heard that shit with my very own ears. Notable that I was able to hear it, given my significant service connected hearing loss.

    @Larry, OK, hope they enjoy what they get, as I literally am one of those dogs of war. The adage of being careful for what one wishes for comes to mind.

  17. hemidactylus says

    I think it is correct to say “woke” has become a mind virus AND is a “reliable flag for stupidity”. There is a certain blogger who wrote books about speciation, evolution and the immiscibility of science and religion who is currently infected by it and hoists the reliable flag quite often. It’s almost all he blogs about on his blog anymore. Woke this. Woke that. Should I still be using “woke”? Etc. He poses left of center, but…

    I feel like collateral damage in the current culture war. I had to deconstruct this stuff to figure out which way was up well before “woke” became the kneejerk pejorative for “stuff I hate”. Before that it was SJW or “regressive left”.

    I did manage to discover some interesting stuff as a result…actually applied critical theory and not some demonized caricatures utilized by the rabidly antiwoke for the routined two minutes of hate against Emmanuel Goldstein.

  18. hemidactylus says

    @16- wzrd1
    I’ve wavered on the utility of using “fascism” as a label. More recently I trended more toward using it pejoratively but caught wind of this critique: https://newrepublic.com/article/170890/does-american-fascism-exist

    There were actual fascists. The term seems constrained to at least Italy under Mussolini. Corporatism is associated as a concept and that too is hard to pin down. It ain’t the current multinational corporatocracy who tend toward Mont Pelerin neoliberalism.

    We are trending under Trump, DeSantis etc toward authoritarianism yes, but fascism?

    The critique above by Daniel Bessner refers to fascism as a floating signifier. I think that’s “woke” as it stands now too.

    Woke applied correctly to black people being aware of where they might be safe or in danger, the purpose of some guide such as the Green Book. Yeah it was used by Huddie Ledbetter and later by BLM activists so has real world referents, but has become deliberately convoluted beyond recognition by ideologues.

  19. says

    Next on The Republican Circus, I would like to see one with the adorable little Republican child saying something hilariously silly about Mommy’s pregnancy.
    Then one showing the whole neighborhood and little Billy’s or whoever’s route home with all the detours and distractions. Probably include a tree fort with a sign that says NO GIRLS ALOUD. Maybe a library that he throws rocks at. A little stream that he pees in.
    But the hilarity really ensues when the kids go on a school field trip to visit the Capitol.

  20. wzrd1 says

    @hemidactylus, fascism was actively promoted and conservatives were embracing and suggesting adopting fascism in the US – right until WWII derailed their desired plans.
    The rest, as they say, is history.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism_in_North_America
    Definitions explain what words mean, so they really do exist and mean something: Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement, characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived good of the nation and race, and strong regimentation of society and the economy.

    So, we’re not talking about some epithet or insult, but a very real definition of a very real belief system.

  21. hemidactylus says

    We need our antiwoke distractions to hide the lack of effective GQP solutions:

  22. Matt G says

    @17- I used to be a regular over at the speciation guy’s blog up until he started down that path around 8-10 years ago. Can’t stand him now, and I’m not sure how I feel about reading his book again. I feel the same way about books I own by Dawkins, Harris, and others of their ilk.

  23. birgerjohansson says

    A tornado sadly killed a lot of people in Mississippi. I look forward to Republicans shoehorning this into the “woke” narrative. Woke construction making houses fall apart?

  25. Louis says

    I woke up this morning.

    Which, considering the epic hangover I have achieved via the consumption of pathetically tiny amounts of booze (ageing sucks) at a dinner party I gave last night, was an error.

    I blame Obama. And the champagne sipping, tofu eating, silk cravat wearing, North London Guardian reading, wokerati.

    All bastards.

    Louis

  26. hemidactylus says

    @25- Louis
    I’ve drastically slowed my drinking and been eating really healthy lately. I blame my not eating chicken wings and not drinking beer on the woke and their health conscious ideology. I type this as a warning to others not to buy into woke ideas on diet regimes and the virtue signaling it entails. It may be too late for me but hopefully others will escape this fate. Don’t artichoke on woke.

  27. says

    #24: See? This is why I had to stop reading that blog years ago, and now you done made me go look.

    I saw that “Closing: Comittment to Change” table and had no problem with it. Why shouldn’t my children and grandchildren learn about the history and leadership of black trans women? What’s wrong with encouraging them to stretch their minds and watch movies and read books that include non-cis het people? Why shouldn’t they practice using pronouns appropriately? It’s like we’re supposed to automatically adopt Coyne’s anti-woke crusade without questioning anything.

    And that he’s accepting propaganda from Rufo…fuck me, he’s become an uncritical troll.

  28. wzrd1 says

    @25- Louis, I still am known to drink amounts of distilled spirits in quantities that can only be considered legendary.
    I avoid hangovers by hydration and spacing my drinks, as well as having a proper load of protein in my stomach, which somewhat slows absorption. I also tend to naturally eat healthier meals than most of my peers and I’m now 61.

    OT: Gordon Moore, of Moore’s Law fame has died at age 94.

  29. StevoR says

    Woke = the new PC & SJW combined.

    Just like them a “clever”” (or not) lablel that tries but can’t really hide that it reflects far worse on the one who calls it as an insult than those they think they are insulting.

  30. WhiteHatLurker says

    Jesus Christ, Americans!

    “Woke” is the past tense of “wake”. Since you claim to speak English, LEARN THAT LANGUAGE!

  32. wzrd1 says

    WhiteHatLurker, we don’t speak English in the US, we speak Bad English.
    They’re two entirely different languages. Blame the British, who entirely failed to document their language until after a bit of a tiff in 1776.

  35. says

    It’s an incredibly reliable flag for conservative stupidity.

    No, it just means they’re likely not liberals.

    Most of us are neither liberal nor conservative. The vast majority of us then, are not liberals.

    So the vast majority of us use “woke” as a boogeyman, per the cartoon?

    Have you ever considered the possibility that you’re stupid, Drew?