Oh, you’re woke?

Tell me about every injustice, ever, then.

Much like how some have taken a word like ‘feminism‘ (defined as “the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes”) and tried to attach negative connotations to it, so too have many turned on the concept of being ‘woke’.

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the definition of woke is “aware of and actively attentive to important facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice)”.

I mean, that’s a bad thing?

Of course, for those who have grown tired of social media justice warriors and the like, Urban Dictionary’s definition – “the act of being very pretentious about how much you care about a social issue” – may be more to the point.

During an appearance at the Obama Foundation’s annual summit in Chicago on Tuesday, Barack took a moment to focus on the ‘woke call-out culture’, and why he thinks it may have gone too far.

Here’s the BBC:

His comments come as Democrats prepare for the 2020 presidential nomination race. So far, there has been a focus on how “woke” candidates are, with a number apologising for past incidents.

Before withdrawing from the race, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand went on television to apologise for using the term “illegal alien” in the past. Elizabeth Warren has apologised for identifying as Native American, while Pete Buttigieg has apologised for his use of the phrase “all lives matter”.

Over to you, Barack:

The man has a point – holding people accountable for what they say and do is good, but the ‘cancel culture’ that exists, especially online, can quickly spiral out of control.

Obama has spoken about this in the past, too:

Last April, he told a crowd at an Obama Foundation event in Berlin: “One of the things I do worry about among progressives in the United States, maybe it’s true here as well, is a certain kind of rigidity where we say ‘Uh, I’m sorry, this is how it’s going to be’ and then we start sometimes creating what’s called a ‘circular firing squad’, where you start shooting at your allies because one of them has strayed from purity on the issues.”

Everyone ends up cancelled, and a pussy-grabber gets re-elected as president.

[source:merriam-webster&bbc]