Being "Woke" is Not a Criticism, it's a Compliment
You're the one sounding like a dumbass for insulting people who have hearts and use facts.
Hearing a MAGA Trumploving fool use the word “woke” as if it’s supposed to be a derogatory term makes me scoff and laugh every time.
Do they have any idea where the term “woke” actually came from?
I’m going to guess no, because I didn’t either and had to look it up, but I’m glad I did because wow, WOW Trumplovers, you’re not going to love this:
Woke is an adjective derived from African-American English used since the 1930s or earlier to refer to awareness of racial prejudice and discrimination, often in the construction stay woke. The term acquired political connotations by the 1970s and gained further popularity in the 2010s with the hashtag #staywoke. Over time, woke came to be used to refer to a broader awareness of social inequalities such as sexism and denial of LGBTQ rights. Woke has also been used as shorthand for some ideas of the American Left involving identity politics and social justice, such as white privilege and reparations for slavery in the United States.[1][2][3]
- From Wikipedia, so you can click all those links for more information.
We’re put down about our “woke ideology” when really what we’re doing is keeping our eyes and ears open to know what’s going on in our communities and how we can make things better.
How can we close the income inequality gap?
How can we solve the problem of needing income-based housing?
How can we move over as cis-het humans and make more, welcoming room for trans and non-binary humans?
How can we fix the cruel and unusual punishment that is the “criminal justice” system in our shithole country, cut it out with the mass incarceration, and reform and rehabilitate rather than punish?
How can we change so we’ll still be able to grow food and not starve to death as the planet faces climate change that will wipe out entire ecosystems from the bottom up until we’re living in some Tender is the Flesh dystopian hell?
How can we band together and put a stop to this madness before Trump declares himself King of the World and suddenly we’re living like North Koreans?
We stay fucking woke, that’s how.
We do our best to get everyone we know, from Trumploving fool to disinterested neighbor to ambivalent friend to wake the fuck up!
What does this mean for you and me?
It’s not weakness, fragility, naiveté, or bleeding hearts that cause liberals to be the ones who are fighting for the the common, normal, decent human beings.
What little is left of the the actual Republican party that allegedly stood for smaller government, lower prices, lower taxes so more money goes into a person’s paycheck - is gone.
There are no more congressional Republicans that are brave enough and selfless enough to risk losing their jobs to stand up and say: This is wrong, we shouldn’t be doing this.
We shouldn’t learn we made a mistake and then double down on keeping someone in a horrific prison as an example of what can happen when half of Americans see what color your skin is, and decide you’re not welcome.
We shouldn’t learn by seeing clearly in the stock markets and on store shelves that tariffs and inflation are causing an economic and social collapse because no one can afford eggs and even lettuce isn’t safe anymore.
Here’s a post from Boing Boing that quotes an article from The Atlantic:
…after reading this new piece in The Atlantic, "Now Is Not the Time to Eat Bagged Lettuce," I'm even more convinced that I've made the correct decisions. The article by Nicholas Florko, whose subtitle reads, "Food safety in America is under attack," lays out a great argument for avoiding bagged salad greens—and especially romaine lettuce, which, in food safety terms, has a particularly bad track record—as we in the United States navigate a food safety system that has been historically "woefully neglected" and that has currently been even "further undermined" by the Trump administration.
It goes on to say:
The analogy given in this quote by food-safety lawyer Bill Marler is perfect (and made me cringe): "Buying a head of romaine lettuce is like taking a bath with your significant other; buying a bag of romaine lettuce is like swimming in a swimming pool in Las Vegas."
They’re ruining our world, guys.
The MAGA Republicans who are ruling our country right now have even taken lettuce away!
They ruined romaine lettuce with their cut backs on safety checks and regulations!
They need to be stopped, and it needs to happen soon.
Not long ago I wrote Can’t You See that Complicity is Acceptance?
In that article, I urged everyone to take the time to find out how to contact their local, state, and federal representatives to tell them they’re unsatisfied and/or enraged by current events - because those are the people who are supposed to stand up and do the fighting with us.
We elect them to lead the charge, and they aren’t leading.
Now, keep in mind, I am at heart a pacifist.
I don’t want to hurt anyone or be hurt, especially physically - the thought of getting punched in the face seems horrifying.
But I was hanging out with some old friends the other day, friends who don’t have high(ish) profile jobs and families they need to support on their own, and an interesting conversation ensued, led by the hippiest hippie with the most protest experience.
“Eventually,” she said, “It’s going to come down to one thing. We need to put bodies in front of bodies and we need people willing to go down to lift the rest of us up.”
Another friend spoke up:
“Oh, if we see actual Nazis or KKK in in the streets of (our town), you bet I’m going down there and punching Nazis in the face. I’ll fight the Nazis,” he said.
Then I thought, hmm.
Substack allows Nazis to post on their platform, posts I assume would be filled with hate speech and violent rhetoric. So let me take this chance:
If I ever have the opportunity, I would be fucking thrilled to punch a Nazi in the face.
Even better?
I’d just love to kick a Nazi in the junk as hard as I fucking can.
Maybe someday it will come to that - because it looks like those days are getting farther from speculation and closer to reality.
If you haven’t done it yet, readers:
WAKE UP!
STAY WOKE!
It’s not an insult, it’s not shameful, it’s a compliment, and the people who are doling it out are too stupid to come to that realization.
Being Woke means seeing inequality, oppression, racism, and classism as issues that need to be fixed as soon as possible.
If you’re describing someone as “being woke” as a put down?
You’re such an ignorant, fucking asshole, but I’m not going to feel sorry for you much longer.
Do you consider yourself to be “Woke”?
Congratulations.
You’re with me, part of the cool and intelligent kid’s club.
If you liked what I wrote and want to support me, that would be awesome! You can buy me a coffee, leave me a tip, or support my need to pay rent by clicking the image below:
I'm so happy you're back writing again... maybe you've been writing all along, but this is the first piece I've seen in a while. And you're writing about topics near and dear to my heart.
#StayWoke #TruthBrigade