DUMB AND DUMB: Can the GOP win on Woke?

TUESDAY, MARCH 14, 2023

Also, could our own tribe be equally dumb? At least as a matter of theory, we tend to agree with Michelle Goldberg's recent column for the New York Times.

In print editions, the column appeared in this past weekend's Sunday Opinion section. Online, the column carries this headline:

The Right’s Obsession With Wokeness Is a Sign of Weakness

At least as a matter of theory, we tend to agree with that assessment. On the other hand, we also saw last Friday night's pseudo-discussion of "Wokeness" on The 11th Hour.

For an overview of that pseudo-discussion, see yesterday's report. Our question would be this: 

In response to the right's obsession with wokeness, could our blue tribe possibly match the red, dumbness for dumbness for dumbness? 

Could our tribe be equally dumb? Contrasting Goldberg's intelligent column with Friday night's transparent nonsense, we can't say we're entirely sure.

Goldberg began by acknowledging a giant red tribe win. Decades of political struggle ended last year when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

In Goldberg's view, this giant win has left the red tribe with no obvious war to wage. Early in her column, she cited some of the apparent stupidity which has thus come to the fore

GOLDBERG (3/12/23): [T]he nearly 50-year project of ending Roe is complete. Stirring crusades against Communism and then against radical Islam have subsided. The cult of personality around Trump has splintered. Many on the right would still like to obliterate the welfare state, but they’re deeply defensive about it. Hatred of wokeness is a brittle foundation for political identity, but it’s almost all that’s left.

Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, a favorite for the Republican presidential nomination, declared during his January inaugural address that “Florida is where woke goes to die.” Mike Pompeo, a former secretary of state and a possible presidential candidate, recently tweeted, “Our internal threats—especially those trying to corrupt our kids with toxic wokeness—are more serious than our external threats.” Last week at the Conservative Political Action Conference, the Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley said, “Wokeness is a virus more dangerous than any pandemic.”

Given that the Covid pandemic has already killed over a million Americans, this is transparently insane, even if you find much of what falls under the rubric of wokeness annoying. Such threat inflation is best explained by the right’s desperation for a unifying enemy...

Is wokeness "a virus more dangerous than any pandemic?” In Goldberg's view, the statement is "transparently insane." 

Meanwhile, since the person who authored that statement isn't transparently insane, we're left to assume that political figures on the right have come to believe that they have nothing else to campaign on. 

In Goldberg's view, "such threat inflation is best explained by the right’s desperation for a unifying enemy." With crusades against Communism dead and gone, this is the only existential threat the GOP has been able to conjure.

In Goldberg's view, hatred of wokeness looks like "a brittle foundation for political identity." At least as a matter of theory, we would tend to agree with that view.

We would be inclined to agree with the thrust of Goldberg's column. Then again, we also saw that utterly braindead pseudo-discussion on cable last Friday night. 

The pitiful "Friday Nightcap" panel never mentioned Goldberg's column, but we'll guess that their pseudo-discussion was at least partly built upon what Goldberg wrote. Goldberg's column had appeared online that day, and that evening's pseudo-discussion seemed to track several references.

Having said that, we'll also say this:

Being an intelligent human being, Goldberg never pretended that she had no idea what the term "wokeness" could possibly mean. That's what the corporate stooges did Friday night, matching red tribe Dumb with blue tribe Dumber—or at least, with blue tribe Almost As Dumb.

On Friday night, the corporate stooges were puzzled by the very question of what such terms even mean! Goldberg showed no sign of having that problem, which was presumably feigned—feigned, false, phony, faux.

To her credit, Goldberg didn't seem to be baffled by the very question of what is meant by such terms as "woke" or "wokeness!" Indeed, in the passage we've already posted, she even allowed for the possibility that her readers might "find much of what falls under the rubric of wokeness annoying." 

