4 ms·

As a non-native English speaker not living in the US, I've heard the word (or rather, read) multiple times but I honestly have never bothered to research what i

by tauntz 5y ago

As a non-native English speaker not living in the US, I've heard the word (or rather, read) multiple times but I honestly have never bothered to research what it actually means but I think I've kinda gotten the context around it(?) I've seen it being tossed around on Reddit when there's post about US politics/US social issues and it always looked to me like a generic insult thrown at somebody who doesn't like the more conservative "side" of the US political spectrum. I basically got the impression that it's a shorthand for "You think your opinion and views are modern and hip but I don't share the same view on the world and you are stupid due to that". Reading now Urban dictionary, I see that I was.. kinda on the right track? US is really weird :)

bart_spoon 5y ago
"Woke" as a political term was originally used to describe someone with political views focused on what they saw as the historical and modern forms of societal oppression: subjugation of women and sexism, racism and forms of societal bias against minorities, homophobia and anti-LGBT views found in mainstream society. To be "woke" was to be someone who was aware of the ways in which American society was and still is unjust to these various minority groups. Over time, as some of this progressive-minded population became more extreme/absurd, the term came to represent that absurdity and became more of an epithet. Students protesting because they believed the proprietor of a shop on campus was racist when he physically stopped some students attempting to shoplift, because they were black. A rich black female college student who entered a cafeteria was asked to leave, and became the center of a large movement (with ACLU support) outraged at being targeted for eating while black, resulting in the staff members being fired. Members of the ACLU supporting a campaign to censor a book for trans-related wrongthink. These sorts of excesses began to be associated with the term, so now, while it can be used both ways, is more commonly associated with the loud, militant, and extremist portions of the progressive movement, and is generally used as a derogatory term.
throwawaylinux 5y ago
I don't see what urban dictionary entries lead you to believe you are on the right track, but the top voted 2-3 do not. Those are what it means: hypocrisy and insincerity about progressive causes.
- tauntz 5y ago
  Might be a language thing then. I'm reading through Urban Dictionary and most of them read to me like "I think I know the other person is dishonest or stupid". Let's take the most popular definition there: Woke - The act of being very pretentious about how much you care about a social issue Again, as a non-native English speaker I have to click through "pretentious". The most popular definition: Behaving in an attention-seeking manner via presenting oneself on the surface as being intelligent, provocative, important, avant-garde, humorous or significant, yet harboring ulterior motives, typically involving some form of personal gratification or material gain (e.g. advancement in social status, career, wealth, etc.). Note that using this word is often conflated to be a pretentious act in and of itself, as this word is frequently used as a way to easily discredit people, works of art, ideas or statements while simultaneously boosting one's own status. (btw, as far as I can tell, there's no word or phrase for the same thing in my native language. Which might already start to explain why the whole concept is hard to really understand for me) So somebody who calls someone else "woke" looks to be, often, trying to discredit the other person, while simultaneously boosting their own status by making the statement that the other person has ulterior motives and does not actually hold the beliefs that they are saying that they hold. Idk.. it looks like I'm too far from the US culture to really understand this. When somebody says that they think that gay people should not have equal rights to non-gay people, then I see no reason to assume that they don't actually hold that belief and that they would be pretentious. When somebody says the opposite - that gay people should have the same rights than non-gay people then again, I see no reason to assume that they don't actually hold that belief and are pretentious. Nothing about this looks to have anything to do with progressiveness or hypocrisy or insincerity as far as I can tell but for some reason there's a made-up word to tell the other "side" that "I know you are full of shit and you don't actually believe in what you say".
  - shkkmo 5y ago
    Be careful about trusting Urban Dictionary too much. It can serve has a useful hint about what some slang means, but is often heavily biased towards the slang used by certain demographics and subcultures (and is vulnerable to brigading). It certainly is not a source of the "one true meaning" of a word. I am sure your language does have a word that is pretty similar to "pretentious" though it may not have all of the conotations. I recommend a real dictionary that has multiple good definitions or a good cross-language dictionary that can give you several alternate words in your language that map to the various uses of "pretentious". "Woke" is even more complicated. It is a word that originated over half a century ago in African American culture as part of the civil rights movement. It meant being aware of and working to fight racial injustice. It was then coopted a decade ago by progressive people working on a broader range of social justice issues to describe awareness of those issues. It was then further co-opted by conservative people to mock progressive people as pretentious. The poster is trying to pretend that only this last meaning is real and valid. They are either ignorant or a racist troll working to further the co-opting of the term.
amcoastal 5y ago
[flagged]
- throwawaylinux 5y ago
  - amcoastal 5y ago
    Sure. But I don't run around daily acting like I have a moral high ground and constantly baiting people. I took your bait, and I'm the bad guy? Okay bud. Maybe try not being so angry about stuff that literally doesn't matter. You're constantly enraged on here. I'm not here often and if I can tie your screen name to rage inducing you're doing something horribly wrong with your life.
    - throwawaylinux 5y ago
      Why are you calling me these names? Who am I calling up hate or rage against? I answered a question about the definition of the word as it was being used. Obviously the definition is making you very angry, but I'm just the messenger here I did not make the post that used the word in the first place, and I didn't make up the definition.
      - Tostino 5y ago
        The only "name" I saw them call you was "bud". I gotta say I agree with their assessment though.
        throwawaylinux 5y ago
        You didn't read the thread where they used other names. Thanks that that gives me a good understanding of the usefulness of your opinion, so I don't need to bother asking how you came to it.

