5 ms·

A large number of people think empathy and sensitivity to others is bad, and we should refer to it with a pejorative term. That's... not a great sign.

by zikzak 4y ago

kevviiinn 4y ago
That's the end result of hyper competitive individualistic capitalism
throwawayapples 4y ago
Is that what you really think it means?
- rzl777 4y ago
  [flagged]
raspberry1337 4y ago
[flagged]
- simonh 4y ago
  The term woke goes back to the 1930s as a term used by black Americans for awareness of racial prejudice and discrimination. Being aware that these things are real problems that people face is being woke. Since then it's been generalised to include sexism, and more recently awareness of issues such as transphobia. By itself it's no more left or right than the issue of prejudice is generally given that there are feminists, homosexuals and transgender people who are conservative politically but also woke in the original sense. Very recently, in the last few years, it's been adopted as a pejorative term for far left identity politics. Now far left identity politics is a real thing, and it certainly is woke and probably deserves to have a pejorative term for it, but it has no ownership or exclusive claim on the term woke. unfortunately this may be a lost battle at this stage, but there are still a lot of people in the black community who have been using the term in its original meaning for generations and will doubtless continue to do so.
  - rzl777 4y ago
    who cares about what words meant in the 1930s? especially considering the modern abuse of language as a rhetorical device.
    - simonh 4y ago
      As I explained, it's been in use since the 1930s and is still widely used in the black community in the US in the same sense today. The sense in which raspberry1337 used it was, precisely, abuse of language as a rhetorical device. Probably not deliberately, hence I tried to explain the historical and current cultural context.
rzl777 4y ago
A small but overly financially and socially influential group of people believe they can hide behind "empathy and sensitivity" to promote government mandated discrimination, corporate-government collusion of mass censorship, and the sexual abuse of children. What is in fact a great sign is that more and more people are quietly discussing among themselves as to whether they shouldn't harm that small group of woke individuals in order to secure their own safety and liberty.
AussieWog93 4y ago
I think a lot of the reason people reject political correctness/"wokeness" is because it gives the appearance of empathy and sensitivity while at the same time not acknowledging others' humanity. It's an artificial substitute to real empathy. It might be a bit of a regional thing, as the US and Canada don't have the same pisstake culture we have in Australia/NZ/SA/Britain, but speaking from experience I can assure you that there is nothing more dehumanising than someone using politically correct language to describe the particular minority I happen to be a part of in an academic way, or refusing to make jokes at my expense because they're "too offensive".

A large number of people think empathy and sensitivity to others is bad, and we should refer to it with a pejorative term. That's... not a great sign.

by zikzak 4y ago

A large number of people think empathy and sensitivity to others is bad, and we should refer to it with a pejorative term. That's... not a great sign.

kevviiinn 4y ago

That's the end result of hyper competitive individualistic capitalism

throwawayapples 4y ago

Is that what you really think it means?

rzl777 4y ago
[flagged]

raspberry1337 4y ago

[flagged]

simonh 4y ago
The term woke goes back to the 1930s as a term used by black Americans for awareness of racial prejudice and discrimination. Being aware that these things are real problems that people face is being woke. Since then it's been generalised to include sexism, and more recently awareness of issues such as transphobia. By itself it's no more left or right than the issue of prejudice is generally given that there are feminists, homosexuals and transgender people who are conservative politically but also woke in the original sense. Very recently, in the last few years, it's been adopted as a pejorative term for far left identity politics. Now far left identity politics is a real thing, and it certainly is woke and probably deserves to have a pejorative term for it, but it has no ownership or exclusive claim on the term woke. unfortunately this may be a lost battle at this stage, but there are still a lot of people in the black community who have been using the term in its original meaning for generations and will doubtless continue to do so.
- rzl777 4y ago
  who cares about what words meant in the 1930s? especially considering the modern abuse of language as a rhetorical device.
  - simonh 4y ago
    As I explained, it's been in use since the 1930s and is still widely used in the black community in the US in the same sense today. The sense in which raspberry1337 used it was, precisely, abuse of language as a rhetorical device. Probably not deliberately, hence I tried to explain the historical and current cultural context.

rzl777 4y ago

A small but overly financially and socially influential group of people believe they can hide behind "empathy and sensitivity" to promote government mandated discrimination, corporate-government collusion of mass censorship, and the sexual abuse of children. What is in fact a great sign is that more and more people are quietly discussing among themselves as to whether they shouldn't harm that small group of woke individuals in order to secure their own safety and liberty.

AussieWog93 4y ago

I think a lot of the reason people reject political correctness/"wokeness" is because it gives the appearance of empathy and sensitivity while at the same time not acknowledging others' humanity. It's an artificial substitute to real empathy. It might be a bit of a regional thing, as the US and Canada don't have the same pisstake culture we have in Australia/NZ/SA/Britain, but speaking from experience I can assure you that there is nothing more dehumanising than someone using politically correct language to describe the particular minority I happen to be a part of in an academic way, or refusing to make jokes at my expense because they're "too offensive".