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How did American “wokeness” jump from elite schools to everyday life?

economist.com

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Re: How did American “wokeness” jump from elite schools to everyday life?

#751

I think people are over-analysing this issue here at HN. It is far better for upper class to ensure that people discuss and focus on issues like gender and skin colour than the class differences. Hence, they ensured that this is the issue plebs would hear all over on the media and shift their attention from class divides to gender and skin colour.

This is pointed out in the article when it says:

>“Corporate wokeism I believe is the product of self-interest intermingled with the appearance of pursuing social justice,” says Vivek Ramaswamy, a former biotechnology executive and author of “Woke, Inc.”. He argues that Big Tech pursues corporate wokeism because appearing to embrace social justice suits such firms’ commercial interests—both in terms of recruitment and appeal to their customers. It performs allegiance to identity politics while simultaneously rejecting the left’s critique of capitalism. “A lot of Big Tech has agreed to bend to the progressive left,” he says, but “they effectively expect that the new left look the other way when it comes to leaving their monopoly power.”

Re: How did American “wokeness” jump from elite schools to everyday life?

#752
post #697

Earlier quoted context omitted.

proceeds to detail conspiracy

It’s not really a conspiracy as it doesn’t need to be centralized. Class resentment articles don’t get traction with upper class media gatekeepers but white guilt does. So the market produces what the gatekeepers want.

"upper class media gatekeepers"

I do enjoy CNN anchors lecturing and belittling middle America from Martha's Vineyard. It's some sick fetish of mine. Equipped with the latest air pod pros and Zoom they don't have to leave their beach front properties.

Re: How did American “wokeness” jump from elite schools to everyday life?

#753

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For example, it appears to be a woke idea that mathematics, science is some human (more specifically, white) invention and we should explore “alternative mathematics” or “alternative science”. Do you have a source for this? I’ve never heard of either of these terms, the closest being the “alternative facts” of one of Trump’s press secretaries.

https://equitablemath.org/

This content looks like it is meant to help people learn how to teach math to blacks and latinos effectively, not an alternative math.

Re: How did American “wokeness” jump from elite schools to everyday life?

#754

Our political and cultural institutions are dominated by people who attended those elite schools. This is the next batch of folks who will be doing your IPO paperwork: https://freebeacon.com/campus/northwestern-law-administrator... Now it’s making the jump to K-12. My second grader is apparently learning how to develop an “identity” around her “skin tone” (according to an email from her teacher). This has had the pre…

The wording ‘divisive’ in all these laws is interesting. Why is this the operative word here? Banning ‘concepts’ on the grounds that they are ‘divisive’ is some of the one of the most Orwellian language I’ve ever read. It just seems like laws with the title ‘propagation of divisive concepts prohibited’ will evolve to an even expanding list of thought crime. This isn’t a comment on how race should be treated and discu…

The word “ban” is Vox’s editorialization. These laws don’t “ban” ideas—they regulate the content of what school boards can include in school curriculums. In a sense these regulate students’ “thoughts” insofar as we expect public schools to teach kids to believe certain things and not other things. But that’s the point of school! Schools inherently must decide between how to teach certain things.

Re: How did American “wokeness” jump from elite schools to everyday life?

#755
post #342
post #73

As someone who lives in a formerly fascist country and was born in a socialist country that borrowed many fascist tools, I can tell you all one thing: Taking control of the language is a telltale sign of a fascist movement. Whoever tries to control the language automatically stands on the wrong side of history. It is not an accident that the woke movement attacks liberties so vehemently. It is also not an accident th…

I don't agree with this fully. The most extensive language reform movement in the last 100 years was by Ataturk in Turkey. I don't think it falls into the above category. I think it is due to some form of idealism, and there are such people at all points along the political spectrum.

Language reform ain't language control. Reforming a language can have negative impact, for sure, but it normally has a positive goal that lies in the language itself: Simplified orthography (latest German reform), reviving a dead language (Hebrew), or simplification of writing (simplified Chinese). And yes I see the irony that this last reform was issued by Mao.

In contrast, language control is about eliminating certain forbidden words, either hoping to eliminate certain facts or thoughts by litery making them unspeakable or by creating rules that every normal person will violate sooner or later, allowing it to denounce everyone when necessary.

Re: How did American “wokeness” jump from elite schools to everyday life?

#756
post #728

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Private property rights, or being manifestly in control of the fruits of ones labor. Or the exact opposite of slavery.

the core value of libertarianism is that the strong will dominate the weak, meaning a pure libertarian society would feature widespread slavery as a primary feature.

Where does domination in your example come from exactly? To dominate requires the initiation of force or coercion. Slavery is a primary feature of a state that violates rights, not one that enshrines them.

Re: How did American “wokeness” jump from elite schools to everyday life?

#758
post #697

Earlier quoted context omitted.

proceeds to detail conspiracy

It’s not really a conspiracy as it doesn’t need to be centralized. Class resentment articles don’t get traction with upper class media gatekeepers but white guilt does. So the market produces what the gatekeepers want.

It's especially ironic since "upper class media" are far whiter than many other industries. Yet somehow, they're never expected to undergo the Maoist self-criticism and struggle sessions they demand from others.

Re: How did American “wokeness” jump from elite schools to everyday life?

#759
post #683

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aren't many groups advocating for quotas? In France, it's a thing now to try to always have as much women as men in groups, especially those with high prestige (government, board of directors, etc). I don't know if it's precisely a few groups advocating for it, but it's now a thing most people expect. That's for me an example of equality of outcomes and not of oppurtunity.

A friend of mine applied to VMWare a year or two ago. They were asking him all sorts of questions about various disabilities; are you deaf? Do you use a wheelchair, etc.. The recruiter told him directly that they were looking for people with disabilities to fill their quota of people with disabilities, necessary because it was a government position. So we're definitely out of the game of recruiting based on merit in…

There is this in France too. Over a certain size, a company has to have a quota of people with disabilities, or pay a tax.

Re: How did American “wokeness” jump from elite schools to everyday life?

#760
post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gendered nouns are kind of silly and antiquated when you think about it though, and many languages have a neuter gender too (e.g. German). The "X" suffix is an attempt by younger Spanish speakers to introduce a neuter gender to their native language. English doesn't have gendered nouns, but we do have gendered pronouns, which not all languages have. Chinese doesn't have gendered pronouns, which is why you'll often he…

> Today, young English speakers are trying to popularize "they" as an English neuter pronoun, and it's not too absurd: we already use "they" this way when the gender of the person is unknown. I can understand why 'they' is chosen as a way to introduce neutrality of gender but it pains me that this also introduces of ambiguity of plurality. We _really_ need a gender-neutral third-person singular pronoun. We're lucky t…

It's a greater shame that we lost the distinction between singular and plural "you" when we gave up on "thou."

In the south they use "y'all" and in the west we're starting to use "you guys" to try to compensate.

If the two types of "they" begin to cause frequent clashes, I imagine we'll see some new term pop up to add some specificity.

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