Woke is being aware of systemic racism, etc. Intersectionality is understanding that people have advantages and disadvantages along different axes. It’s like a category error trying to combine those. I really don’t understand what you’re doing.
Maybe you’re combining them because you think “woke” is bad and “intersectionality” is bad? Maybe just go back to previous snarl words like SJW or PC.
I agree that one definition of “woke” is “things that I think are bad” for some people, so if that’s you, feel free to combine those things under that umbrella. Just don’t expect thoughtful people to agree with you.
I don’t want to limit it to those 3 quite specific ideas. ‘Woke’ as used by non-woke people would also include other privileges, systemic sexism/the patriarchy, as well as stuff like the punching up/punching down distinction, standpoint epistemology, and the idea that speech can harm disadvantaged groups and for that reason some speech should be suppressed.
All new or newly popularised in their current incarnation, and part of the same movement.
Check your history books. “Commie,” “Politically Correct”, “Feminazi,” and “Pinko Scum” have all been used in similar ways. Try one of them, if you don’t want to use “woke”.
Although you don’t seem to realize it, you’re asking for a snarl word that people won’t recognize as a snarl word.
People who describe themselves as “non-woke” use “woke” as a snarl word. Either embrace it, or don’t use snarl words. There’s not really a third path.
On a related note, I’m looking for a single scientific word that describes rabbits, crickets, and frogs. Please don’t tell me “animals,” because that’s too vague. And I don’t want to use “rabbits, crickets, and frogs,” because maybe I want to use this word to also talk about geese and sea urchins. And please don’t focus on the fact that I dislike all these animals, and I’m trying to replace the word “varmints.” I’m wanting to be objective here.
It is not. War is bad, hurricanes are bad, crime is bad, and communism is bad, to name a few things, but none of these are woke.
I listed the ideas I think qualify, and it’s not remotely close to ‘things that I think are bad’. These are all new ideas, almost always all supported by the same people, are likely to feature in DEI trainings, and used as justification for treating people unequally in various ways (which is my main beef with them).
I just want a term for them that people won’t be offended by or derail into a debate on the word.
Really, the answer to “how do I define the word for my own use” is that I don’t. I never even heard the term until rightwingers latched onto it. So in practice my definition is “it means a right winger is trying to slander something”.
It’s like if conservatives decided ‘conservative’ was an insult and then rejected any other term to describe their common beliefs. “Belief in free markets, limited government, the rule of law, respecting tradition, and individualism are all separate ideas, why would you want a word to describe them collectively?”
They do just that, except the word they reject is “reactionary”. The people who call themselves conservatives are not in fact conservative. They want radical change and destruction, not to conserve anything.
So you want a word that everybody can agree on? But, when the people who you would be having discussions and debates with say ‘there is no such word’ you refuse to believe them?
Are they? I know for a fact some advocates of systemic racism disagree very strongly with some proponents of intersectionality. People like Feagin and Bonilla-Silva want to frame the problem as systemic and so discount individual-level frameworks a bit.
Just because you want to group various concepts that you think are bad under one word doesn’t mean that’s the right thing to do.
“I don’t like social justice warriors, so I’ll call them “woke”. I don’t think systemic racism is a thing, so I’ll call the people who do “woke”. I think intersectionality is bullshit, so anyone who disagrees is “woke”. I don’t believe that whites in the US benefit from white privilege, so I’ll call anyone who disagrees “woke”. I don’t think that transwomen should use women’s rooms, so anyone who disagrees is “woke” to me. I don’t think kids should learn about slavery and everyone who disagrees is “woke”. I think we should continue to lionize traitors with statues and anyone who disagrees is “woke”. Children should not know about the existence of gay people and anyone who disagrees is “woke”.”
It is very good to know other posters see the same thing I am seeing.
On an unrelated note-
I found that on the way from the trolley station to the Target where I buy groceries, there is a mini mart that has much junk food from other lands. They have a few varieties of Ritter Sport, but no ‘with biscuit’.
Just look at TERFs; right there you have a bunch of feminists who are actively hostile to tolerance for transgender people. Lots of people and factions nominally on the “left” disagree with or outright hate one another.
In practice the definition of “the Left” is “the people the Right hates” rather than any shared ideology or goal beyond not being smashed by the Right.
