There is a to-and-fro over the definition of, and the difficulties of defining, woke. For many, like bad art or pornography, they know it when they see it, but they have a hard time with the precision of definition.
With woke, it may seem we have something like those hard cases, but, really, there is far less ambiguity. There is the temptation to use the word to define its symptoms, like “homosexuality” or “anti-whiteness”, or its characteristics, like “outrage” or proneness to “protesting” and the like. The problem with doing that is that symptoms and actions can have more than one cause, woke being one of them.
Let’s try a fundamental definition:
Woke, adj: a stubborn and hostile denial of Reality.
This is the kind of example I have in mind:
Your view on this matter is backwards.
Forced puberty is wrong and Self determination is vital as a sentient being.
Treatment should be between the parent the doctor and the patient.
— Athena (@AthenaNKnight) March 16, 2023
(Amusingly, this man bills himself as a “Polymath, Atheist, Marine Corps Veteran, Rifle Expert, Liberal, Libertarian, Introvert, Philosopher, Pansexual, Trans Woman, Otaku, Digital Artist, Single.” Single? No kidding?)
In Reality, you are conceived with a sex; then, if you escape the womb, you’re born with it; later, via nature, you undergo puberty. This is the Way Things Are. There is no escaping this sequence—except, of course, by violence (which would include disease).
“The Woke” signal their hatred of Reality with phrases like “forced puberty” or “sex assigned at birth”. To this man, who goes about pretending to be a woman, an act which is as stark and stubborn denial of Reality as you can find, it as if in the dark of night “conservatives” secret themselves inside homes and forcibly inject unsuspecting children with puberty-inducing chemicals. Those same “conservatives” assign genders at birth.
In Reality, a corps of delusional amoral white-coats (some call them “doctors”) inject children, for large and continuing fees, almost always at the behest of the children’s mothers, with chemicals designed to “stop” puberty. They do not. That is, the chemicals do not work as advertised. They instead cause pain and misery, and create great injury in those receiving the chemicals.
Things like this increasingly happen with this kind of Reality denial:
Meet a 10yo non-binary transgender child using They/Them pronouns.
Guess the diagnosis of the mother. pic.twitter.com/2UZMR7vBqx
— Dr. Anastasia Maria Loupis (@DrLoupis) March 16, 2023
I do not mean that the child is denying Reality; he only seems to. He’s too young to know better. I mean that his mother is actively hostile to Reality. Not so much in pretending her son can be a daughter, but more in her false belief that the greatest good comes in the accolades she so ardently desires. To sacrifice her son for Facebook “likes” is diabolical.
Of course, the mother is not alone. She is encouraged by Experts who are either woke themselves, or without consciences. Where is the father? He may be there. But he may be restricted from acting, in fear of woke law, which makes Reality illegal to acknowledge (“misgendering”, “conversion therapy” bans, biased divorce laws, etc.).
There are many more ways to deny Reality than sexual deviancy.
Allowing for ambiguities in defining race, there are certainly peoples who differ by culture and biology. The woke believe in Equality, which is the anti-Reality belief that all peoples are the same in all things, and so any observed differences must be caused by “oppression”. Which, if removed, will restore a mythical Utopia. The woke will claim there is “oppression” even when systems bankrolling the exact opposite of “oppression” are in place, and have been in place, everywhere and for a long time.
The woke will say “There is no such thing as race”, and, without taking a breath, add, “And all whites are racist.” They will not, they cannot, see the contradiction. There is no need to say more on this subject, not for regular readers.
It is plain, and always has been plain, that the kind of obesity suffered now by many is unhealthy—and is displeasing to the eye, which is to say, it is ugly. That is Reality. The woke will say this hateful, and will redefine illness as health, and beauty as hideousness.
There are endless other examples and nuances to each (see this, for example), including denials like “the planet needs saving”, the denial of the Ultimate Reality, all of which are interesting and important. But there is a bigger question pertaining to the word’s definition. Why worry about the woke?
