Have you heard of this term yet.. 'Woke' ?. meaning people who are aware that our western society is largely a construct, an idea perpetuated by years of history, to keep us distracted, to keep us passive and to perserve the status quo. It seems to me that there have been many people throughout history that were 'woke' and tried to communicate the lie to the wider public or at least attempted to encourage the public to think a bit more....Help me name them all...
Jonathan Swift wrote a story about 2 nations fighting over which end of the egg to start from. George Orwell, of course with 1984 and Animal Farm, and Aldous Huxley with his enlightened trips to the island and The Brave New Workd, Jd Salinger... everyone's a phoney! Lewis Carrol? down the rabbit hole 😉 just take a puff of this said the Caterpillar.. John Lennon, Stanley Kubrick? Rusell Brand, Jim Carrey?
Really makes you think....
Does being 'woke' not mean you are a soy boy beta cuck?
PARKLIFE!
Yep, heard of it, along with flat earthers and people going for a global cabal running it all
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pizzagate_conspiracy_theory
Probably this lot too
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Lol @ Parklife 🙂
Bloody pigeons.
You lot are all woke and you know exactly what I'm on about. It doesn't mean swallowing conspiracy nonsense about aliens or reptoids. You question religion, you question if BBC news is bias. Cycnism is key. You are woke but you don't care because you benefit quite nicely from the status quo tyvm, with your iPhones and your detached houses and your VW T4 camper conversions.
Nurse! The screens!
As far as I can tell, becoming "woke" means belatedly realising the bloody obvious. You can only be woke if you were asleep. But I do like the expression.
meaning people who are aware that our western society is largely a construct, an idea perpetuated by years of history, to keep us distracted, to keep us passive and to perserve the status quo.
How has keeping everyone passive gone?
You are woke but you don’t care because you benefit quite nicely from the status quo tyvm, with your iPhones and your detached houses and your VW T4 camper conversions.
OK, what if we don't have Iphones or knackered old campers?
Eddie Bravo claims he is woke, as does Sam Tripoli, personally I consider anyone who describes themself as woke to be a ****ing conspiracy nut job.
<div class="bbp-reply-author">mikewsmith
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How has keeping everyone passive gone?
Quite unbelievably well.
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Take the red pill !!
History is written by the winners.
Sod the Woke, I'm off to buy some wine...
https://twitter.com/bbccomedy/status/1010189882503950336?lang=en
Couldn't find the full clip on youtube, but the video is in the twitter link.
I thought “woke” generally referred to people who have realised that they like 99.9% of the world do not even count as a cog in the machine and are just part of the surfdom but still want to feel special...
these are people who failed to grasp the concept that the world was not looking to them for answers and thought that despite their being 6 billion people they were top of the worlds/gods lists. Probably they never had to study Middle Ages, politics, agricultural practices, plebs, surfs, and crop rotation (**** knows why that was on the school history syllabus)...
there is no more global conspiracy than there ever was. There has always been regional then global elites with the majority at the bottom being manipulated. As the op mentioned this has not been kept secret all you have to do is read a few books, study history or just read up on Cambridge Analytica
For about an hour.
Should have got a job on the bins....
Yeah it's no big revelation, most of us have been woke our entire adult lives..back to my Op question though....
Who else throughout history have tried to wake the masses?
Bloody dog woke me up at 5.30am
My waking consciousness will struggle today
Some H. G. Wells? The sleeper awakes maybe...
Is it not do with the social construct effectinv blacks or has it evolved to cover all?
After 3 cups of coffee I am now too woke, stood on the edge of the abyss of reality I need help being dragged back to the comfort of blissful ignorance.
Nope OP. That is not what I consider woke to mean.
I’m outside Halfords waiting for it to open, vaguely awoke
Is that Jurgen?
I was woke at 5am by a cold ridden 3 year old.
Need more coffee.
WE ARE QANON
!
.
Alt-right conspiracy nutters aside I'm very woke:
4th day with no functioning boiler and my cold shower woke me right up.
I am
So am I, but only in Germany
Couldn’t find the full clip on youtube, but the video is in the twitter link.
