r/Glasgow Tools

The definition of woke and wokeness has been deliberately lumped in with a whole lot of other things at the same time. To be woke is a phrase from a play about a black American who realises the injustices in American society which once noticed cannot be ignored. However nobody online discusses nuance and context anymore, they just read words and argue against them regardless of context.

I also know about what you are defining as woke too, which is the American cultural phenomenon in which everything reported by liberal American news organisations which passes through the younger generations like bread through a duck, for example the many, many people who joined in with ice bucket challenge, posting black squares on instagram for George Floyd, posting Ukraine flags etc. I understand the cynicism surrounding these also because ultimately armchair/social media activism makes no real difference to the issue and comes across very much as the 21st century equivalent of chainmail where if you don't immediately follow the trend you're an arsehole.

I think that personally nobody's right on this situation, these terms are deliberately being pushed with a broad ill-defined meaning because then we (the poor and powerless) argue amongst each other about the definitions and don't seem to notice the corruption, criminality, absolute piss taking that's happening not only with our government but all these huge companies and corporations who collude on price rises which starve and impoverish millions to pay their big bosses all the bonuses they can. That's why I personally don't use the term woke, nor do I try to engage in any arguments about it.