If a man wants to flounce about in a dress and masturbate into rectum of another man and call it Pride, or a person “of color” insists all whites are oppressors, or a blue-haired tattooed pierced bursting-jelly-filled donut of a perpetually angry woman says “I am pretty”, well, it would be prudish to complain.
Indeed, if that were all woke was, a stubborn denial of Reality, then it could be ignored. Alas, woke is also a hostile denial of Reality. The woke are angry at Reality. Very angry. Reality is not fair. And they simply will not be reminded of it.
Their hostility means they must insist that you, too, deny Reality. They will make the state force your denial. Your endorsement and actions in accord with Reality will be illegal or proscribed. You will put the pinch of woke incense into the fire, or suffer, suffer.
That hostility is why woke must be crushed.
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It’s called “Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy” or nowadays “factitious disorder imposed on another”
Whether the false medical claims are about someone else or yourself, this condition can be dangerous. It can lead to unnecessary medical tests and even procedures while the healthcare team tries to figure out what’s wrong with the patient. When a child is involved, FDIA is considered a form of child abuse by the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children.
I wonder if “they” have caveats when it comes to gender claims
I’m just waiting for the day they realize it’s not fair to birth people without asking them for their permission first. “Forced births”, they might call it. Of course, the obvious defense is “an embryo is just a bit of tissue, it’s not sentient”. Yet the larger question remains: why bring forth a sentience if that sentience didn’t ask to be brought forth. “Forced existence”, they might call it.
Wokeness must, indeed, be crushed, before it crushes everything and everyone else.
This is not a metaphor. This is not a euphamism.
We were instructed to crush the head of the serpent where we find it, before it bites us.
Woke will splatter once the money bubble pops.
I think this definition is too broad. There is certainly a stubborn and hostile denial of reality involved, but not all stubborn and hostile denials of reality can qualify as woke. For example, Rousseau had a stubborn and hostile denial of reality, but I would not call him Woke. As did Eusebius of Nicomedia, and a host of other people. I think you need to add in the central point (society is organised into groups which relate via an intractable power struggle; or, perhaps more in line with your definition, a belief that reality is subjective and determined by one’s own feelings).
An excellent pithy definition of ‘woke’ Dr. Briggs!
Here is a more long-winded one:
Woke: A form of mental illness whereby the sufferer tries to prove the belief system that all truth is relative, by loudly proclaiming the exact opposite of established absolute Truths; vis. “We should mutilate children physically and mentally to prove we love them.” OR “Righteous morality is promoting all forms of sexual deviancy.” OR “Woman need to be given selective advantage in physical strength contests over men because they are equal in physical strength to men.” The characteristic of all these woke propositions is they are contradictory and illogical at their face value. This may be on purpose to emphasize the point of Truth being so relative as to be having no need to conform to rules of logic.
They want you to focus on the victims not the corporate- governmental- media
perpetrators. These people are just stupid and attention seeking this has been
planned and programed since before the first ‘pride parade’. It is occult and is
now being promoted openly on a daily basis. If you object you’re hauled off to
prison. This sort of exposure is important but deriding these poor fools will get
us nowhere. They are but a symptom of pure evil and we’re being tested as never
before.
I do not think “woke” or “wokeness” can be defined in the specific because the behavior is merely symptomatic of a broader underlying process and will therefore change on an ad hoc basis as external events dictate. To quote my favorite author ..
“Very briefly, this book answers the instapundit’s favorite question: “why are leftists such cesspits of hypocrisy?” in one sentence: reality supports conservative belief, but forces leftists to choose between recognizing the emptiness and historical absurdity of their core beliefs or holding themselves hostage to those beliefs by escalating their commitment through everything from littering and lying, to murder and the deliberate undermining of economic, educational, and social opportunities for everyone.
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Munchausen by proxy.