Yep seen that, very funny and I had no idea what Woke was till I saw that!
My house is only semi-detached! Who do I petition for a riot and a few days of anarchy? Just not on Sundays, I don't want to miss Strictly.
I thought it meant being aware of how society is still repressing women, ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+ etc. Despite white men supposing otherwise.
I always let the Woke win.
They tend to pull people’s arms out of their sockets otherwise
Who else throughout history have tried to wake the masses?
Jim Carey?
"Woke" seems to be a term used by quite a few nutters.
Every flat earther I've spoken to (i.e. a lot) have claimed to be "woke" and referred to globe-believers as asleep sheeple undoctorurnated by tha gubmint.
My conclusion is that "woke" generally means someone suffering from mild psychosis or paranoia 🙂
The other use of "woke" seems to relate to student-age kids who have left education and found out that modern life is just corporate slavery to buy things you don't need, pay your bills, and slowly pay off a virtual debt on a house that is never really yours.
The "woke" think that they are the first people to realise this and that their life will be different.
Ah the naivety of youth 🙂
Aldous Huxley with his enlightened trips to the island and The Brave New World
I'm puzzled about Brave new World. Its always described as a vision of a dystopian future, but when I read it, it sounded like a brilliant world to live in.
So am I "Post Woke"?
I think people have been becoming woke for decades, probably longer, it's only the phrase that is new.
I don't think there's any greats mysteries to the world.
It's simple really, we're born and know jack shit, our parents lie to us and hide the horrible truth of it all until we're old enough to handle it.
Finally we learn the terrible truth, there's no magic in the world, no Fairies, no Father Christmas, but worse still, it's not very fair. We can't be anything we want to be, you might grow up thinking "yeah< I was born in a Council House, but I'm going to live in a Mansion when I grow up" but eventually you come to realise that you won't, yeah a few will, but that 0.01% of the global population that does only can to let the rest of us think it's possible.
Some spend the next few years screaming from the virtual rooftops "THE WORLD ISN'T FAIR!!"
Some other younger people say "wow, you're right, we're getting ****ed here".
But most people who've been around the block more than once, nod along sagely, sadly they've know real truth.
The world isn't fair, but worse than that, you can't change it, accept you fate and make the best of it.
Why are people coming up with all sorts of strange explanations when there's a perfectly good definition of the term on Wikipedia?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woke
"Woke is a political term of African American origin that refers to a perceived awareness of issues concerning social justice and racial justice.[1] It is derived from the African American Vernacular English expression "stay woke", whose grammatical aspect refers to a continuing awareness of these issues. Its widespread use since 2014 is a result of the Black Lives Matter movement.[1][2]"
Some H. G. Wells? The sleeper awakes maybe…
How about Bach, Wachet Auf?
but when I read it, it sounded like a brilliant world to live in.
Orgy Porgy?
I thought it meant being aware of how society is still repressing women, ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+ etc. Despite white men supposing otherwise.
Was this continued discrimination a secret? Someone has to be at the top of the pile and if you are already there it is easier to kick down the pretenders.
Why are people coming up with all sorts of strange explanations when there’s a perfectly good definition of the term on Wikipedia?
Because the usage has moved on from that original definition.
Unless you think alt-right nutters and flat earthers are referring to Black Lives Matter when the say they are "woke"
I thought 'woke' was not being able to watch and enjoy Friends or the Simpsons anymore, because we've all realised all the jokes are sexist and/or racist.
The world isn’t fair, but worse than that, you can’t change it, accept you fate and make the best of it.
we’ve all realised all the jokes are sexist and/or racist.
Actually I find that offensive.
"Racist" is a loaded term. "Race" is a social construct and the term "racist" implies that subjugation on other ethnic differences is acceptable.
"Sexist" is worse because it implies cis-gender and ignores the broader gender spectrum.
Also, everyone loves a good joke about tits.
Should it not be the awake? You’ve been woken and now you’re awakened? On those grounds alone you can count me out. I bet they use more than one question mark too, the bastards.
yup that's it, what are you gonna do about it?
