I think there are a significant number of Republican voters and politicians who either do not care for a war on wokeness or have fatigued of it. I don’t think any of them would openly come out in favor of wokeness, but they would try their best to quietly let the issue fall to the wayside by adopting some other different line of attack on the D’s instead (taxes, spending, whatever) and only paying the littlest of lip service to the anti-woke cause when demanded to.
“Woke” is soooooo 2022. “Weaponized government” is the current moral panic du jour.
It doesn’t help that most Republicans can’t really articulate what wokeness is.
That’s part of the charm, of course. It’s a political Rorschach blob.
As I believe I’ve said elsewhere, it’s similar to Nixon’s “Silent Majority.” Since the SM was — by definition — silent, it could be made to say whatever Nixon wanted it to say; in this case, “woke” can be interpreted as the individual listener’s particular bogeyman.
Same as “the Commies,” same as “PC run amok,” same as every other hamfisted blunt-brain label over the decades. Whenever the right-wing authoritarians feel themselves questioned or worry there’s a possibility somebody might accumulate enough power to hold them accountable for their bullshit, they slap the latest derogatory label on it, however ill-fitting. It’s what they do.
That really is all there is to it. They need a bogeyman to incite fear in their cowardly followers. Every now and then it needs a new name but it’s always the same thing: something to be afraid of so you’ll happily vote for us authoritarians to protect you.
Trying to seek a deeper meaning isn’t useful. “Woke” isn’t a definable thing. It’s simple the Pavlov’s bell that makes the RW-trained public salivate for a savior from the RW-induced fear. It’s nothing other than classical conditioning.
And they’ll keep milking the “woke cow” for as long as possible.
And once woke has run its course, we can expect a war on rizz+
+If my poli sci studies are correct
I imagine there are others who didn’t particularly hate it, but still don’t see much utility in having gone. All the time spent on learning that skill is time you could have spent doing something else. Maybe learning a different (more useful) skill or maybe just having fun. Keeping in touch with cultural roots is all well and fine, but I have no problem with people (like myself) who don’t even know what all their ethnic roots are, and don’t much care. Of course, that’s much easier when you are (or at least appear to be) part of the majority.
I mean if your grandparents were from a country you’ve never been to and your parents have never been to and that has changed greatly since they left (as countries are prone to do in 50+ years), then I think there’s no particular reason you should feel an attachment to that place, that language or that (often much transformed - sometimes to the point of unrecognizability) culture. You can, but there’s nothing wrong with not doing so. Or with you feeling much closer to the place and culture that actually surrounded you as you grew up. I will say that growing up in ethnic enclaves with continuing immigration from the same locale could understandably make one feel more in touch with said place (and I would probably argue that one would actually be more in touch, too, though it’s not a hill I’d die on).
I’ve seen other people do that as well. I had several friends involved in the Occupy Wall Street movement years ago and everything they didn’t like was linked to the one percenters. We were dicussing what to do about wild geese who were leaving a dangerous amount of feces in one of our public parks and one of the solutions was to let hunters start harvesting them. For some who didn’t like that idea, they argued it was a one percenter solution and left it at that.
I’m not arguing “both sides” right now. Because at this particular time the ridiculous ideas are mainstream whereas for the left most of the really silly ideas are not so mainstream.
And just to show you how in touch my family is with their roots, I had to explain to my sister a few years ago that we were not of Irish extraction. The bulk of our ancestors on both sides of the family can be traced to Scotland, both in the lowlands and even the Orkney Islands, or the northern part of England. Do I feel particularly Scottish? No. If someone asks me ethnicity I answer American and only when pressed would I say my ancestors hailed from Scotland.
The Republicans have been waging war on charisma for decades.
A Field Report from Hooterville (Which Is Less Fun Than It Sounds) :
- Locals are slowly splitting over Trump. VERY SLOWLY.
- Local Red politicos are quietly divesting themselves of his ideas.
- A lack of real leadership in the local Blues means no real chance of local seats changing hands.
- January 6th did not play well with local Red leaders,m or Veterans.
I’m not sure what you mean…one reason Trump beat Hillary was because, as terrible as his agenda was, he was viewed as more charismatic or colorful than the comparatively stiff and cold Hillary.
Positive report, thanks. Where are you at again? Tennessee?
Yes.
And, I must concede, that in recent weeks I have only conversed with one, hard-core, Trumper, at Publix.
But then, I don’t get out much.
Buncha RINOS! /jk
That is so two weeks ago. It’s called “lawfare” now.
…ok, that definition has just slapped me with how middle-aged and middle-class I am like nothing in months or years.