Conversation

Notices

1. Embed this notice
   Thomas Zimmer (tzimmer_history@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 17-Mar-2023 17:45:30 JST Thomas Zimmer

   Ah, yes, let’s please “argue with her ideas” as if they were presented in good faith, as if the anti-“wokeism” crusade was a struggle over ideas and not a manufactured panic in service of a reactionary political project that seeks to naturalize traditional hierarchies.

   • clacke likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     Tofu Golem (tofugolem@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 17-Mar-2023 17:45:32 JST Tofu Golem

     in reply to

     @tzimmer_history
     We already know what Republicans mean by “woke,” and it's not what she said.

     In the name of “fighting wokeness” Republicans have banned thousands of books all over the country, including books famous for criticizing the Nazi Holocaust.

     Thus, we can infer that when Republicans say “woke,” they mean “not a Nazi,” and just like that, you know why it makes them so angry.

     clacke likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     Thomas Zimmer (tzimmer_history@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 17-Mar-2023 17:45:33 JST Thomas Zimmer

     in reply to

     If “respectable” centrist voices didn’t constantly normalize these reactionary attempts to delegitimize the critique of traditional hierarchies of race, gender, religion, and wealth, launder them for a mainstream audience, they wouldn’t be nearly as successful.

     clacke likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     Thomas Zimmer (tzimmer_history@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 17-Mar-2023 17:45:36 JST Thomas Zimmer

     in reply to

     Chait has often criticized the anti-democratic radicalization of the Right. But he is very much on board with the idea that the forces of “woke” radicalism have been allowed to advance too far. Therefore, if the rightwing project is presented in anti-“woke” terms, he will defend it.

     clacke likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     Thomas Zimmer (tzimmer_history@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 17-Mar-2023 17:45:36 JST Thomas Zimmer

     in reply to

     This isn’t a new development. In early 2015, for instance, Chait did his best to resurrect the anti-“political correctness” craze that had initially peaked in the early 90s and constituted a direct precursor to the current “cancel culture”/“free speech crisis on campus” panic.

     clacke likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     Thomas Zimmer (tzimmer_history@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 17-Mar-2023 17:45:38 JST Thomas Zimmer

     in reply to

     “I’m a true liberal – these people are radical, woke activists” feels better than “I always thought I was pretty liberal, but I must say I’m feeling uncomfortable about these calls for equality and respect, especially when they question my superior judgment and societal status.”

     clacke likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     Thomas Zimmer (tzimmer_history@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 17-Mar-2023 17:45:39 JST Thomas Zimmer

     in reply to

     In order to understand what’s going on here, it’s important to recognize that centrist pundits like Chait have always considered themselves moderate or liberal – and very much not conservative – because it informs their assessment of what is happening on the “Left.”

   • Embed this notice
     Thomas Zimmer (tzimmer_history@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 17-Mar-2023 17:45:39 JST Thomas Zimmer

     in reply to

     If you are convinced to be just the right kind of reasonable/liberal/moderate, then experiencing reactionary impulses creates a kind of intellectual and emotional dissonance that is often resolved by declaring that which makes you uncomfortable “radical” and “extreme.”

   • Embed this notice
     Thomas Zimmer (tzimmer_history@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 17-Mar-2023 17:45:40 JST Thomas Zimmer

     in reply to

     At its core, the “wokeism-cancel culture-free speech crisis” discourse is the latest iteration of an elite struggle to stave off and discredit certain long-term social, and cultural changes that elites - especially on the Right, but also from across the political spectrum - perceive as threatening.

   • Embed this notice
     Thomas Zimmer (tzimmer_history@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 17-Mar-2023 17:45:41 JST Thomas Zimmer

     in reply to

     You know who else constantly raged against “pc” around the same time? Donald Trump, whose success in 2016 had a lot to do with the fact that he presented himself as a bold truth-teller who would give the people what they want, unburdened by elite liberal “political correctness.”

   • Embed this notice
     Thomas Zimmer (tzimmer_history@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 17-Mar-2023 17:45:41 JST Thomas Zimmer

     in reply to

     That does not mean Chait is a rightwinger. But he shares certain reactionary sensibilities about a changing America that the Right is successfully weaponizing. He wants to turn the clock back a little bit, to a time before what he sees as the current excesses of radical “wokeism.”

   • Embed this notice
     A Tattered Scrapbook (tattered@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 17-Mar-2023 17:45:42 JST A Tattered Scrapbook

     in reply to

     @tzimmer_history A better definition: “Woke” is a term co-opted by fascists and other psychopaths to mock empathy, for the reason that it is shorter and easier to remember than “political correctness” for their tiny-minded thugs.

     clacke likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     Tofu Golem (tofugolem@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 17-Mar-2023 17:45:43 JST Tofu Golem

     in reply to

     @tzimmer_history
     Reminder: to Republicans “woke” means “not a Nazi.”

     clacke likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     Melanie (they, she) (melanie@queer.party)'s status on Friday, 17-Mar-2023 17:45:46 JST Melanie (they, she)

     in reply to

     @tzimmer_history idk where the word woke being used in this context originated, but I first noticed it being used by Black women friends IRL and on twitter. So of course we wouldn't go with the definition the originators used, especially not when we can find some bourgeois writer.

     clacke likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     Garden Variety Linguist (gardenvarietylinguist@mstdn.ca)'s status on Friday, 17-Mar-2023 17:45:48 JST Garden Variety Linguist

     in reply to

     @tzimmer_history
     It's funny to me that there's already a perfectly good definition in Wiktionary:

     The quality or state of being woke (aware of social justice issues).

     https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/wokeness

     For 'woke' Wiktionary has the following:

     (originally African-American Vernacular, slang) Alert, aware of what is going on, or well-informed, especially in racial and other social justice issues.

     They're probably gonna start calling it the Woketionary pretty soon, lol!

     clacke likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     danapriesing (danapriesing@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 17-Mar-2023 17:45:53 JST danapriesing

     in reply to

     @tzimmer_history Can't really get aboard with a definition that includes "radical" used pejoratively twice, and "angry mob" once. Not sure she's trying to define anything here. Reads more like an opinionated smear against those she disagrees with.

     clacke likes this.