After you're aware that capitalism is a construct, nations are imagined and
religion is a fairy tale.. what are you gonna with that information? start
a revolution? haha. What if the redistribution of wealth, the levelling out
of all the resources means that you and your family have to live in a
smaller house without a garden with 1.1 Fiesta and a 14" tele? Nahhh we're
not down with that, no way. So you do nothing, Whereas in the past people
weren't woke and couldn't do anything about it but these days you are aware
of the true situation and not prepared to do anything about it because it
doesn't affect you.
What's the alternative then?
Anyone hoping that the general population will "come to their senses" about the construct of state/global capitalism by reading Swift or Huxley are going to be massively disappointed.
What’s the alternative then?
Gosh,TJ is so young in that photo.
Whereas in the past people
weren’t woke and couldn’t do anything about it but these days you are aware
of the true situation and not prepared to do anything about it because it
doesn’t affect you.
You honestly think this is the first generation to be aware of social injustice, economic disparity or the problems with capitalism?
As @hols2 points out, this is not the case.
I don’t understand 🧐
Is the problem that capitalism is a construct, in which case so is socialism, communism and all other forms of government - would those who are awake then advocate that we go back to say, prehistoric ways of organising ourselves, where it just becomes survival of the fittest?
Or is it that the construct needs to change in order to reduce inequalities globally - which to my mind should be more about access to clean water, education, healthcare and good governance etc rather than cars and tellys. Plenty of people in London would be very happy with a small house without a garden but can’t afford the several hundred thousand needed to buy one!
I thought it meant being aware of how society is still repressing women, ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+ etc. Despite white men supposing otherwise.
Was this continued discrimination a secret? Someone has to be at the top of the pile and if you are already there it is easier to kick down the pretenders.
It seems to have been more of a secret to the privileged, who don't experience the negative impacts, such as white, middle aged, middle class mountain bikers (I'm including myself in this category).
To take an example that might resonate more on here than wondering about the disproportionate numbers of black people who are shot by police or sent to prison in the US, we recently had a thread on here about under-representation of women and ethnic minorities in mountain biking - there were those suggesting that there isn't a problem because no one is actively preventing people with brown skin and / or vaginas from accessing the trails. A more "woke" stance might recognise, for example, differentials in prizes for women in races, lack of being treated seriously in bike shops (again, for women), sexist advertising from the bike industry, sexist editorial from cycling media etc. as a factor in deterring participation.
The same "woke" logic suggests that, for example, the relative likelihoods of a rich white guy who went to Eton and a poor black lad raised in a shithole council estate in massive poverty (and being stopped-and-searched by the police every time he walks down the street), becoming either a cabinet minister, or another prison statistic might not just be down to the Etonian "working harder"
EDIT: Nested quote thing not worked, hopefully you get the gist....
You honestly think this is the first generation to be aware of social injustice, economic disparity or the problems with capitalism?
As @hols2 points out, this is not the case.
I think there is a slight difference, in the acknowledgement of privilege and its unavoidable impacts on the priviliged.
Thinking of myself, I try and be righteous and "right-on" - I'll avoid and challenge racism, sexism, homophobia etc where I see it (e.g. wading in on the periodic "bash the gypsies" threads on here.) And there have always been people doing that. What I think is new is more active acknowledgement that, as an affluent, white, male, I can rail against injustice all I like, but I'm still personally benefiting from it. This includes having a voice - it's a nice luxury for me to be able to pontificate about racism. Part of that is that I've got the capacity because I'm not worrying about where my kids' next meal is coming from, whether I'll get pulled over by the police just for driving down the street, whether I'll get verbally or physically abused in the street because of the colour of my skin or who I love etc. I can argue the toss with a bunch of other white middle class types and go home to my safe surburban life, in a relatively rich country, made rich to a significant extent through the oppression of people in less fortunate parts of the world.
