Woke crops up all over this part of the forum mostly from the more right leaning of our group. But I thought a thread of its own might be relevant (might already be one but I couldn't find it).
I was pushed to start it by a couple of Daily Mail headlines.
Firstly, that tower of political intellect Dan Wootton based an article on this Tweet he made:
Boris Johnson now has the clearest mandate that hardworking British folk do not want this great country to be transformed into the United Kingdom of Woke. So the PM has to get serious and inflict a total defeat against divisive wokeism before it’s too late
He seemingly forgot that the SNP & Greens control Scotland, Labour controls Wales, Labour runs London, plus a number of other major cities (It wasn't a great night for them but they were not wiped off the face of the earth), while the Greens and LDs (who I'm sure he would view as far more "Woke" than Labour) made progress as well.
The second was a Piers Morgan headline telling Biden not to get Woke or Piers' GOP friends would come out of their conspiracy theory QAnon Big Lie bunker to take power (again seemingly ignoring the large public popularity of Biden's policies thus far)
Wootten (who is gay) probably would hate it is "unwoke" people started hurling homophobic abuse at him. It seems that "Woke" now means the same as Boris's bendy banana ban and similar headlines that started the anti EU rhetoric.
There are certainly some odd and extreme views out there, such as a small group in the US wanting Disney's Snow White banned as the Prince didn't ask permission to kiss her first, but the reality is that a lot of films and TV from the 1930s-1980s contain phrases and scenes that we now find toe curling or totally unacceptable. Del Boy talks about going to the P*** Shop on the corner. Wendy Craig in Butterflies demands that she is raped, Bob & Terry in the Likely Lads lust after gym slips.
At is core, Woke simply means recognising injustice, past errors etc, but the right are hijacking it for their political aims. A friend of mine recently cancelled his National Trust membership because they were too Woke, simply due to them putting up explanations about how the building of certain properties was funded - ie - through slavery.
In reality, Wootten is suggesting it is OK to abuse minorities, women, people who have a different view to you. It is fine to ignore the factual lessons of history that hey - we did bad stuff, like lots of other nations. Its fine to continue to show some art that is no longer remotely acceptable to the vast majority of people. That free speech gives people licence to say absolutely anything with no consequences or criticism. He is effectively branding the whole set of Boris voters as culture warriors wanting to take Britain back to the land of Love Thy Neighbour etc.
Personally, this attempt to brand the general direction of travel of society for all of my life time towards a fairer, more equitable world as Woke and something to be stopped, seems a very dangerous tactic and one that is being used by the right to attack everything and everyone from the BBC, to Universities, to artists, to charities, to ordinary people who just believe that we need to be a better society.
Rant over...
I was pushed to start it by a couple of Daily Mail headlines.
Firstly, that tower of political intellect Dan Wootton based an article on this Tweet he made:
Boris Johnson now has the clearest mandate that hardworking British folk do not want this great country to be transformed into the United Kingdom of Woke. So the PM has to get serious and inflict a total defeat against divisive wokeism before it’s too late
He seemingly forgot that the SNP & Greens control Scotland, Labour controls Wales, Labour runs London, plus a number of other major cities (It wasn't a great night for them but they were not wiped off the face of the earth), while the Greens and LDs (who I'm sure he would view as far more "Woke" than Labour) made progress as well.
The second was a Piers Morgan headline telling Biden not to get Woke or Piers' GOP friends would come out of their conspiracy theory QAnon Big Lie bunker to take power (again seemingly ignoring the large public popularity of Biden's policies thus far)
Wootten (who is gay) probably would hate it is "unwoke" people started hurling homophobic abuse at him. It seems that "Woke" now means the same as Boris's bendy banana ban and similar headlines that started the anti EU rhetoric.
There are certainly some odd and extreme views out there, such as a small group in the US wanting Disney's Snow White banned as the Prince didn't ask permission to kiss her first, but the reality is that a lot of films and TV from the 1930s-1980s contain phrases and scenes that we now find toe curling or totally unacceptable. Del Boy talks about going to the P*** Shop on the corner. Wendy Craig in Butterflies demands that she is raped, Bob & Terry in the Likely Lads lust after gym slips.
At is core, Woke simply means recognising injustice, past errors etc, but the right are hijacking it for their political aims. A friend of mine recently cancelled his National Trust membership because they were too Woke, simply due to them putting up explanations about how the building of certain properties was funded - ie - through slavery.
In reality, Wootten is suggesting it is OK to abuse minorities, women, people who have a different view to you. It is fine to ignore the factual lessons of history that hey - we did bad stuff, like lots of other nations. Its fine to continue to show some art that is no longer remotely acceptable to the vast majority of people. That free speech gives people licence to say absolutely anything with no consequences or criticism. He is effectively branding the whole set of Boris voters as culture warriors wanting to take Britain back to the land of Love Thy Neighbour etc.
Personally, this attempt to brand the general direction of travel of society for all of my life time towards a fairer, more equitable world as Woke and something to be stopped, seems a very dangerous tactic and one that is being used by the right to attack everything and everyone from the BBC, to Universities, to artists, to charities, to ordinary people who just believe that we need to be a better society.
Rant over...
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