One of the most absurd talking points lately is that people who oppose the radical left’s agenda should stop using the term woke because it can’t be defined. Unless you have been asleep since Jan. 21, 2021, you see examples of it almost every day in the White House press briefing and whenever the dementia-patient-in-chief appears in public to pander to his far-left constituents.
Perhaps the best definition of woke is the one memorialized when Justice Potter Stewart tried to define hard-core pornography in 1964. “I know it when I see it.” A more technical explanation would be an ideology that requires adherents to view people as atomized individuals. Then society must provide social benefits and punishments based on the full complement of observable and claimed characteristics in a complex intersectional ranking system.
This laborious exercise divides society into the oppressors and the oppressed. It results in a skewed view of the world where Megan Markle, a literal princess, is somehow a victim. And a white, pregnant healthcare worker is the aggressor when several black men try to take the bicycle she had rented at the end of her shift. It is also why some employment applications and medical forms now ask for your “gender assigned at birth.”
The ideology also requires you to be an “ally.” You can’t just be tolerant of left-wing insanity. You must full-throatedly support it and do so often. From drag queen story hour to resegregation based on race to transing the kids, ignoring it is not enough. Even tolerating it does not make the grade. According to these loons, you must cheer, highlight, and applaud it because your silence is violence.
Failure to do so will require a public apology that resembles a Communist struggle session. And while this may or may not prevent you from being “canceled,” your transgression may be brought up at any time in the future to remind you that you are one step away from being wished into the cornfield. Even the nurse who had her rental bike stolen felt compelled to defend herself from accusations of racism.
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The worst part of wokeness, aside from it showing up in public school curricula, is how it has invaded the workplace. As corporations try to satisfy the newest requirement set upon them by the Human Rights Council, DEI training proliferates. Some of it morphs into expecting employees to engage in outright activism for left-wing causes.
And God forbid that you say the newest unutterable phrase or make an O.K. sign. Some companies even have their own version of a struggle session, where you confess your privilege and apologize to coworkers who score more points in the Oppression Olympics than you do. Pay no attention to the fact that half of those you somehow oppressed are probably senior to you and make more money. It is enough to make you feel like the guy in the head-desk gif banging his head.
So, if you need to laugh at the current state of affairs, look at this viral ad from RedBallon. The job board and workplace support organization released an ad that turns making fun of wokeness in the workplace into child’s play. With phrases that include “When I grow up, I want to be hired based on what I look like, rather than my skills,” ” I want to be judged for my political views,” and “When I grow up, I want to be offended by my coworkers” coming out the mouths of kids, try not to laugh.
The ad even resonated with the infamously apolitical Mike Rowe. Rowe cares about workers and the workplace, so maybe that is why the ad resonated with him. It also makes you wonder how much further the far left will drag the Overton window in their direction. Because it even seems the reasonable middle, like Rowe, sees the ridiculousness of their cultural insanity.
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