Earlier, she offered a clear indication of her residence on the planet Earth over the past dozen years or so. In the passage shown below, she's referring to the new anti-Woke political project of Leonard Leo, mastermind of the length political war which finally brought Roe down:

GOLDBERG: “I spent close to 30 years, if not more, helping to build the conservative legal movement,” Leo said in a video for the organization at the heart of his strategy, the Teneo Network. “And at some point or another, I just said to myself, ‘If this can work for law, why can’t it work for lots of other areas of American culture and American life where things are really messed up right now?’” That includes “wokeism in the corporate environment, in the educational environment,” biased media and “entertainment that is really corrupting our youth.”

Given Leo’s past success, he should be taken seriously. As Donald Trump’s adviser on judicial nominations, he helped put Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, all of whom have close Federalist Society ties, on the Supreme Court, making him central to the demise of Roe v. Wade. Leo has access to enormous resources; last year a conservative financier donated around $1.6 billion to a dark-money group that he controls. And since many elites resent the congeries of behavioral norms and linguistic innovations denigrated as wokeness, the Teneo Network will start from a place of strength, pushing on an open door.

Leo says he's going after "wokeism," corporate and educational both. Those targets are tangled up with allegedly biased media and “entertainment that is really corrupting our youth.”

In Goldberg's assessment, this "hatred of wokeness" is "a brittle foundation" for a political movement.  But she isn't pretending that she doesn't know what the silly term "wokeism" actually means.

Meanwhile, it might be noted that many people who aren't "elites" do in fact seem to resent "the congeries of behavioral norms and linguistic innovations denigrated as wokeness." However one might assess this project, it hasn't been drawn from thin air.

Could anti-wokeness really succeed as a national political movement? That seems like a slender reed to us too, but down through the many extremely dumb years, our blue tribe has demonstrated the ability to lose many political fights.

Meanwhile, for an example of “entertainment that is really corrupting our [adults]," a person need look no farther than to the silly entertainment spectacular which took the form of a pseudo-discussion on blue tribe cable last Friday night.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep, and the clowns are being paid large sums to keep us barefoot and clueless. Mainly, to keep us happily tuning in as our various "dear, dear friends" engagingly play the fool while feeding us pleasing porridge.

We're prepared to guess that the right's obsession with wokeness actually is a sign or weakness. Then again, there out tribunes sit, as our tribe has frequently sat, matching them dumbness for dumbness.

Tomorrow: No Dumbness Left Behind


95 comments:

  1. Maddow robbed a Fingerhut.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fingerhut means thimble.

      Delete
    2. Tell it Maddow and her lawyers. I don't want to hear it.

      Delete
    3. Maddow finger-blasted 10:29.

      Delete

  2. tl;dr

    "In response to the right's obsession with wokeness, could our blue tribe possibly match the red, dumbness for dumbness for dumbness? "

    All we observe around us, dear Bob, is your liberal tribe being brain-dead and forcing its idiotic brain-dead bullshit on everyone else. On normal ordinary people everywhere. Trying to censor, cancel, persecute every normal common-sense person.

    ...this "dumbness for dumbness" drivel being, actually, a case in point. Sort of.

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    Replies
    1. Your so funny Meow Mao. Complaining about nonexistent cancelation from the left, while millions of women have actually had their reproductive health canceled by the right.

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    2. 63 million dead babies not just enough for you?

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  3. “Teneo” is Latin for “I hold.”

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  4. One trouble with wildness is that it distracts from the job one has to do. E.g. Yesterday I saw a performance of a beloved show, “Anything goes”. Changing a man into a woman, adding obese actors and actresses, eliminating bits that mentioned Chinese and Gypsies all made the show less entertaining. The point is, these changes were not made with what should have been the primary goal — entertaining the audience.

    Our military in Afghanistan spent a lot of effort focusing on woke stuff. They should have spent that time and effort planning their withdrawal.

    Biden has boasted about various appointees being particular minorities. He evidently is not fully on choosing the mist capable person to do the job. Frighteningly the VP is one such person.

    David in Cal

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    Replies
    1. “Wildness” should be “wokeness”

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    2. You've got some fucking balls, David.
      Donald Fucking Trump is your epitaph.
      You have forfeited for all eternity the right to criticize any Democrat.
      person, woman, man, camera, tv

      Delete
    3. “Wildness” is better: artificial intelligence in action.