<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">Because the usage has moved on from that original definition.</span>
<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">Unless you think alt-right nutters and flat earthers are referring to Black Lives Matter when the say they are “woke”</span>
From Wikipedia:
<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">"</span>By the mid 2010s, woke had been adopted as a more generic slang term and has been the subject of memes and ironic usage.[10] For example, MTV News identified it as a key teen slang word for 2016.[16] This has raised concerns that the word has been culturally appropriated"
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It seems like everyone is ignoring kcr for whatever reason to have a different conversation. Like how issues of minorities are ignored until they are subsumed and appropriated to no longer centre them.
This guy is Woke AF.
Good luck to anyone who wants to be like that, but I'm out!
Anthony Bourdain had “I am certain of nothing” tattood n ancient Greek on his arm.
Most people who describe themselves as "woke" are the last people you would associate with that quotte.
<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">"f I am fool, it is, at least, a doubting one; and I envy no one the certainty of his self-approved wisdom.' -Byron</span>
I knew all this at 10yrs old. No one had to wake me. Just pay attention FFS!
And I don't mean to the media.
* 1979
I've de-woked.
Will learning to manual properly woke me up again?
Is the problem that capitalism is a construct, in which case so is socialism, communism and all other forms of government – would those who are awake then advocate that we go back to say, prehistoric ways of organising ourselves, where it just becomes survival of the fittest?
Well I'll just use my own definition ... but
My common sense definition (applied only to myself) is not necessarily to then advocate doing anything to change.
As someone said earlier ... it's realising life isn't fair... but perhaps it's more about realising how to make it better.
However does that mean for yourself, your family, country or humanity? (or for some animals)...
Perhaps the biggest reason for the conspiracy theory type is those who realising life is loaded, not fair etc. then realise they can't change this for humanity (or their country) without "awakening" a whole mass of people...
whereas ... the other option is perhaps more selfish to not try and change the world but just minimise the effects on you or your family?
"Will learning to manual properly woke me up again?"
You'll be stoked not woked if you can manual, a better option I reckon 🙂
Well I’ll just use my own definition...
edit
It cannot be a coincidence that i actually saw the word 'woke' used in editorial for the first time today, not ten minutes after I saw this thread. It must be a conspiracy.
The article was using the term 'woke left' as the opposite of the 'alt right'. It was a good article actually, that higlighted the vile trend for everything and everyone to be categorised, judged and stigmatised by their association with in-groups and out-groups. It is a theory I remember proposing to a friend a few years ago - that there is no such thing as 'eqiuality' in society, there are only ever interest groups whose ideas and issues will either be in declination or scendency at any one time.
Edit.
Not going through all that again. Seems we're back to all the extra definition text when you try and copy and paste.
Pffft.
Well I’ll just use my own definition…
Well it's as good as any other....
I can argue the toss with a bunch of other white middle class types and go home to my safe surburban life, in a relatively rich country, made rich to a significant extent through the oppression of people in less fortunate parts of the world.
Right until the term cultural misappropriation comes up....
Which is where things get pointless...
On the whole there are all sorts of injustices going on but the main reason they continue is down to divide and conquer. Frankly I don't care what term is used... so long as it's inclusive.
I'm with the definition kcr quoted.
I am now woke as **** after falling asleep on the sofa and then being dive bombed by Funk Jr. I don’t think there’s anyone alive as woke as me right now.
Well it’s as good as any other….
There has been a lot of journalism referring to "woke" over the past year or so, and I had to look up the meaning, because it was new to me. Every time I've seen the term, it has been used to mean awareness of social and racial justice issues (or it has been used ironically by people poking fun at opinions on racial and social issues which they disagree with) so the Wikipedia definition seems to be quite correct.
Ask the awakened.
Well it’s as good as any other...
Right until the term cultural misappropriation comes up...
Which is where things get pointless…
Orgy Porgy?
Argy bargy?
'Privilege' is another word that I've seen being used more recently in new contexts, such as having 'thin privilege' on public transport (because all the seats are made for people who have a waist size that is average or less). Being aware of social issues includes being aware of these kinds of things that you might not experience as a lean, buff physically perfect MTB rider (speaking personally of course 🙄), whether or not you agree with the trending terminology.
Cycnism is key (sic)
Cynicism is ugly, scepticism is where it's at.