Woke

WARNING: RANT MODE ON

I am sick nigh unto death of how often I've heard the word "Woke" these last several days. Mother of Hades, every right-leaning commentator, celebrity, and would-be social media influencer has been throwing the word around indiscriminately, like medieval peasants sowing grain  It's become what I call an Inigo Montoya word: I don't think it means what you think it means. And I'm just done. 

Now, let me be clear: I'm no expert in the ways of politics. As I'm fond of telling my students, "I'm not a political scientist. I'm an ACTUAL scientist." And part of what that means is that I'm interested in facts, and that I care about objective reality. 

But facts are hard. Reality is what it is, not what we might want it to be or what that AM radio talk show host might tell us it is. Facts are facts, and facts matter.

So when charlatans and shysters try to sidestep facts and deflect reality by calling someone or something "woke", it gets on my nerves.

So, what does the word "woke" really mean? I've come to a couple of conclusions. One or more of these might be right, or they may all be wrong together. As I said, I'm no expert.

1. "Woke" doesn't mean anything. It's just a trigger word meant to rile up the base. Call something or someone "woke", and the MAGA faithful won't be able to line up behind you fast enough. 

1a. "Woke" doesn't mean anything. It's a word crafted to frighten children and imbeciles and inflame demagogues. And it works really, really well.

2. "Woke" means "Something the speaker/writer doesn't like", or perhaps more appropriately, "Something the talking head on Fox News told the speaker/writer they shouldn't like". 

3. "Woke" describes some idea or practice that threatens the power, position, and/or masculinity of straight white evangelical Christian males and the social and historical constructs that support them.

4. "Woke" means something that only a socialist, Commie, Marxist, or libtard Democrat would support, and that every red-blooded God-fearing patriotic American should abhor unquestioningly. 

Whichever or whether any of these are true, this much I have learned from observation: Use of the word "Woke" pretty much always reveals more about the person using it than about who or what they're trying to describe. 

So as far as I'm concerned, if one insists on using the word "Woke", they've said less than nothing at all. 

And let me be bluntly honest: Whenever I hear someone using the word "Woke", especially in the context of some politically-charged commentary, I'm probably going to stop analyzing what they're saying and skip directly to the part when I'm convinced that they have no idea what they're talking about. 

Maybe that's wrong. But if that's the case, that's fine. I don't want to be right. 

/END RANT MODE