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    4. Nice people don’t laugh or even smile at rudeness masquerading as a joke. It isn’t funny to us. The reason you laugh is because it is mean and out-of-bounds. There are better jokes and good writers find them.

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    5. David,
      We're opening our borders to invite Afghan refugees into the country.
      There was some talk about not doing so, but once the Right started chanting "All Lives Matter" in response to BLM, there was no reason to think anyone would have a problem with it.

      Delete
  5. BTW Bob must have been desperate when he criticized the statement, “Wokeness is a virus more dangerous than any pandemic.” Yes, it's hyperbolic, but exaggeration is entirely normal and routine in statements by politicians. Bob knows that.

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    Replies

    1. "Yes, it's hyperbolic"

      Meh. Without a doubt, liberal dumbness is more dangerous than any pandemic. Loony liberal-globalist maniacs are seriously advocating a nuclear war.

      See this Caitlin Johnstone's piece, for example:

      https://consortiumnews.com/2022/10/19/arguing-that-nuclear-brinkmanship-makes-us-safe/

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    2. Shit for brains Mao, our first President who casually threatened others with
      Nukes was named Trump. Yes, he
      was given a total pass on it by
      “the liberal media.” Have you heard
      the good news about Jesus?

      Delete
    3. The only people I hear using the term "woke" are you and your fucking favorite fascist politicians. And you have bastardized the term and meaning to the point that it is unrecognizable. That is the only thing you and your favorite fascists are good at anymore, working the rubes up into a lather over nothing but a word which you want to redefine to mean anything that burns your racist fascist ass. Don't worry, your favorite new fascist governor is going to make his state so anti-woke it will positively be dead.

      Delete
    4. If a comet’s orbit is hyperbolic, it’s leaving the solar system.

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    5. Medvedev and Putin threaten nuclear war.

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  6. This is some of the dumbest stuff ever:

    https://www.volvogroup.com/en/news-and-media/news/2021/jun/lgbtq-pride-flags-and-what-they-stand-for.html

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    1. Cecelia, I actually applied the effort to look at this Volvo (dare I say "woke") website, and was able to catch up on all these different genders that are now in existence, and maybe always were (as I understand, basically with humans, as opposed to mammals, birds, etc), each of whom has their own flag with stripes of various colors, each color of which, depending on the flag, has its own symbolic meaning. Hopefully,, the number of different genders will keep on growing, along with the number of pronouns.

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    2. If the flag chart does expand it will only get more indecipherable. It can not get any more absurd.

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    3. That chart does not make me more anxious to buy a Volvo. So, it doesn't fulfill what should be its purpose.

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    4. Maybe it makes other people more eager to buy a Volvo.

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    5. @1:55 PM
      Meh. The purpose is not to make you more anxious to buy a Volvo. The purpose is to avoid being cancelled. They submit to blackmail.

      Suppose some Volvo employee suggests publishing this webpage. Should Volvo management refuse, immediately a woke-style hysteria ensues, and Volvo is cancelled. So, the page has to be published. End of story.

      Delete
    6. '...well, as long as they don't brainwash and maim children, of course..." You mean the Catholic Church, a Southern Baptist summer camp, or both?

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    7. Do they promote "sexual fluidity" and "sex-reassignment" surgery?

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    8. No these men screw little boys in their rear ends.

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    9. "these men"? Do you mean "minor-attracted persons"?

      https://torontosun.com/news/world/woke-watch-prof-says-lets-ditch-the-term-pedophile-for-minor-attracted-person

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    10. No Me Mao I mean Catholic Preists and Southern Baptist camp conselors; along with Matt Schlapp.

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    11. Volvo would do better if they focused on how to resign the back door area of their compact SUV so that it doesn’t look and feel like an escape hatch in a submarine.

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    12. @4:37 PM

      So, dear dembot, you love "minor-attracted persons", except for those of them whose faiths you hate?

      Is that it, dear?

      Delete
    13. Ever notice that Volvo sounds like vulva?

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    14. Not in Swedish.

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    15. If you were a better behaved person, they might let you ride up front with the passengers.

