Live data from Hacker News

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

economist.com

891–900 of 1001 posts

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

#891
post #340

As a christian I believe in mercy and grace. And yes, many of us 'believers' have not practised what we preached. Many of us do try however not to be hypocrites. Here's my question. Where is mercy and grace in the midst of wokeness? I want you to believe my christian message but I will not force you to do so. I don't want to introduce laws to force you to believe what I believe. I don't want you to lose your job beca…

There is a significant difference in that woke, like SJW, is for the most part a derogatory term. It would be as if the word "christian" was a word created by athiests specifically to refer to those who did not practice what they preached. Any discussion of the merits of "wokeness" is approaching the subject in a biased and unproductive way. I would suggest that those you would describe as woke have, on average, just…

"Woke" isn't a term applied by outsiders. It's the self-identification of in-group membership, spoken as a badge of what passes for pride.

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

#892

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.

How does this work, practically? Do the owners of media corporations call up their reports and say “hey, focus on gender issues, stop those wealth inequality articles?”

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

#893

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Jewish, not White.

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

#894

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.

How does this work, practically? Do the owners of media corporations call up their reports and say “hey, focus on gender issues, stop those wealth inequality articles?”

[deleted]

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

#895

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.

How does this work, practically? Do the owners of media corporations call up their reports and say “hey, focus on gender issues, stop those wealth inequality articles?”

Yes, this is exactly how it works: https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/media-great...

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

#896

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s convenient that under wokeness, the real bad guys are my white in laws in rural Oregon and not the white people “doing the work” in Wall Street and SV.

I highly doubt many “woke” people would agree with you and call an unknown white family in Oregon—and not Zuckerberg—“the real bad guys” .

Zuckerberg is a Jew, don't you know they're an oppressed people. The Sulzberger owned New York Times told me so.

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

#897

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From my experience, what libertarians really want is freedom for themselves. They do not actually care how their actions affect others. For example, I’ve yet to meet a libertarian who cares about their carbon emissions, even though that affects everybody else via climate change. Same goes for coronavirus - they don’t care if they spread the disease to others, but they feel like it’s oppression if they have to wear a…

> For example, I’ve yet to meet a libertarian who cares about their carbon emissions Something tells me you’ve yet to a meet a libertarian at all. Being held accountable for your pollution of others’ property is a tenant of libertarianism. > Same goes for coronavirus - they don’t care if they spread the disease to others This sounds quite the opposite of libertarianism. Hurting/killing others isn’t part of the ideolo…

There’s a difference between the libertarian fantasy of personal responsibility and the reality that many people do not behave with the best interest of others in mind.

If you are unaware of how resistant self-described “libertarians” are to wearing masks, taking vaccines, or reducing their carbon emissions, then you are the one who is ignorant.

If you want to say that those people are not true libertarians, fine, but I don’t see how you can pretend that relying on personal responsibility is actually effective.

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

#898

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s convenient that under wokeness, the real bad guys are my white in laws in rural Oregon and not the white people “doing the work” in Wall Street and SV.

I highly doubt many “woke” people would agree with you and call an unknown white family in Oregon—and not Zuckerberg—“the real bad guys” .

But Zuckerberg is a Jew, don't you know they're an oppressed people. Only Whites can be bad guys. The Sulzberger-owned New York Times told me so.

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

#899

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.

How does this work, practically? Do the owners of media corporations call up their reports and say “hey, focus on gender issues, stop those wealth inequality articles?”

Yes, that’s exactly what they do: https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/media-great...

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

#900

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.

How does this work, practically? Do the owners of media corporations call up their reports and say “hey, focus on gender issues, stop those wealth inequality articles?”

It would presumably be much like scientific research. Nobody tells you what to study, but Philip Morris isn’t going to bankroll you if you’re studying what makes tobacco addicting. Similarly, Media Corp enthusiastically sends an army of reporters to cover racial issues, yet just doesn’t happen to assign anyone to investigate corruption in the press.

Think less Mafia Don and more Invisible Hand.

Post reply on HN