Is a woke lie also.
noun: proxy 1. the authority to represent someone else, especially in voting.
The son undergoing a surgery because his Mom is whacked never permitted her to represent him.
The Mother who does this evil should be whacked but if I whacked her I could not, sadly, claim that I acted as a State executioner by proxy.
This is another excellent Briggs definition- not quite as good as Gain of lethality but pretty damn good.
Terminology is dragging Normals down. Without clear understanding of our opponents and their belief system, and a vocabulary to discuss countering them, we just dance around the real issues.
“Woke” is a confused and confusing term. It is much too positive (seems like a “woke” has come out of a deep sleep and sees reality).
We know who the opponents of Normal Americans (who built this country?) are: Politically Correct Progressives, (PC-Progs).
We know that the PC-Prog belief system is based on hatred of Normal America.
We know that PC-Progs have six core beliefs and an action corollary:
PC-Progs believe that:
America is a…
racist,
sexist,
homophobic,
xenophobic,
imperialist,
capitalist hellhole.
And it must be changed.
Absolute acceptance of the PC-Prog belief system is required for membership in the Democrat Party, and many professions–academia, media, education, Hollywood.
The way that PC-Prog beliefs are implemented cause those who haven’t seen their playbook to lose their way in confused discussions of “liberalism v. classical liberalism,” or “defining conservative,” or “identity politics,” or “woke,” etc, etc.
The division is Normals vs. PC-Progs. That’s it. PC-Prog is built on hatred, pure hatred. Anything Normals do/say/think/feel/believe is bad and must be changed. Change = eradication. They’ll do anything to change Normal America.
Only when Normals understand that concept will we be able to counter-act PC-Progism effectively. Until then, we’re wasting a lot of energy.
Details: https://kentclizbe.substack.com/p/politically-correct-progressive-belief
Kent
We hold a “wake” for dead people
Maybe a “woke” is for brain-dead people
I feel sorry for the children born into this period of social breakdown, where big brother has taken the place of family in moral training, where professors with agendas become the ideological “gurus” of the young adult and there is nobody in family to challenge these “gurus” because the biological family fear state retribution.
And if the young adult is still not sure then the “guru” and the disciples are there at the persons hand through the internet to convince the naivety of youth.
Today the state sponsored “guru” has the world movement at the fingers where before it was a cult at worst a state ideology at worse.
Only a disaster will wake people into reality and we are heading for one.
I tend to agree with the comments suggesting a need for a more specific definition of “woke.” I may have already made some or all of this comment before, so I hope there is some tolerance for my repetition.
The real world recognizes that all human beings are individuals. No two individuals have identical fingerprints or DNA. Although there are various reports of identical matches, the probability of a match is in the trillions (that’s a very small wee p value). One explanation for this observation (which includes identical twins) is the uniqueness of DNA in individuals.
On the other hand, woke is a philosophical or rhetorical viewpoint (usually highly politicized) that does not recognize the existence of the individual. This non-real view of humans equalizes boys, girls, men, women, teachers (almost all are women now), government bureaucrats, (etc.).
One result of being woke is that we now have individuals in government with same sex marriages, and gay individuals watching over health care, our highways, and nuclear waste. Another result of being woke is that a minority has gained control of the majority. In addition, many individuals buy into woke because it justifies their minority control and it gives weak people (Karens, BLM, etc.) control they would otherwise not have.
This was predicted by Orwell when he wrote Animal Farm. His novella ends with it being impossible to tell the difference between the pigs (led by Napoleon) and the farmers. “Four legs good. Two legs bad.”, and “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.” Remember the fate of Winston at the hands of O’Brien’s education machine in 1984. What do you see … four fingers or five?
Nota bene: Tail-Gunner Joe was a Democrat who lied his way into politics. It is ironic he used fear to increase his popularity after he converted into a Republican.