      I assume you mean redesign, not resign, but one never knows.

      Delete
    16. Anonymouse 8:59pm, I saw the typo, but I wasn’t about to delete over it.

      You’re an insufferable scold. Thst’s you. The more that shines like a flood light, the better.

      Delete
    17. Try typing when you're not drinking. Your fingers will work better, also you mind.

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    18. Anonymouse 9:30pm, naaahhh…

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    19. Meow Mao sure has strange fetishes.

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  7. First we must note that in is second long
    post deriding those who say they cannot
    define woke, Bob makes no attempt
    to define it himself.
    This is not surprising ( especially given
    Bob’s typical intellectual dishonesty),
    because while we can understand the
    core, problematic concept of Woke,
    it had now been used endlessly as
    a catch all put down for everything a
    right wing nitwit thinks they don’t like.
    Much the way other labels like
    “communism” “politically correct”
    and today’s particularly dumb
    “Cancel Culture” have been used
    before.
    Bob knows this of course. That’s
    why he doesn’t try to define it
    himself, because then what those
    people he insults are saying will
    become pretty clear.

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    1. anon 2:59, what's with your paragraphs? each line seems to be cut off. You are an anon - but these shortened lines of text seem to give you your own identity.

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    2. AC/ MA,
      Who could have ever imagined that people who aren't straight, white and male have a viewpoint?

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    3. Why are you guys so preoccupied with other people’s identities?

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    4. AC the bitter truth is I am not
      very tech savvy, I type these on
      my phone with my thumb and
      this is how they come out.
      Hope that’s O.K…….

      Delete
    5. That explains it (twice), thanks anon 3:42. But try being not so woke though.

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    6. @3:42, ignore AC/MA. We think you are just the right amount of woke.

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    7. AC/MA:

      When the financial crisis hit us in 2008, the immediate reflex reaction from the conservative side started blaming the crash on government lending policy, particularly the Community Reinvestment Act, forcing lenders to give mortgages to unqualified minority borrowers.
      Or, to put it simply, they blamed it on the blacks.

      Fast forward to last week and the collapse of SVB. Immediately the right began circulating the the claim that it happened because the bank was too "woke".

      In the aftermath of the collapse of bloated tech lender Silicon Valley Bank, conservatives have flailed around, lazily throwing any culprit at the wall except the-word-that-must-not-be-said: deregulation.

      Republican members of Congress are blaming “wokeness,” critical race theory, and diversity, equity, and inclusion—ignoring their own history of pushing for a deregulated financial industry.

      Missouri Senator Josh Hawley on Monday complained that SVB was “too woke to fail,” opining that “these SVB guys spend all their time funding woke garbage (‘climate change solutions’) rather than actual banking and now want a handout from taxpayers to save them.” SVB, of course, lends money to any number of start-ups, plausibly including ones aiming to address climate change (and like any capital-driven financial institution, that’s definitely not its main focus). And Hawley—while posturing as a pro-worker, hardscrabble leader—has actually sought to weaken consumer protection and bank regulation.


      Or to put it simply, they were blaming it on the lone black member of the board of directors.

      Am I being too "woke" to have noticed this strange pattern from the conservative side?

      Delete
  8. Who’s the best commenter, David or Cecelia?

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  9. So, is opposition to wokeness a winning political strategy or a losing strategy? Consider this recent example:

    DeSantis strips luxurious Florida hotel's liquor license after hosting 'lewd' drag show with children present.
    Hyatt Regency Miami loses liquor license after hosting a drag queen show with children in the audience


    https://www.foxnews.com/us/desantis-strips-luxurious-florida-hotels-liquor-license-hosting-lewd-drag-show-children-present

    Does this action make you more likely or less likely to support DeSantis?

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    Replies
    1. D in C, what is he the dictator of Florida.? Don't they have agencies that have power to "strip" a hotel's liquor license, and isn't the license holder entitled to due process, i.e., a hearing? can Desantis simply issue an edict, and the license is suspended?

