Identity in the Plural
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2024/01/25
Woke is an adjective derived from African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) meaning “alert to racial prejudice and discrimination“. Beginning in the 2010s, it came to encompass a broader awareness of social inequalities such as racial injustice, sexism, and denial of LGBT rights. Woke has also been used as shorthand for some ideas of the American Left involving identity politics and social justice, such as white privilege and reparations for slavery in the United States.
Wikipedia
aware, especially of social problems such as racism and inequality
Cambridge Dictionary
Woke, “adjective (woker, wokest) informal alert to injustice and discrimination in society, especially racism: we need to stay angry, and stay woke; does being woke mean I have to agree with what all other woke folks say should be done about issues in the black community? the West Coast has the wokest dudes. 1960s: originally in African American usage” (OED).
To be “woke” stems from the Age of Enlightenment, when “enlightened” atheists rejected God, challenged the Divine Right of Kings, and started the calendar over at the Year 1. By the 1920s and 1930s, “enlightened” Nazis regarded God and Jesus Christ as a “Jewish conspiracy” that even Jewsand Marxists did not believe in. Woke “knowledge” is esoteric, for example holding firm the maxim that “religion is the opiate of the masses.” So once a “true believer” casts off the opiate, they become “woke” or “enlightened.” David Greenfield describes it as “a cultish term for a political cult that reframes extremism as a revelation.”
Conservapedia
Woke might refer to:
- A term in African American Vernacular English to refer to awareness of danger, injustice, and racism
- A political term originating in feminist circles indicating awareness of social justice issues
- A term appropriated by the Alt-right used as a smear against one promoting a socially progressive message; later re-appropriated by Republicans, Christofascists and other conservatives as a generic snarl word against pretty much anything they don’t like or in some cases, outright stated to be what it is, in brazen contempt of civil rights.
- A term used by conspiracy theorists to refer to themselves; see Wake up
- The past tense of wake
- Having a functional conscience and sense of empathy
These types of usage of the word originally derive from African American Vernacular English. This word is nearly a century old.
RationalWiki
In the 2010s the word woke euphemistically came into use to describe an idea that was considered politically progressive; as the political environment in the United States became increasingly polarized, the word was repurposed as a pejorative synonym for liberal or left-leaning.
Britannica
A definite definitional intersect exists between conservative politico-social views and liberal socio-political perspectives on the definitions of the term “Woke” or “woke.” Some of the definitions, as in the above at the start, are bad or biased. However, those are familiar sources for everyone looking to define it. In some sense, this is more common in the usage than the more precise ones used in academic discourse.
People typically use “Woke” and “woke.” So, any commentary on the nature of woke movements must consider the generation and the individual or organization utilizing the term. Insofar as we exist not only in a time of pluralization or proliferation of identities because most of the basics of life have been met, we focus primarily on ideas and identities.
A lot of the population is literate to some degree, although the degree of literacy can vary dramatically. Yet, we live in the world of the word, the emoji, and the emoticon. That is the cultural language from academic essays to X, Meta, and TikTok. It depends on the definition of “Woke” or “woke.”
On the one hand, it is good to be alert to social and political issues and work to correct them within one’s limitations and values. At the same time, others use the tactic of bullying to limit freedom of expression and other human rights, so they act as human rights abusers while proclaiming to protect them. It becomes tricky to parse with those implicit definitional differences.
That is understandable with a live redefining of a term in a globalized culture. I think the central contention is between compulsory use of language to the right; the central issue is compassion for identified minority groups in society on the left. In isolation, those views are valid. However, they conflict.
In a democratic republic like Canada, the rub is the balance between those two and the balance with the other rights claimed in national rights documents. Moreover, it matters because these can have career-damaging impacts on people. They can have traumatizing effects on others. Should both toughen up? Is there a healthier middle ground? I take them individually as the orientations differ; thus, the concerns differ.
If the concerns are different individuals, then this does not mean the concerns are different collectively because those who deny their reality of existence, e.g., calling it a “lifestyle,” or act as an uncomfortable ‘ally,’ e.g., overly support liberal ‘friends’ who use them to feel better or for political points, treat them collectively, thus the defences must be collective at the same time.