Reply to Kent Clizbe:
If the woke actually shared any of the beliefs you cite, they would not insist on affirmative action (racist); treating all white men as evil (racist and sexist), or … own three homes, several investments accounts, and a private jet (capitalist).
Remember “Oceania was at war with Eastasia. Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia.” ? Enforced belief changes to suit the moment – a key reason “woke” is not definable (although dw/dt might be 😉 ).
Further.. umm, if dw/dt exists do progressive form a lie group?
Paul,
Sorry for the lack of clarity.
PC-Prog is totally definable. All PC-Prog positions fit into their 6 beliefs and Action Corollary.
As mentioned above, the PC-Prog (“woke”) belief system is based on hatred of NORMAL America.
Their beliefs (racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, imperialist, capitalist hellhole) are directed at NORMAL America–the legacy culture we had.
So each belief point has a corresponding hate target:
Belief Point —> Hate Target
Racist —–> Whites
Sexist —–> Men
Homophobic —–> Straights
Xenophobic —–> American Citizens
Capitalist —–> Business
Imperialist —–> America Firsters
The key to understanding (and they don’t understand themselves, but just reflexively parrot the PC-Prog line) is the basis in hatred of Normal America and Americans.
Hypocrisy is built into the system. Their feel-good version of their belief system is acceptance, tolerance, etc. But the real foundation is hatred of Normals. That’s why they can chant about tolerance and love, and in the next breath scream their hatred for straight white males, or other targets of their belief system.
It’s not logically consistent, and as Dr Briggs focuses on in this essay, their beliefs are not based on reality. But there they are. Hypocrisy, illogic, and unreality are features of the system, not bugs. But those features are NOT the definition of the belief system. As long as they’re hating the right targets, based on the right beliefs, they are accepted as card-carrying PC-Progs.
The beliefs, with their hate targets, are translated into Actions:
Racist–>Hate Whites—->Affirmative Action
Sexist—>Hate Men—->Affirmative Action/Feminism
Capitalism—>Hate Business—>Climate Change Scam
Xenophobic—>Hate Natural-born Citizens—>Open borders, illegal immigration
Homophobic—>Hate Straights—->Globohomo
etc.
Try it–analyze ANY PC-Prog position. Every single one is based on one of the 6 hate points and/or the Action Corollary.
C.R.,
It’s not clear what sources you’re using to denigrate Joe McCarthy.
For a bit more based understanding of the contribution of the senator from Wisconsin, would highly recommend the late, great Stan Evans’ book: Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight against America’s Enemies
https://www.amazon.com/Blacklisted-by-History-audiobook/dp/B003YV18DU/ref=sr_1_1?crid=5U7E1VKRSDC&keywords=blacklisted+by+history&qid=1679353174&sprefix=blacklisted+by+history+%2Caps%2C142&sr=8-1
3 word summary: McCarthy was right.
If his message made people fearful, it was because it was true.
Woke, adj: a stubborn and hostile denial of Reality.
Simple, elegant, and accurate — no need to clutter it with gingerbread.
SO WHAT REALITIES ARE BEING DENIED?
That men can only be men, always and forever. And women, equally, women.
That homosexuality is NOT another form of normal (no species-suicidal behavior can be).
That race does exist.
That social constructs are real.
That women and men are not the same.
That masculinity is not toxic.
That a child, in-utero, is a child.
That killing that child is murder.
That the ability to kill one’s children, in-utero, is not a freedom guaranteed by the Constitution.
That killing in-utero children is not any kind of reproductive right.
That there is no such a thing as reproductive freedom (meaning, we might presume, the freedom to reproduce on command.)
That Cultural Appropriation is a given, in every culture at every time..
That the United States, and the West in general, did NOT build it’s centuries of success on the backs of slaves.
That all people are naturally UNEQUAL (except before God and the Law)
That exclusivity is the inevitable result of merit…the desired outcome of Quality Competition.
That Social Justice (whatever the hell it is) does not exist and cannot be achieved.
