The dictionary meaning of “WOKE” is “aware of and actively attentive to important facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice), Far from being a recent term, it first emerged in the US in the 1940s, derived from the word “awake” and was used to describe someone who is well-informed on issues of social injustice – particularly racism.
The problem with ‘WOKE’ is that the “LEFT” has expanded that meaning to include ‘activism” rather than “active attentiveness” to any kind of perceived social injustice -real or imagined toward any perceived minority or minority supported movement, including: LGBTQ2+ issues, feminism, Immigration, climate change, birth control, and any perceived marginalized communities The current most popular crusade seems to be the ever-broadening group included in the LGBTQ2+ community. When considering that only 5.6% of US adults identify as being in any subgroup of LGBTQ2+, and of those over half (62%) identify as Gay or Lesbian which is about the same number of people as the number of Cuban in the U.S. In a US population pf 340,000,000 people this accounts for only slightly more than 17 million people. A small group when compared to the 47.2 million people in the U.S. who identified as Black in 2021 or the 62.6 million who identify as Hispanic and another 8.75 million Native American or Alaskan natives. That Woke social issues originally related to.
These numbers would suggest that the issues of racial and social injustice in the US, as identified by the left are somewhat skewed in favour of today’s popular hyped crusades, and are skewed away from traditional social justice issues. Listening to the propaganda of this far left minority, you would think that every family in America has at least one member, or soon will, who identifies as being in the LGBTQ2+ community. This has created on the ‘LEFT’ a divide between the ‘WOKE’ objectives of the near ‘LEFT’ who are still fighting the traditional racial and social injustices toward Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Muslims and Native Americans and the various ‘NEO-Woke’ of the far left, who are advocating for those that are perceived to be sexually outcast, fighting for extreme climate change measures, supporting a feminist war on men and advocating for resistance to reasonable legally based immigration policies. (Open Borders)
And this gets us to the “RIGHT.
The problem with ‘WOKE’ on the “RIGHT” is that the “RIGHT has come to believe that the hype of both left leaning groups, (those advocating for racial, religious and social equality and those included in the many groups who see social injustice in every special interest that gets media attention), is not only going to happen, but is imminent. That the LGBTQ2+ culture will somehow affect them or their families, or somehow force changes to their sexual orientation. Or that a horde of illegal immigrants who don’t look like them are going to overrun them all and change American customs and traditions forever. They believe that the rights and norms that everyday Americans take for granted will be changed in favour of different norms that will prioritize unfamiliar sexual habits, or change our traditional life for the cultures or religions of strangers. That Christian tradition will be overpowered by people with different religious beliefs. What all of those changes and differences might look like are unknown to them, which makes the possibility of change even more scarry and the makings of nightmarish thoughts.
Of course none of the frustration with the slow pace of change experienced by the left or the fear of change on the right is abated by the left wing and right wing leaders intentionally stoking the fears of their followers with exaggerations and hyperbola. Hence, a war of compassion, perception, and reaction.
Compassion
In my 50-year career, I travelled through nearly every state in the union, and lived in New York state for a short time. I did meet a few unpleasant people on my journey, but very few. The vast majority of Americans that I met were kind, generous, friendly people who cared about their families, their co-workers, their neighbours, their community, and their country. Americans feal the pain of others as is evident with the US support for Ukraine. The U.S. also provides more humanitarian assistance than any other country. When Americans see someone in pain they want to help.
On the other hand, Americans in groups act differently. In groups or organizations, Americans have been taught to have a one-pie perspective. A belief that there is only one pie and if someone else’s piece gets bigger, then theirs gets smaller. As a result, interest groups determine that they must constantly be visible and active on social media and on mainstream media. Constantly looking to increase their support from everyday Americans lest those Americans leave and move their support to someone else.
Mainstream media doesn’t help the situation. The old adage that “If it bleeds, it leads”, has changed to include “if it pulls on heartstrings it leads”. And if it threatens a or frightens a community, “It Leads”. Nothing seems to pull in an audience like a heart-breaking tale of adversity, social injustice, and hardship overcome. Both the left and the right have their “Go To” story lines, composed and directed to achieve maximum affect with their followers.
Perception
How individuals perceive the stories presented by the media depends on three things,
- The inclination of individuals to accept or expand their knowledge and understanding of issues. I had a friend who, when she discovered that a hotel did not include FOX as one of their stations, she almost had heart failure. FOX was her one and only source of information and as a result, her one and only source for her opinions. She was, in fact, a kind and compassionate person and not at all, the Trump Worshiping, right wing extremist that one may have assumed. But, her news and the state of the Union was restricted to the Fox perspective. Michael Smerconish, on his POTUS radio show often talks about turning the channel and getting multiple perspectives on issues. He is correct of course but only partially. I would suggest that Americans who get their news strictly from American sources are already biasing their understanding of issues. ABC, NBC, CNN, FOX, etc will provide various American views. In essence, with this bias, Americans get various versions of the same information. They get the Republican Party’s American version and/or they get the Democratic Party’s American version. If Americans tuned to CBC, BBC, France 24, German, or Australian channels they would get impartial views from countries and people who don’t have a dog in the fight and are observing from the outside.. Consider that people who are actually involved in an traffic accident are rarely considered dependable witnesses of what happened. Those involved have both, a personal bias, and a motive for massaging the truth.
