# How is "wokeness" responsible for the loss of abortion rights? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [February 20, 2023, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-wokeness-responsible-for-the-loss-of-abortion-rights/980084 "2023-02-20T14:39:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2023, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-wokeness-responsible-for-the-loss-of-abortion-rights/980084/81 "2023-02-20T22:00:22Z")
> [@YWTF](#): > > Perhaps, just perhaps, I understand what is at stake if progressives keep leaning into more reactionary courses of action rather than actually being smarter. What do you mean by “reactionary courses of action”? You keep saying “Democrats should stop doing x!” but what you mean by “x” seems to be either something they can’t very well stop doing because they weren’t doing it in the first place, or something so vague that I can’t understand what you mean. ---
**Author:** ![YWTF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/d07c76/32.png) [@YWTF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YWTF)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2023, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-wokeness-responsible-for-the-loss-of-abortion-rights/980084/82 "2023-02-20T22:15:50Z")
I credit these prosecutions to the efforts of a lot of people and groups, most operating outside the auspices of BLM. When police brutality was a hot a few years ago, I wanted to find organizations to donate to help in the fight. So I did my homework and found that BLM had very weak aims on its website. It was unclear what my money would go to if I gave to them, but there were other groups that did list the kind of specifics that spoke to me (like bail funds for people with bogus resisting arrest charges). So that’s whom I supported. BLM is the most well-known but that doesn’t mean they were the most effective. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2023, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-wokeness-responsible-for-the-loss-of-abortion-rights/980084/83 "2023-02-20T22:18:42Z")
BLM (meaning the amorphous popular movement that resulted in relatively spontaneous demonstrations around the country, rather than some specific organized group with a website) was the most visible, and clearly had the most impact on public opinion. And it was changing public opinion that made body cameras nigh-ubiquitous, and pushed politicians into thinking that prosecuting bad cops was now good politics (at least in some localities). Those other organizations are great too, but the big unorganized blob that is BLM, and those hundreds of protests, were absolutely instrumental. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2023, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-wokeness-responsible-for-the-loss-of-abortion-rights/980084/84 "2023-02-20T22:53:49Z")
> [@YWTF](#): > > but there were other groups that did list the kind of specifics that spoke to me (like bail funds for people with bogus resisting arrest charges). So that’s whom I supported. Groups like…? ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2023, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-wokeness-responsible-for-the-loss-of-abortion-rights/980084/85 "2023-02-21T00:34:10Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > I believe @YWTF is using it to describe people who support trans rights (and I recognize that it’s difficult to talk about this, given the topic ban, but given the Chappelle shout-out I think the implication is clear). It’s used to talk about LGBT rights a lot, in addition to being used to talk about Black people. Fair enough, I would agree I’ve heard it as an anti-LGBT epithet, though my perception is that it codes for “black” 90% of the time I hear it. In either case, my point stands that the right wing has so effectively turned “woke” into a snarl word that at this late date, it’s delusional to think one can credibly claim “woke” as an intra-left critique. Especially given how few people seem to agree that it ever had that valence _at all_. I think I recall it? But I also remember getting a lot of pushback about using it that way in ~2020 or so, and by 2022 the right-wingers had reappropriated it so widely that I wouldn’t use it anymore because it was basically the N-word. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2023, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-wokeness-responsible-for-the-loss-of-abortion-rights/980084/86 "2023-02-21T00:54:31Z")
> [@YWTF](#): > > And so yeah, folks like me are pissed that black people are now getting the reputational blowback from that. Yup we are. I shook my head when the BLM protests started turning into circuses precisely because I saw this particular writing on the wall. I think I understand why you’re expressing concern. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2023, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-wokeness-responsible-for-the-loss-of-abortion-rights/980084/87 "2023-02-21T02:05:54Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Groups like…? Wait, what? Are you insisting on a cite for groups that ran bail funds? Seriously? [Start here](https://www.communityjusticeexchange.org/en/nbfn-directory). This does not seem like a reasonable request for a cite. @ywtf may have made up other things in this thread, but bail funds are pretty widely known and easily googlable. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2023, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-wokeness-responsible-for-the-loss-of-abortion-rights/980084/88 "2023-02-21T02:15:36Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Wait, what? Are you insisting on a cite for groups that ran bail funds? No, I was asking for examples of groups he contributed to. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2023, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-wokeness-responsible-for-the-loss-of-abortion-rights/980084/89 "2023-02-21T02:17:31Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > No, I was asking for examples of groups he contributed to. I don’t see the relevance, nor do I think misgendering is cute or rhetorically powerful or ethical. In what way does it possibly matter which group she contributed to? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2023, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-wokeness-responsible-for-the-loss-of-abortion-rights/980084/90 "2023-02-21T02:26:50Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > nor do I think misgendering is cute or rhetorically powerful or ethical. Nor do I but it CAN happen accidentally, something you might want to consider before throwing accusations around. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2023, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-wokeness-responsible-for-the-loss-of-abortion-rights/980084/91 "2023-02-21T02:31:11Z")
Why? Why do you care? ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2023, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-wokeness-responsible-for-the-loss-of-abortion-rights/980084/92 "2023-02-21T03:48:10Z")
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**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2023, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-wokeness-responsible-for-the-loss-of-abortion-rights/980084/93 "2023-02-21T03:48:44Z")
This thread is done. Lots of stuff crossing the line. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-wokeness-responsible-for-the-loss-of-abortion-rights/980084.md?page=4)