We’ve semantic-drifted a long way. ‘Woke’ first hit my radar as a black activist term around Ferguson/BLM in 2014. Feels like yesterday. It’s gone from a brain-dead obvious thing to be to a brain dead obvious thing to avoid being.https://twitter.com/wesyang/status/1174327999287742465 …
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Back then, to me it meant “being alive to structural iniquities that lead to black kids getting arbitrarily executed by cops” Now it means “power-tripping sociopaths trying to leverage mob-control powers to take over sclerotic institutions”
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You’d have to be a true asshole to not be woke by the first definition. You’d have to be pretty gutless patsy not to resist and reject woke by the second definition. The semantic drift from woke (2014) to woke (2019) is so extreme we shouldn’t use the same word for both.
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Replying to @vgr
Yeah, I mean no. 2. We don't have good terminology for the amorphous, shape-shifting set of claims that this ideology makes use of it in pursuit of institutional, in large part because the effort manipulates terms such as "diversity" to disguise its character.
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Replying to @wesyang
True. I'm beginning to conclude that the weakest point, and the one worth attacking is the "approved language" layer.
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Replying to @wesyang
Venkatesh Rao Retweeted Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao added,
Venkatesh Rao @vgrThe right is obsessed with "PC" around "things you can't say". The actual weak point of the wokeleban, worth attacking, is around the approved language you MUST use. For example: I avoid using terms like "person of color" and "ally". Every use is a vote for woke-authoritarians. https://twitter.com/vgr/status/1174385694405324800 …1 reply 0 retweets 6 likes -
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What's STI?
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lol I'm glad I was not even aware I was supposed to use that
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