by tauntz 5y ago

bart_spoon 5y ago

"Woke" as a political term was originally used to describe someone with political views focused on what they saw as the historical and modern forms of societal oppression: subjugation of women and sexism, racism and forms of societal bias against minorities, homophobia and anti-LGBT views found in mainstream society. To be "woke" was to be someone who was aware of the ways in which American society was and still is unjust to these various minority groups. Over time, as some of this progressive-minded population became more extreme/absurd, the term came to represent that absurdity and became more of an epithet. Students protesting because they believed the proprietor of a shop on campus was racist when he physically stopped some students attempting to shoplift, because they were black. A rich black female college student who entered a cafeteria was asked to leave, and became the center of a large movement (with ACLU support) outraged at being targeted for eating while black, resulting in the staff members being fired. Members of the ACLU supporting a campaign to censor a book for trans-related wrongthink. These sorts of excesses began to be associated with the term, so now, while it can be used both ways, is more commonly associated with the loud, militant, and extremist portions of the progressive movement, and is generally used as a derogatory term.

throwawaylinux 5y ago

I don't see what urban dictionary entries lead you to believe you are on the right track, but the top voted 2-3 do not. Those are what it means: hypocrisy and insincerity about progressive causes.

tauntz 5y ago
Might be a language thing then. I'm reading through Urban Dictionary and most of them read to me like "I think I know the other person is dishonest or stupid". Let's take the most popular definition there: Woke - The act of being very pretentious about how much you care about a social issue Again, as a non-native English speaker I have to click through "pretentious". The most popular definition: Behaving in an attention-seeking manner via presenting oneself on the surface as being intelligent, provocative, important, avant-garde, humorous or significant, yet harboring ulterior motives, typically involving some form of personal gratification or material gain (e.g. advancement in social status, career, wealth, etc.). Note that using this word is often conflated to be a pretentious act in and of itself, as this word is frequently used as a way to easily discredit people, works of art, ideas or statements while simultaneously boosting one's own status. (btw, as far as I can tell, there's no word or phrase for the same thing in my native language. Which might already start to explain why the whole concept is hard to really understand for me) So somebody who calls someone else "woke" looks to be, often, trying to discredit the other person, while simultaneously boosting their own status by making the statement that the other person has ulterior motives and does not actually hold the beliefs that they are saying that they hold. Idk.. it looks like I'm too far from the US culture to really understand this. When somebody says that they think that gay people should not have equal rights to non-gay people, then I see no reason to assume that they don't actually hold that belief and that they would be pretentious. When somebody says the opposite - that gay people should have the same rights than non-gay people then again, I see no reason to assume that they don't actually hold that belief and are pretentious. Nothing about this looks to have anything to do with progressiveness or hypocrisy or insincerity as far as I can tell but for some reason there's a made-up word to tell the other "side" that "I know you are full of shit and you don't actually believe in what you say".
- shkkmo 5y ago
  Be careful about trusting Urban Dictionary too much. It can serve has a useful hint about what some slang means, but is often heavily biased towards the slang used by certain demographics and subcultures (and is vulnerable to brigading). It certainly is not a source of the "one true meaning" of a word. I am sure your language does have a word that is pretty similar to "pretentious" though it may not have all of the conotations. I recommend a real dictionary that has multiple good definitions or a good cross-language dictionary that can give you several alternate words in your language that map to the various uses of "pretentious". "Woke" is even more complicated. It is a word that originated over half a century ago in African American culture as part of the civil rights movement. It meant being aware of and working to fight racial injustice. It was then coopted a decade ago by progressive people working on a broader range of social justice issues to describe awareness of those issues. It was then further co-opted by conservative people to mock progressive people as pretentious. The poster is trying to pretend that only this last meaning is real and valid. They are either ignorant or a racist troll working to further the co-opting of the term.

amcoastal 5y ago

[flagged]

throwawaylinux 5y ago
- amcoastal 5y ago
  Sure. But I don't run around daily acting like I have a moral high ground and constantly baiting people. I took your bait, and I'm the bad guy? Okay bud. Maybe try not being so angry about stuff that literally doesn't matter. You're constantly enraged on here. I'm not here often and if I can tie your screen name to rage inducing you're doing something horribly wrong with your life.
  - throwawaylinux 5y ago
    Why are you calling me these names? Who am I calling up hate or rage against? I answered a question about the definition of the word as it was being used. Obviously the definition is making you very angry, but I'm just the messenger here I did not make the post that used the word in the first place, and I didn't make up the definition.
    - Tostino 5y ago
      The only "name" I saw them call you was "bud". I gotta say I agree with their assessment though.
      - throwawaylinux 5y ago
        You didn't read the thread where they used other names. Thanks that that gives me a good understanding of the usefulness of your opinion, so I don't need to bother asking how you came to it.