Is it Time to Tone Down the Wokeness, Especially about the Past?

[DemonTree]

@puzzlegal

Fwiw, i grew up with, i dunno, some earlier wave of feminism, that taught that we can all be whoever we want to be whatever our bodies look like. And except in cases where people feel strongly that their bodies are wrong, I’m not convinced that the current approach to gender is a better answer. That is, it’s not clear to me that asking people to pick “male” or “non-binary” to be respected at work is better than asking everyone else to respect women. (To paint with an intentionally broad and imperfect brush.)

Okay, this is indeed a terfy talking point. I’m happy to hear that your friends aren’t rejecting you for it. People on social media tend to be a good deal less reasonable in my experience.

@puzzlegal

But i also know that i don’t understand what’s going on in other people’s heads. And that being accepted as a woman matters a lot to some very obviously feminine people that i know. So, ya know, i try to use the names and pronouns that people indicate they want me to use. Mostly just because I’m not an asshole. I honestly think that 90% of being “woke” is not being an asshole

So do I. But to the woke what you do is not nearly so important as what you believe. One is not saved by works but by faith (in today’s approved tenets). As an unbeliever, my experience of woke is that it is 90% being an asshole.

@puzzlegal

That’s easy, as we already aren’t doing that… So, moving on.

I made a partial list of woke-by-this-definition policies from the Biden administration in an earlier reply to @Mijin here:

Is it Time to Tone Down the Wokeness, Especially about the Past?

Okay, I looked at some right-wing articles to see what they are claiming as woke policies from Biden: An executive order in June 2021 calling for federal agencies to prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion in recruits and when considering promotions. Allocating Covid recovery funds on the basis of race and gender: (Spoiler: it was not constitutional) Opposing the lawsuit alleging that race-based affirmative action at Harvard and UNC was unconstitutional. https://www.reuters.com/w…

These are the sort of things the Dems need to stop doing to avoid being seen as woke, though there are potentially more influential examples at local/state level which afaik Biden and the national party would not have been able to do anything about? I don’t know how much Americans lump together the different levels of the same party.