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I think it's become a law of discourse on the internet that any term used by "the left" will inevitably be laundered and poisoned by groypers and trolls until it simply becomes a general anti-progressive pejorative.

And the drifting definition of "the left" within American political discourse itself is an exemplar. At this point simply not being a racist and a homophobe and believing vaccines are real is considered "socialism." Like the Overton window has drifted so far and so many things are "socialist" and "communist" that we need a new word for the people who actually want to seize the means of production and such.

So woke is about identify politics then?

I'm not the person who wrote the block of text there but I will say:

If we look at the word "woke" in a more historical context (rather than its use right now) yes I think you can say it is related to identity politics.

But here's the catch "identity politics" as a phrase is kinda wishy washy as a term when it is used too ;)

> "woke" [...] is about being aware of the past 500 years of global history, systematic systems of oppression, racism, discrimination, religious wars, a reasonable understanding of the root causes of the major wars of the past 100 years and their aftermath, various genocides, pogroms, assassinations, coup d'etat, economic disparities between wealthy nations and developing nations, global patterns of push and pull factors for immigration, the role that major international organizations like the UN, NATO, EU play in global politics, culturally specific implementations and practices of non-binary and non-heterosexual gender norms in cultures very alien to western european cultural backgrounds, I could go on for quite some time.

Ben Shapiro is aware of all those things you wrote on your wall of text. Is he woke? The same is true for Jordan Peterson, Roger Scruton, Curtis Yarvin. Are all of those people woke?

Aware probably doesn’t cut it. “Aware and compassionate enough to _try_ not to abuse others for your own benefit” is probably a more complete and explicit statement of wokeness (along with all of that which was stated earlier).

Unfortunately I see “woke” as a brand the right uses to disparage compassion, tolerance and intellectualism.

In my experience, I haven't often seen the right disparaging "compassion, tolerance and intellectualism". What I usually see is the right criticizing identity politics. For example, this post is about a Biden program that has the following requirements. Would you say this case is an instance of "compassion, tolerance and intellectualism" or identity politics?

> In addition, states had to prove that they promoted participation from minority-owned businesses, women-owned businesses, and “other socially or economically disadvantaged individual-owned businesses.” They also had to create a Five-Year Action Plan that required collaborating with unions and “underrepresented communities,” including prisoners, LGBTQI+ individuals, women, and people of color.

Definitely compassion and tolerance. Ensuring that the program serves the underserved is the right thing to do.

The right may criticise the left of pandering to identity politics but that’s rich. Sounds like projection to me.