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In brief, “woke” means having awakened to having a particular type of “critical consciousness,” as these are understood within Critical Social Justice. To first

In brief, “woke” means having awakened to having a particular type of “critical consciousness,” as these are understood within Critical Social Justice. To first approximation, being woke means viewing society through various critical lenses, as defined by various critical theories bent in service of an ideology most people currently call “Social Justice.” That is, being woke means having taken on the worldview of Critical Social Justice, which sees the world only in terms of unjust power dynamics and the need to dismantle problematic systems. That is, it means having adopted Theory and the worldview it conceptualises. Adherents like Ibram Kendi argue that the only solution to historical racism is present day racism (Ibram X. Kendi, How to Be an Antiracist (2019), p. 19). In other words, the "woke" believe in applying institutionalised racism and other forms of discrimination to realise a world in which outcomes are perceived to be equal. As this method and goal are antithetical to Enlightenment and democratic principles, there is a large contingent of people who oppose woke ideology.

dragonwriter 2y ago
> In brief, “woke” means having awakened to having a particular type of “critical consciousness,” as these are understood within Critical Social Justice. This is wildly wrong; for starters, “woke” predates critical theory; for another, there is no such thing as “Critical Social Justice”, which is just mashing together two terms right-wingers don’t like and misrepresent.
- pclmulqdq 2y ago
  The word "woke" was first used in the 1930s, and critical theory began its intellectual popularity in the late 1800s. Marx and Clausewitz were early adopters of critical theory, but Engels, Gramsci, Hegel, and many others who popularized the movement did their work in the late 1800s and early 1900s. In other words, critical theory predates "woke" by a century. The word "woke" only attached to critical theory long after both had come about.

dragonwriter 2y ago

> In brief, “woke” means having awakened to having a particular type of “critical consciousness,” as these are understood within Critical Social Justice. This is wildly wrong; for starters, “woke” predates critical theory; for another, there is no such thing as “Critical Social Justice”, which is just mashing together two terms right-wingers don’t like and misrepresent.

pclmulqdq 2y ago
The word "woke" was first used in the 1930s, and critical theory began its intellectual popularity in the late 1800s. Marx and Clausewitz were early adopters of critical theory, but Engels, Gramsci, Hegel, and many others who popularized the movement did their work in the late 1800s and early 1900s. In other words, critical theory predates "woke" by a century. The word "woke" only attached to critical theory long after both had come about.