What is "Woke"?

[PozBearWI]

I believe what "woke" lacks is a common definition.  Honest I thought that is what I did with my husband each morning.  I woke him....  Words which mean anything to anyone; or are meaningful in a panoply of narrow context have no meaning at all.  I've tended to interpret (I am not attempting to make a definition here) it as somewhat equivalent as "aware". 

Perhaps this accounts for some of the social strife we experience.  We are disappointed when our fellows don't know what we mean when we use a word whose definition is, at best, vague.  

My bad habit which has developed as a result is that I tend to tune out the words when words like that begin to appear.  I am not going to pretend to be Carnack the magician (of Johnny Carson fame).  I think the only reasonable approach is to ask the speaker what they mean when they use words like this.  

To me "woke" is a verb.  

[BBBxCumDumpster]

4 hours ago, PozBearWI said:

I believe what "woke" lacks is a common definition.  Honest I thought that is what I did with my husband each morning.  I woke him....  Words which mean anything to anyone; or are meaningful in a panoply of narrow context have no meaning at all.  I've tended to interpret (I am not attempting to make a definition here) it as somewhat equivalent as "aware". 

Perhaps this accounts for some of the social strife we experience.  We are disappointed when our fellows don't know what we mean when we use a word whose definition is, at best, vague.  

My bad habit which has developed as a result is that I tend to tune out the words when words like that begin to appear.  I am not going to pretend to be Carnack the magician (of Johnny Carson fame).  I think the only reasonable approach is to ask the speaker what they mean when they use words like this.  

To me "woke" is a verb.  

I agree that we must ask the speaker what he or she means with the use of the word even though often it's obvious.  Many words don't lend themselves to a nice pat denotation. Instead we have to rely on connotation and contexts. That's the nature of a living dynamic language. It requires some effort to be both useful and creative. 

Edited February 13 by BBBxCumDumpster
Missing word

[PozTalkAuthor]

As for "woke", some months ago I've heard about Elon Musk-et- who has been asked about this. He hadn't a precise reply as well!!! 🐑🐑🐑🤣🖕They say that if you want to identify something, it needs a name. 

Stigma against HIV is SEROPHOBIA for example. You exactly know what it means; taking the condom off without partner's consent is called STEALTHING. It has a definition. Stop. 

But "woke"? You have the name, but the meaning is a mystery. 

[ellentonboy]

I never really heard the term "woke" used until Ron DeSantis started denying critical race theory, banning books, closing down drag shows, attaching Disney.  I can honestly say I don't know anyone who uses term, but then again I don't watch Fox.

I now hear it said here and there but usually the individual using the term is  making fun of it.  I don't know, maybe I should get out more.......🤫

[Lily95]

A lot of people have now marked the term woke to being a meaning of im right you're wrong and if you tell me im wrong ill attack you until you agree. It originally meant that it was someone who sees the light in everyone and noe it means an insult ive even heard liberals i work with calling conservatives woke as well and vise versa. A lot of terms meanings have been changed over years and it has started becoming a tradition of humans too. If we were going to go by the original woke term it would be a different meaning but now where i live no one uses it the original term.

[BlackDude]

19 hours ago, topblkmale said:

 

BBC's have radios. Now that's woke!

But seriously its racial injustice as experienced by black people.

White liberals co-opted the term.

Happy Black History Month!

 

Preach!!

[topblkmale]

 

Woke is what happened to San Francisco.

 

[hntnhole]

I don't believe that those who consider themselves "anti-woke" either know nor care what the definition is.  All they understand is, "woke" means Liberal, Progressive, Democratic, (thus threatening their assumed seat of privilege).

Let's face it:  there is a fairly extensive population of Americans that have not benefitted from an education that encourages introspection, exercising their intellectual abilities, asking difficult questions of themselves or their leaders.  Worse, they have co-opted and perverted the Universal Message, taught for millennia by spiritual teachers throughout the world.  

Some of these people, infused with a false notion of cultural religiosity, have been hornswoggled into behaving like a nest of newborn baby robins:  The mother flies off, eats worms, flies back to the nest and pukes partially-digested worms down the wide-open beaks of her young.  Those young neither know nor care what their mother has just puked down their throats - all they care is that they got some, while a couple of weaker baby robins got none.  

When some folks believe - honestly believe - that they are "chosen" by some deity, that means (to them) that anyone who doesn't match their perverted view is automatically condemned.  Normal folks can't expect these "anti-woke" folks to answer questions that involve actual intellectual activity, let alone interest in the same. 

The "anti-woke" crowd only understands that the "woke" crowd is their enemy - no understanding, intellectual activity, let alone moral thought is required. 

Of course they can't define "woke".  They don't need to.  All they need is the dog-whistle, and they come a-runnin.  

