Stop with the woke. You'll look just as clueless and horrible as everyone else someday.
/I can't stand the notion of being woke. I can't stand the assertions of those who claim to be woke.
For those of you fortunate enough to be unaware of this term, "woke" was originally used to describe a continuing awareness of issues concerning social justice and racial justice that came to widespread use as a result of Black Lives Matter.
This was good. It made sense. It's a fantastic call to action.
The term has since been co-opted by mainstream culture to refer to any situation where a person believes they are more aware of and actively attentive to important facts and issues than others (especially but not specifically issues of racial and social justice).
While the idea of being more active and attentive to racial and social issues is also a very good one, the use of the word "woke" in many circles has come to imply new state of being. An enhanced level of social consciousness. A more evolved understanding of the injustices of the world.
I find this silly and annoying. The world has been evolving in this way since the dawn of time. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. famously said:
"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."
The people who take so much pride in being woke today will appear just as problematic and incomprehensible as we did 25 years ago when restaurants featured no smoking sections, public buildings were not accessible to the disabled, we still used words like "midget" and "retarded," and I was riding in the way-back of my parent's station wagon, seatbelt-less and fancy free.
Like ever previous generation, the woke of today will be the shame and ridiculousness of tomorrow.
Bill Maher makes this point better than I can, so please watch, particularly if you are a person who takes pride in being woke.