Monday 10 July 2023

Woke a Dope | Or, reflections of the Doonesbury Dunce

Garry Trudeau tried to reclaim the word … “woke”.

Good luck with that, Gaz!

May as well try to reclaim “gay” as meaning “lighthearted and carefree”. 

Or, the “N-word” as its original, Spanish, 16th Century, neutral meaning of “Black”.

Or… or… any number of words that used to mean one thing now mean another.

For sure “woke” was a word used by the Black community to mean awake to the inequities of the social system,. 

Bit now it means a pejorative. Overly sensitive to social injustice. With an add-on of Marxism, critical race theory and Trans radical activism. So it’s a grab bag to describe a bunch of trends, which conservatives generally don’t like and progressives do. And “woke” is its dividing line. The split in the block of wood that divides us. 

And I’d say, in this one — though not at all on all things — the conservatives are winning. Woke will remain pejorative. For now, anyway.