That man is naturally selfish and prone to sin.
That the arc of history does not bend towards anything (especially not towards Justice)
That there is no right or wrong side to History.
That Excellence trumps Diversity every time.
That children can learn from anyone (the color and sex of their teachers doesn’t matter in the least)
That Quality matters more than Equity, more than Inclusivity, more than Diversity, more than Social Justice.
That the planet is not endangered
That the sky is not falling.
That sticks and stones can break one’s bones, but words CAN’T.
and on and on and on.
It’d be one hell of a list!
That video of the ten-year old boy wearing what appears to be an apron, while awkwardly reading a script written by his mother or some other adult, to complain about not being allowed in the girls’ restrooms, is tragic, ridiculous, darkly comedic….and quite literally insane.
Insanity, like woke-ness, can also be defined as “the stubborn denial of reality”; when you add in chronic hostility, a self-defensive feature of extreme narcissism, then “woke” often becomes “criminally insane”; not so long ago, this is how we’d have described someone who sexually mutilated their own child.
St. Joseph, terror of demons, pray for us.
For Kent Clizbe.
My nb about McCarthy certainly doesn’t denigrate him at all. It’s simply a statement of facts. McCarthy’s early politics in the 1930’s were definitely Democratic. It wasn’t until he changed to a Republican after WW2 that he became the anti-communist Republican that made him famous. He illustrates the typical behavior of all politicians advancing in the government bureaucracy. I tried to imply that he certainly was right about communists in government, which I thought was well-known.
Here are two excerpts and two references.
Excerpt1(https://www2.gwu.edu/~erpapers/mep/displaydoc.cfm?docid=erpn-josmcc):
“When McCarthy lost his first campaign as the Democratic nominee for district attorney, he decided to seek a nonpartisan position. He soon sought a circuit judgeship and challenged a twenty-year incumbent who dismissed McCarthy as a long shot, an unelectable rookie. McCarthy campaigned with a vengeance and over the course of the election deliberately inflated his opponent’s age and salary. His tactics worked and, in 1937, the twenty-nine year old McCarthy became the youngest judge in Wisconsin history.”
Excerpt 2 ( https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/joseph-mccarthy):
“Admitted to the Wisconsin bar, McCarthy first practiced law in Waupaga, then in Shawano. In 1936, he ran unsuccessfully as a Democrat for district attorney. A strong admirer of President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945), he adamantly supported New Deal relief programs, programs Roosevelt developed in the 1930s during the Great Depression to help the needy and unemployed and stimulate the economy. McCarthy voted for Roosevelt three times.”
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Well listed, BDavi52! Thank you! And, in specific exactitude …. God created the human sexes … male and female … and gave His commandments concerning human sexuality, and He does not err, ever!!
God bless, C-Marie
Romans 1: 16-32 describes ‘woke’ precisely.
And this is true beauty : “I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may accomplish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of God’s grace.” Acts 20:24
God bless, C-Marie
CR,
“It wasn’t until he changed to a Republican after WW2 that he became the anti-communist Republican that made him famous. He illustrates the typical behavior of all politicians advancing in the government bureaucracy. I tried to imply that he certainly was right about communists in government, which I thought was well-known.”
Thanks. Your intended point about McCarthy eluded my grasp! Sorry for my confusion.
I don’t think I ever knew that McCarthy was a converted New Dealer. Not sure that changes anything about him, however. Maybe his time in the PC-Prog camp with the New Deal opened his eyes to the danger of the anti-Normal policies of the New Deal. And maybe he had a chance to see the communist infiltrators who were sprinkled throughout the FDR administration and New Deal federal organizations. His work exposing the communists in American government was powerful and useful, regardless of his political affiliations.
It’s just too bad that he was destroyed before he was able to grasp that it was not just “card-carrying communists” who were a danger to our culture. But, oh well, we’ll take what we can get.