[viking8x6]

@hntnhole - I don't think your most recent response was helpful in making this topic one that will elicit whatever thoughts the "anti-woke" crowd actually does have about the question. While I'm sure some people who use "woke" as a criticism and a denigration are the sort you describe, the purpose of this topic is to presume that right-leaning people on BZ are not of that ilk, and to ask them to help us understand where they are coming from.

[hntnhole]

My apologies.  viking8x6.  I too was hoping for some responses to the OP, and frustration got the better of me.  

[BootmanLA]

5 hours ago, topblkmale said:

Woke is what happened to San Francisco.

Plenty of things have happened to San Francisco, including multiple earthquakes, a great fire about a century ago that destroyed much of the city, the siting and then later removal of several military bases, the beginnings of more than one major social justice movement - which one of these, or others, did you specifically have in mind?

[BootmanLA]

2 hours ago, viking8x6 said:

@hntnhole - I don't think your most recent response was helpful in making this topic one that will elicit whatever thoughts the "anti-woke" crowd actually does have about the question. While I'm sure some people who use "woke" as a criticism and a denigration are the sort you describe, the purpose of this topic is to presume that right-leaning people on BZ are not of that ilk, and to ask them to help us understand where they are coming from.

The issue, though, is that I think that presumption is misguided. I'm as open as you to someone offering a clearer explanation of "woke", but @hntnhole's characterization of it as "anything that liberals and progressive support" seems to be the only thing that fits. And yes, I realize that's from where I'm sitting, but I do try very hard to see things from other perspectives. In this case, though, given that in several YEARS of reading extensively about this kind of thing I've NEVER seen "woke" defined by anyone who seemed to understand what he was objecting to, I'm not sanguine about the prospects of anyone here providing an answer to your question.

[ScorpionFF]

Sorry viking, my input is not exactly what you are looking for, but I feel compelled to say something nonetheless.

I have done some Google searches and taken some photos from my 1994 Oxford Dictionary for the definition of woke and put into an album (see link below). Oxford Dictionary online from what I could see does't even give the bloody verb, argh. 

[think before following links] [think before following links] https://breeding.zone/gallery/album/11111-woke/

''If you put an S in front of words it becomes swords, and that is what words are.... cutting. They can cause you great trouble! Humans are word controlled creatures.'' - Jordan Maxwell. 

Anyone wishing to see the short video from where I took the above quote I am more than happy to share it! 🙂 I just listened to it again for the first time in ages and was reminded about the corporation that was formed in 1868. Very enlightening. 

To quote @PozBearWI ''Honest I thought that is what I did with my husband each morning. I woke him''.... When I first saw this thread that is the thought that went through my mind to what the word actually means. Example, a friend calls me:

Me: Hello.
Friend: How is your day going?
Me: I just woke up.

If the call is at 3pm that would be very fucking plausible, lol.

On 2/12/2024 at 10:04 PM, PozBearWI said:

To me "woke" is a verb.

Correct. Give the man a cock to play with as a reward, hehe. 

I digress...

How can woke mean being ''awake'' in the context presented as it were when according to @topblkmale, quote; Back then it referred to watching out for 'the white man', end quote. Therefore, my question is, who originally coined the term to what the entirely different meaning it is supposed to be today? A manipulation tool by an intelligence agency to cause further division with our beautiful species maybe? Just a thought. 🤷‍♂️

Not heard of the term woke in its present form until about 5 years or so ago. How and WHY did it suddenly enter into the mass consciousness? So many other terms have come into the mass  consciousness in the last half decade or so too, unless I have been living under a rock. For me at least our world today is completely unrecognisable compared to a very short 10 years ago. I truly feel like I am living in a simulation. All very unpleasant. A nightmare in fact. 

I personally do not label myself as being woke, does that mean I am devoid of any empathy? Does that mean I am devoid of any knowledge? No one human holds the monopoly on the aforementioned, yet certain arrogant sanctimonious folk from both sides of the dichotomy go about as though they do, happily mocking and pouring scorn over others whilst not giving a fuck who they upset from their tower of virtue for which I have experienced and observed aplenty of during the last several years or so. As @viking8x6 puts it; ''abuse and denigration.'' Laughing AT someone using the ''laugh'' emoji can easily be used for such cowardly cruel spite too. 

For me woke in todays world is much like the terms liberal, conservative, right wing, left wing... all divisive LABELS by design. As long as humanity is divided and fighting with one another then we are so much more easier to RULE over!

Once upon a time before I awakened four years or so ago from a life long hypnotic trance I would have labelled myself with this and that, now, I reject all of it as none of it works, as I understand it it was never meant to. I just desire peace and harmony within humanity, and we do NOT have that, not by a long mile; sickness, poverty, homelessness, war. From my perspective humanity is completely fragmented, and from what I have learned in recent years that has been the point the entire time. I believe all humans are inherently good people, so what has gone wrong? Are darker forces at play here? At this advanced point, I think so. If that makes me a crazy lunatic then so be it. I have been called far worse.

