Oddbean

Wokeness (to the level it’s risen to today) wasn’t brought into progressive politics until Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren post 2016. Oh, and btw, we’ve only seen recreation in many ways in pro-choice and lgbtqia+ rights, so great job from their “movements” and politics that have failed. Prior to this it was the economy, fighting corrupt corporations and government, economic populism for working class, and anti-war. That was the progressive movement, and what I associate with as a progressive. And yes I’m being very actively canceled by today’s progressives lol. Don’t care, gonna keep pushing for a move back to sanity (which behind the scenes is way more what people want than the minority of online fake progressives!) and forward with Bitcoin and a real progressive agenda that actually benefits everyday people and doesn’t pay lip service on your woke chart.

The term “woke” is really confusing to me. I remember seeing it and using it as a call to action because Black Americans were waking up and starting to discuss their disillusionment with the Democratic Party, mainstream religion, and the agenda being pushing on us after Obama. I only ever heard it used to describe based blacks dedicated to educate their people. Then all of a sudden organizations and political groups like BLM and LGBTQia+ co-opted it to persuade angry people into activism. It became a slur and a way of describing transgenderism, CRT, and social activist. I know the term originated from the Bible where the select chosen people were trying to wake up the spiritually asleep masses but like most things from the Bible it gets twisted and reshaped into evil. Are you saying wokeism is a leftist thing now or that progressives have co-opted it again to push an agenda??

Wokeness as we currently know it was a Tumblr phenomena. It was created by teenage girls reading academic writings by Marxist academics. This may sound like a dogwhistle but it's simply a description of where the current form of gender and identity politics came from. Everyone gets the genealogy of this thing wrong. This internet and fundamentally teenage phenomena then was transmitted to the universities *by the students*. It was not imposed by the professors. However, quickly the inmates were running the asylum and the culture of elite academic institutions was changed profoundly by what the students demanded. Colleges either embraced or bowed to be pressure. When students graduated and entered the workforce and politics, this hit it's full stride in the period you mention post Obama.

Fair point. I guess I’m saying it was cemented, rewarded, and affirmed by top Democratic leadership as THE standard post 2016, and if you even question it you are cast out of the party or fringe at best

100% agree, and you are correct, but to address the problem we must understand the origins. And few people get where this thing actually came from. Ideologically, the country has been run a One Direction and Twilight fandom for a decades.

It was pointed out by someone on Twitter (I think Krystal Ball?) that "wokeness" was specifically used in 2016 to counteract Bernie's economic populist movement. Worked like a fucking charm. Infected the whole party.