A Republican Congressman from Indiana says he’s going to create the “first-ever Anti-Woke Caucus” in the U.S. House of Representatives to address the “greatest domestic threat to America today” because of course he is.
Ten years ago the Affordable Care Act was the “greatest threat to freedom in American history.” Seven hears ago Her E-mails® were the “greatest threat” Americans faced. Now it’s “wokeness” or whatever else prevents anachronistic Republican bigotry from achieving full flower in the twenty-first century A.D.
I won’t waste time talking about what “woke” means and doesn't mean, or what “wokeness” is and isn’t, except the obligatory reiteration that on the extraordinarily rare occasion when the Both Sides® media asks a Republican or a GOP fan what it is or what it means they either can’t come up with a coherent answer or, if they can come up with a coherent answer they can’t come up with one that sounds even remotely threatening, or even unusual, to anyone outside the paracosm.
But here’s the thing: Whatever “woke” means, whatever “wokeness” is, based on how Republicans and their cohort have been defining it and using it one thing has become abundantly and indisputably clear: its opposite is bigotry.
Bigotry may be defined as a stubborn intolerance of any views, thoughts, ideas, perceptions, people, lifestyles, &c. that differ from one’s own, along with a stubborn refusal to examine, revise, or evolve one’s own ideas, perceptions, &c. in the face of contrary evidence, non-validating experience, and/or (especially) broad social disapproval. I really think it’s that last bit that buggers these “anti-woke” Republicans and fans more than anything else; not only does reality continue to fail to validate their prejudices, but more and more the rest of the world refuses to validate or approve of their bigotry, which seems to be what they really want.
In any event I think that we, and Democrats, need to start making this a thing. When the Chuck Todds of the world confront Democrats about Republican charges of “wokeness” they need to respond:
“Well, Chuck, the opposite of ‘woke’ is ‘bigoted,’ so ‘anti-woke’ means ‘pro-bigotry.’ If Republicans want to announce to the world that they stand for bigotry — and I think it’s pretty clear that they do — and continue to demand acceptance, validation and approval of their bigotry, then they’re welcome to wear that mantle as proudly as they like. But just remember that when Republicans accuse people, organizations or policies of being ‘woke,’ what they really mean is that those people, organizations or policies don’t share, and don’t provide the validation or approval of, the retrograde bigotry that Republicans represent and embrace. Again, Republicans are free to go on opposing and speaking out against ‘wokeness’; Democrats will go on opposing and speaking out against bigotry, and we’ll see how things work out.”
”Anti-Woke” = Pro-Bigotry.
We have to make this ^^ a thing.
(I also with Democrats would start defining the difference between themselves and Republicans as solidarity-and-compassion vs. selfishness-and-cruelty, but that’s a diary for another day…..)