- Education is key. In the long run, education is the only cure for the misconceptions rampant with both the Left and Right in the U.S. today. The Dunning–Kruger effect, the cognitive bias whereby people with low expertise, or experience regarding an area of knowledge tend to overestimate their ability or knowledge, is alive and flourishing in the U.S.A, on both the political Left and Right. Current Right wing government efforts to restrict learning, by banning books and restricting curriculum is possible the single greatest threat to America’s survival. Even though one could rationalise that these actions are intended to save people from being brainwashed and not to restrict education, in the same way as telling a toddler not to touch a hot stove is better than letting them learn by experience.
- World Travel – Travelling the world is by far the best way to learn how to interpret realities at home. When a person travels to another country, they cannot help but absorb impressions about how people live in those countries. Travel broadens our minds and expands our worldly wisdom. World travellers become World citizens with broad global views. Government programs which encourage international travel, especially for children in their teens, would facilitate a generation of adults who will think more logically and rationally about policies in their own country
Reaction
Reactionary thinking on the Right, we have mentioned. The sources for the Right’s reactionary thinking lies squarely with the leaders and the media that their followers rely on to inform them. Misinformation and exaggeration by those who stand to benefit from fermenting the fears of the Right wing exaggerate the chaos. In particularly those baiting their Right wing audience, use religious fact manipulation to illicit reaction by their followers. For instance, during a Capital Hill hearing, Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, tried desperately to force witnesses to provide the answer that he wanted to a close-ended question on whether a factual, history based, book about the origin of defined races, or the words of the children’s song “Jesus Loves me” was better for children to learn. It is obvious that everyone wants children to understand that God (Everyone’s God) wants children to know that they are loved, but most people also want our children to be taught what is true and real. Senator Mullen responded to a witness trying to answer his question by saying he “didn’t care about reality”. Which may well have been the only true statement that he made.
Reactionary thinking on the Left on the other hand is driven by the never-ending exaggeration by its leaders that everyone is being victimized through persecution and biases often misleading or undefined and if you are not a victim of social injustice, it is still your responsibility to support those who obviously are. The propaganda albeit often supported by current jibes by the right is still crafted to illicit similar reactions to those generated on the Right.
In a Blog by: Mahamuda Rahman, former communication officer at Cordaid, an Emergency Relief Organization- entitled: We Are All Victims of a Patriarchal Society, she postulates a theory that,”both men and women are victims of the patriarchal society we live in.” Apparently, we are all taught that Boys don’t cry, and Girls have to look pretty. Ms Rahmuda may not know that in many militaries in the world women serve beside men in combat jobs. There are female fire fighters, police officers, and pilots. There are women who are doctors, astronauts, and hockey players. All women aren’t pretty in the same way, all women are not weak, Historically, many Native American, South American and African Tribes were Matriarchically structured. Women have been some of the worst leaders of the world’s nations politically and some of the best. And, I can assure Ms.Rahmuda, from personal experience that boys and men can and do cry. But then again, the strategy of the left is to make their followers believe that they are victims, that they are being manipulated and socially deprived of something by someone.
Right reacts to Left who then react to the Right, and so on and so on. And all of these reactions are driven by those in political and social media power in order to manipulate the masses to maintain their power and often, simply to make money.
So “Woke” isn’t a thing. It is propaganda promoted by both the Left and Right, in order to push agendas
Ending “WOKE”
Ending the permanent spiral of “Woke” nonsense needs three things to happen
- We all need to quit seeing people as groups. For generations, no one ever found an interest in how their neighbors spent their time in their bedroom, or how or when they honoured their God. Whether their marriage was on the rocks or not wasn’t our concern. Whether their children were well behaved or a little wild was their business. Today it seems very important whether another person is in our group or another group. It really doesn’t matter! Live and let live! If your neighbour isn’t intruding in your life, then leave them be. Once we can accept this basic point, we can apply it to our neighbour in the next county, the next state or the next country
- Question motives. Think about the motives of everyone you listen to, whether on mainstream media, social media or the political stage. Ask why? Why are they saying what they are saying? Who benefits if I believe them? What is factual in what they are saying and what is innuendo, double talk, intentionally misleading or simply false? Do their facts include actual evidence?
- Think in universal terms. Instead of thinking about what one Muslim might think or what one Catholic might think. Consider what millions of Muslims or Catholics or any group might think and how many different and varying ideas would obviously exist with that many individual thoughts. Then compare that with the small sample before you. Your ideas and thoughts aren’t exactly the same as everyone else that you know, so it is reasonable to assume that the thoughts of other groups aren’t the same either. Consider if the information you are being given, reflects a truth about all, or only of a small minority of the people being described, whether that small minority as described is real, imagined, or made up.
Democracy
Democracy is supposed to be messy. In democracies all people are supposed to be equal. People with different religions, skin colours, traditions, political views, biases, sexual orientations, ambitions, or lifestyles are intended to be able to exist in one community. A community that respects all and ensures that all views are considered equally. All individuals have the right to their opinion and their views, PROVIDED that those views and opinions do not infringe on the views and opinions of others
Earthball
Here is a visual that might help. I once saw a game of “earthball” being played. Earth ball is a game played with a huge ball as big as 10 ft. in diameter. The game is played by two teams, each with one hundred players. The game is played on a football field with each team trying to move the ball across the other team’s goal line.
Picture 200 people each trying to hit or punch the ball in a desired direction, and each being countered by a person trying to move the ball in the opposite direction. Participants don’t fight with the other team, and they don’t use illegal moves to limit the other team’s ability to play. Each team tries to use the combined efforts of similarly minded players to affect the movement of the ball in their teams desired direction. Interestingly, the ball will never move very quickly in one direction or another, and will typically spend most of the time near the center of the field.
This is exactly how democracy is supposed to work.
Patrick Ambrose
Notes From the North