Human rights arguments make the case that human rights abuse covers this most substantively, in my opinion. In individual life and scientific and social scientific understanding, we must know individual identities. However, in my personal life, I argue for individual treatment.
It is not more complicated than normal sexualities or gender identities to me; However, it seems as if we are used to the statistically vast majority or super-strong tendency towards heterosexuality because the drivers of the evolution of the species gear towards this, but variations happen. The minor variations are dealt with less and seem more complex, but they are not to me.
An aspect of this mass of plural identities seen in societies where the citizenry has it better than most human beings have ever had it is narcissism or an increase in it. Dr. Sam Vaknin has commented on the nature of narcissism and the hijacking of rights-based movements. Despite the positives of human rights and its emphasis on universalism, I am mindful of these critique styles because they are valid.
Sound, the evidence supports the hijacking of some rights-based movements by personality-disordered bad actors. It does not deny the universalism inherent in ethics bound to human rights, the arguments for protecting free expression, and the diverse identities permitted to flourish in freer societies.
Insofar as I am aware of experts commenting on narcissism as a factor in this cultural phenomenon, narcissism has been increasing on clinical scales, so subclinical narcissism, not NPD, for the last few decades, which includes our entire generations and applies to us too. Men and women score equally on narcissism scales now. Before, it was a male thing. Now, men and women have this problem in equal measure.
Trans issues come up a lot. Many trans people are bullied. Many non-trans people have career damage for disagreeing with the ideological strain of it. For some, it may be gender dysphoria, while it can be part of individuals who are comfortable with their transgender identities and have no issues.
At the same time, they have subclinical narcissism and make a case against others’ freedom of expression for their feelings and then, on the other side, individuals want their freedom of expression to over-ride the acceptance of individuals as genuinely different, as was expressed to me, ‘I do not understand.’ That is a sincere orientation, often religious.
Which is weird; who was Jesus Christ or Yeshua Ben Yosef? In their theology, he was God as Man, which means a Man identifying as God or a man identifying as that which he was, to a naif, apparently not. That is odd. You have an apparent identity given statistical gender norms in a society and then the novelty of being seen as deviant in a moral sense rather than an outlier, which is true in a statistical terms sense.
Transgender identities seem to fit the biblical narrative in the sense of transposition between apparency and reality: God and man, and males assumed as men when, in fact, women because the biological sex does not match with culturally dictated or assumed gender.
If God can be God and man, a trans man can be female and man, or a trans woman can be male and a woman. Their theology matches transgenderism perfectly in the conceptual arena. Naturally, civility and respect should be part of societal discourse, even though I failed many times.
I would argue differently on respect as a given compared to general culture. Civility is learned but should, eventually, be a given: Respect and admiration are earned, and then understanding is developed. I can respect a doctorate at a Christian university who is a creationist. However, I fail to understand, in total, how someone can get a doctorate in biology and be a creationist rather than an unguided naturalistic evolution advocate.
My respect for this person was not much; my admiration for them was not at all. So, I have developed more understanding. I do not respect or admire this person, but I can maintain civility in interpersonal relations with this educated and, apparently, confused person. I do not respect a debate opponent. I want to crush them in the debate, then respect them later over dinner over a good debate. The debate is a battleground. Regardless, I would not say I like debates and even hate arguments.
These issues of defining “woke” relate to these flashpoints of trans identities, rises in narcissism in successive generations into the present, the changes in gender definitions, primarily in women towards the masculine, and in the decoupling from the term “Woke” from its historical roots in combating racial and social inequalities by, at a minimum, being aware of them.
My only central commentary on these terms evolving in noticeable real-time and the discourses on narcissism, trans identities, Wokism and the “woke” phenomenon is the need to integrate them within their historical meaning without becoming a neologism devoid of historical context. Otherwise, it could become both a pejorative for the right and a new religious-political identity for the left. Neither seems constructive because they are both dogmatic.
License
In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.
Copyright
© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.
In-Sight Publishing 