Sunday, April 7, 2024

An abridged definition of "wokeness"

 So I've done definitions of wokeness, and the articles are mostly lacking. This time, I want to give a really REALLY abridged definition of what I mean.

1) of, or pertaining to critical theory, identity politics, or intersectionality.

2) A radical political movement centered around the above things that is very aggressive, evangelical, and/or authoritarian in spreading its values, and hostile and/or intolerant of any pushback or divergence from its narratives. 

The first definition is the broad definition. It's not necessarily bad in and of itself, as those kinds of theories can have some intellectual value. My own problems with "wokeness" come from the moral authoritarians I outline in the second definition, and my criticism of the movement as a whole has more to do with the second definition than the first.

We all should know what we mean. But lefties and SJWs love to act like somehow the second definition isn't a thing, or act like we're so stupid we can't define the concept. I admit some rightoids might be that dumb, but I am not a rightoid. I am a liberal, actually. Just a pre 2016 liberal who never got into this particular strain of politics and now comes off sounding like a relic of another time. Since I really want this to be abridged, I'll leave it there.

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