Wokeness

for the Nigerian politician, see Chukwuemeka Woke Wokeness is a name for an extreme left-wing, internationalist, and socially progressive attitude toward life and society. Originally an African American term meaning "alert to racial prejudice and discrimination", it became popular in the 2010s to describe a radical form of fashionable virtue signalling practiced mostly by upper middle-class (and above) white people, and some Asians. The concept was brought to prominence by intersectional marchers in the Black Lives Matter movement.

Origins

The phrase "stay woke" had emerged in AAVE by the 1930s, in some contexts referring to an awareness of the social and political issues affecting black Americans (who were then referred to as Negroes or Coloreds). The phrase was uttered in a recording by Lead Belly and later by Erykah Badu. Beginning in the 2010s, it came to encompass a broader opposition to beliefs such as racism and sexism, and has also been used as shorthand for neo-Marxist ideas involving identity politics and social justice, such as the notion of white privilege and slavery reparations for African Americans. Following the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014, the phrase was popularized by Black Lives Matter activists.

Meaning

A "woke" person is highly aware of the scope of permissible speech as defined by the Overton Window, according to the latest doctrines of political correctness. Woke people will demonstrate their compliance with these tenets in their daily lives, as if they are cheerfully acting of their own will. They will express allegiance to the current victimhood hierarchy, with woke white men accepting personal culpability for the suffering of non-whites worldwide. They may even express indifference over or support for their own replacement.

At the same time, wokeness is an expression of personal status or supremacy over non-woke people. Wokeness is associated with student life at Western universities, young urban professionals, fictional heroes in Hollywood television shows and movies of the 2010s and 2020s, modern-day pop culture, online communities like Wikipedia, RationalWiki, ResetEra, Reddit, YouTube, Facebook, TikTok and Twitter, and magazines like Esquire, Rolling Stone, Sports Illustrated, Time, Vanity Fair, Vogue and Playboy. Even "mainstream" or soft conservatives, such as the British "Conservative" Party, the Liberal Party of Australia, Damian Collins, Gavin Barwell, and various RINO politicians in the United States, aspire to wokeness.

Great Awokening

Main article: Great Awokening

The Great Awokening is a term given to the ongoing cultural evolution of left-wing politics in Western countries, though most commonly attributed towards American Democrats.

Causes of wokeness

• The long-time breakdown of traditional Western culture, including religion, in favor of a more secularized worldview; the Sexual Revolution and its aftereffects, such as the breakdown of the nuclear family, are a noted example.
• The mass immigration of Third World peoples into Western countries since World War II.
• Previously oppressed and/or marginalized minority groups, especially African Americans (in the United States) and non-Asian minorities (both in the USA and elsewhere), have gained significant powers and special privileges in the West since the 1960s, thus causing the influence of the majority to wane and their own privileges to gradually decline. Likewise, "woke" people, regardless of race/ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation, have also gained various unfair societal privileges over the non-woke.
• The influence of the skeptical movement over the scientific community, which includes (but is not limited to) the prominence of race denialism and subsequent censorship of opposition.
• Hate speech laws, especially in European countries, are often very strict and usually favor minority groups over the majority.
• Celebrity culture has increasingly become a major influence on Western society, particularly upon younger audiences, and the majority of celebrities usually tend to be more socially liberal than most of the general public. The most notable example is the highly influential Hollywood film industry.
• The 2008 election of Barack Obama, the first African-American to become President of the United States, has been seen as a defining point in the increasing empowerment of minority groups.
• Increasing affirmative action, combined with a subsequent increase in the teaching of whiteness studies and revisionist depictions of historical events in the public education system and elsewhere, has been seen as a proposed cause. Likewise, the increasing one-sided viewpoints of highly influential websites (particularly Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Wikipedia), as well as censorship of dissenting views on such sites, is another argued major cause.
• The increasing leftward evolution of the Overton Window more generally (see above).

Criticism

According to right-wing and traditional left-wing opponents, wokeness is also the expression of what they call The Cathedral, the dominant culture of the modern Western world. As such, wokeness is claimed to be encouraged by the so-called Shadow Party, which is said to influence or control Western society. There has been staunch opposition to wokeness, including protests against restrictions imposed by mostly left-leaning governments and slowly increasing support for highly controversial past and present political figures largely disliked by the mainstream media and by other organizations supporting various forms of political correctness.

The opposite of being woke is sometimes called being "based". This term was coined by rapper Lil B before being co-opted by alt-right and right-wing activists. These activists also describe themselves as being Red Pilled.

See also

• Alt-left
• Anti-white
• Defund the police
• Entryism
• Fourth-wave feminism
• George Floyd riots
• Globalism
• Great Awokening
• New World Order (conspiracy theory)
• New world order (politics)
• Regressive left
• SJW convergence
• Social justice warrior