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Watch: Conservative who wrote entire chapter on ‘woke’ stumped when asked what 'woke' means [1]
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Date: 2023-03-15
It is very important to remember that the origin of terms like “political correctness” and “woke” and “cancel culture”—and all of those catchphrases used as armor for shitty people who attack children and marginalized groups—came from higher education. It is no coincidence that grifters like Ben Shapiro and Bethany Mandel and Bari Weiss (and any other pretend free-speechers) all hang their careers on accusing the amorphous “left” of taking over colleges and brainwashing young people. This also why these charlatans speak in buzzwords, dog whistles, and word salad: If you don’t analyze it for more than one second, they sound like they might be saying something intelligent. Really, though, they’re just creating an opaque atmosphere for spewing lies, “alternative facts,” and easily refutable logic, and ultimately are so full of shit that most critical thinkers in higher education probably find them boorish and boring.
In the clip, Mandel is going on about how the majority of Americans don’t consider themselves “woke” when host Gray steps in to ask an important question: “What does that mean to you? Would you mind defining ‘woke’? It has come up a couple of times and I just want to make sure we’re on the same page.”
It is here that Mandel simply falls apart. She stutters, says it’s hard to define, says she wrote a whole chapter about it, realizes she doesn’t really have an answer, says, “This is gonna be one of those moments that goes viral,” hehe, and also says it has something to do with doing away with all of society in order to put in oppressive structures. Or something. I think she sort of flipped it, tried to remember which enigmatic, pretend intellectual thing she and her writing partner wrote in said “woke” chapter, and came out with a big nothingburger.
She ends by sort of sighing, deservedly humiliated, and saying, “It’s hard to explain in a 15-second soundbite.” (She’d already spent about 40 seconds floundering at this point, but who’s counting.) Gray adds a nice cherry on top here, responding: “Well, you can take your time.”
x LOL: Briahna Joy Gray BREAKS the brain of Rising guest Bethany Mandel by asking her to define "wokeness" pic.twitter.com/uwRSSH0LaM — The Vanguard (@vanguard_pod) March 14, 2023
The responses have been everything you might imagine.
x Every conservative when they’re asked to define “woke” pic.twitter.com/OYc2neE2dl — The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) March 15, 2023
x last year she said wanting to work less hours in an office was “woke”. Her definition, like all definitions of “political correctness” (d/b/a “woke”) is just a catch-all gripe about Kids These Days, LGBTQ ppl *existing* and educated black people who refuse to smile and play nice
https://t.co/eFOVo4Mlq4 pic.twitter.com/H0zv4nBVml — Adam H. Johnson (@adamjohnsonNYC) March 15, 2023
x People have a hard time defining woke without accidentally saying they want to be able to hate minorities and not face any consequences. — Halli (@iamharaldur) March 15, 2023
Having finally gotten back to her book, Mandel sent out this useless definition.
x The funny thing is, when the dopes do try to define "woke," it's inevitably a mix of the obviously, banally true - structural discrimination persists in America! - & a bunch of emotional trigger words ("radical," "angry mob") to make believing those obvious truths seem sinister. pic.twitter.com/W52Ru26G6s — David Roberts (@drvolts) March 15, 2023
But don’t worry. Her inability to even come up with a semi-coherent sentence regarding something she is dedicating her professional life to is not her fault. It’s the person who asked the question that is to blame!
x Bethany Mandel provides an explanation this morning on why she couldn’t define “woke” yesterday. pic.twitter.com/qgs1pXblMu — Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) March 15, 2023
Now, considering that Mandel has shown herself to be relatively bankrupt when it comes to thoughts and opinions and such, I don’t know if we can take her word for anything. Here’s a better definition for her.
x Just substitute "wokeness" for "blackness," and you'll pretty much get the gist of what people mean when they say they're anti-woke. — Emma Vigeland (@EmmaVigeland) March 15, 2023
And as a history lesson: “Stay woke” was something that Black people coined as a public reminder of systemic injustices taking place in our country. Before that, Black people created the word for the exact same reason. Here’s one example from 1930.
You can enjoy the music or just listen to Lead Belly’s outro starting around 4:25. Stay woke.
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