I LOVE to speak with others, discuss and debate in a friendly manner, but it has reached a point where one has to keep ones mouth shut to retain inner peace and emotional well being. The hostility out there on both sides is truly frightening and deeply disturbing - I shy away from it! I hope I am in a safe zone having my say here. To be honest I am apprehensive doing so. I am acutely aware there are rattle snakes lurking, ready to strike, albeit unprovoked. 

As said, all these terms are as I see them are mere labels with an agenda attached therefore they would become (and are) meaningless if we were just to let it all go and walk away from the noise of illusion. 

What do I (maybe naively) desire: For humanity to unite and come together and just BE. It is up to us to bring about such peace... US! This cannot come from any given puppet government. 

Right wing and Left wing --> Same bird! 🐦 If I really had to define myself it would not be on the right nor the left, and not even the centre, no, I would be the Cheshire Cat down the rabbit hole in Wonderland, always smiling and trying my best to make sense of it all via the medium of logic as I dig for what is true. I have learned a great deal yet I haven't even scratched the surface!

Love and Peace to my fellow man.

Edited February 14 by LeatherScorpionFF
alignment

[brnbk]

 

20 hours ago, LeatherScorpionFF said:

I have done some Google searches and taken some photos from my 1994 Oxford Dictionary for the definition of woke and put into an album (see link below). Oxford Dictionary online from what I could see doesn't even give the bloody verb, argh. 

To quote @PozBearWI ''Honest I thought that is what I did with my husband each morning. I woke him''.... When I first saw this thread that is the thought that went through my mind to what the word actually means. Example, a friend calls me:

.....................Not heard of the term woke in its present form until about 5 years or so ago. How and WHY did it suddenly enter into the mass consciousness? So many other terms have come into the mass  consciousness in the last half decade or so too, unless I have been living under a rock. For me at least our world today is completely unrecognizable compared to a very short 10 years ago. I truly feel like I am living in a simulation. All very unpleasant. A nightmare in fact. 

I personally do not label myself as being woke, does that mean I am devoid of any empathy? ...........................................................................................................................................................

Love and Peace to my fellow man.

"Woke" as a term is used in Black Vernacular English to refers to the state of being conscious of race-based injustices and taking actions, especially political and social,  and creating awareness about them. Woke in proper English would – roughly and perhaps awkwardly – be translated as:  Awakened.  Like the Buddhist Enlightenment,  a person who learns about the true nature of the Maya of the material world through Buddhism, and becomes Enlightened; an Awakened i.e. Woke person learns about the social injustices in the world, and works towards correcting them.

Fortunately or Unfortunately, since English is such a new language which doesn't have the pedigree of ancient languages like Chinese, Indian, Latin, Greek etc., new words can very easily be incorporated into it. A lot of time inaccurate usages of vernacular English( Chinese English, Black English, Hispanic i.e. a Spanish speaker's English), enters Standard English and becomes "acceptable usage", even if it grammatically incorrect or wrong/poor English. Words like Maya and Yoga, which are Indian in origin are now routinely used in English and grammatically incorrect phrases like say, "Say What" becomes recognized and part of some kind of Standard English i.e.  acceptable usage. 

If you honestly read what you quoted,  "....what I did with my husband each morning. I woke him" you will see a very real life examples of wokeness!.  A man referring to another man as his husband, would have been considered inaccurate and wrong English and is one of the "woke changes" that anti-woke folks object to. 

In right-wing usage, the term "Woke" is ascribed to anyone, who brings up an issue of injustice against their non white-male group.  Thus, blacks,  women, gays, people of color, people with any disability,  poorer classes in very rare usage etc.,  who complain or talk about their issues are considered having gone "woke" i.e. rogue against the White State, which is considered as the de-facto protector of white-"christian" norms and "civilization". Whites are not the only men hold such an exalted opinion of their culture; other races often do hold nationalistic and parochial views. For e.g.  the Chinese and Indians are very proud of the Asian origins of civilization and often find it strange that Europeans lay claims to civilization, considering Asiatic cultures built civilizations for millennium before  white Europeans made any recognizable contribution to it.  What differentiates the Whites from the Eurasians IMO is the White Christian insistence that only their civilization and christian god, who they also assume to be some kind of WASP person, is the only civilization that has a right to exist – in contrast to the ancient civilization of the world lived in peace with each other. 

To answer your question: yes, you are devoid of empathy coz you seem to join the anti -woke brigade, who rarely have an intelligent objection to woke causes and their only  complain to Wokeness is that it takes away from their existing "privileges". The world is truly oppressed by whiteness and only wokeness can secure our rights. Just as abortion ie reproductive rights of women disappeared from the legislative books of the United States, so can protections of gay men....

[hntnhole]

On 2/12/2024 at 4:35 PM, PozTalkAuthor said:

t's completely normal they don't know what to answer if asked about this. They follow the group, like sheeps. Without a proper way to reason. 

Well put. Thanks.