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    2. Less likely. Most people aren't that concerned about drag queens. Sure, the minority of religious nut jobs make a lot of noise (helped by a media which gives them an over-sized megaphone), but they are a tiny minority of the people.

      Delete
    3. AC/MA, you say "dictator of Florida" like that's a bad thing.

      Delete
    4. Yes, the hotel will get a hearing.

      The hotel is accused of breaking the law. This is the punishment provided by law.

      This story seems to be reported only by conservative media.

      Delete
    5. above comment from D in C

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    6. Here is the story on Rawstory, which is not conservative:

      https://www.rawstory.com/another-drag-show-showdown-florida-targets-prominent-miami-hotels-liquor-license/

      Sourced to the Miami Herald

      Delete
    7. No one has to ask how DinC feels about it. DeSantis is his new favorite fascist. DeSantis even has his own Anschluss of Disney.

      Delete
  10. A Karen (Somerby hates that term) went on a homophobic rant against a lesbian couple in a FL Starbucks. The police had to be called to remove her:

    "The couple targeted by the woman said she began yelling homophobic comments at them in the middle of a Miami Starbucks on March 6. The woman can be heard in the video telling the couple that homosexuality is wrong "because you touch children, you rape children.”

    Later at the police station, she claimed her name was not Karen but Cecelia. But why shouldn't two women be able to buy coffee without having some nut attack them like this?

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    1. These hate crimes are doubly scary because in red states people are allowed to carry guns in public.

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    2. “But why shouldn't two women be able to buy coffee without having some nut attack them like this?”

      You should ask yourself that question, Anonymouse 9:07pm.

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    3. I didn't attack them. You red tribers did this. DeSantis encourages this. This is a red state phenomenon committed by ugly-at-heart conservatives who only know how to hate.

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    4. Anonymouse 9:26pm, in order to attack me, you just made up an entirely imaginary scenario of me harassing a gay couple in a Starbucks.

      Talk about hate and anger..,






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    5. You’re right. I don’t like you.

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    6. Anonymouse 10:14pm, no, what you did is indicative of hate.

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    7. You oughtta know.

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    8. Anonymouse 10:37pm, yet I’m not putting false and inflammatory words in your mouth or the mouths of any person represented on a “flag chart”.


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    9. Don’t pretend you’re not a bigot. You and Karen are sisters under the skin.

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    10. You own all the hate crimes that come with your fascist conservative agenda. When one of yours pulls a stunt, you are right there with them. This is a reflection of who you are.

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    11. Anonymouse 10:49pm, I couldn’t care less if you think I’m bigot. (BTW- that fact is what really chaps you, rather any concern for anyone on that chart.)

      I don’t have to create imaginary scenarios staring you as an angry irrational hater.

      You do fine with that all by yourself.

      Delete
    12. I don't think you are a bigot, I know you are a bigot.

      Delete
  11. Conservatives are unable to define woke because it means whatever bad thing they want it to mean at the moment. Here is what happens when a conservative guest tries to define woke for an interviewer:

    https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2023/03/in-which-briahna-joy-gray-inadvertently-does-a-service-to-mankind

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  12. Just for a laugh, Cecelia, try defining woke without quoting from some other source, plagiarizing, or using ChatGPT. Spelling counts.

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    Replies
    1. Anonymouse, you want me to devine woke?

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    2. Why not? You did it with CRT being taught in schools.

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    3. Right. I might have known.

      This is just your usual exercise in declaring that some concept is merely a partisan construct unless you’re the person who is referencing it.

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    4. No. This is just me pointing out, yet again, that you are a gullible fool who believes liars.

      Delete
    5. Pretty funny, Cecelia.

      During a Tuesday interview on The Hill’s online program Rising, conservative author Bethany Mandel was stumped when co-host Briahna Joy Gray pressed her to give a definition of the word “woke,” which has been used incessantly by the right to criticize all things vaguely liberal. https://www.thedailybeast.com/conservative-author-bethany-mandel-freezes-up-when-pressed-to-define-woke

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    6. Cecelia,
      Republican politicians, and their mouthpieces in the media, aren't laughing with you They're laughing at you.

      Delete
    7. That was a better then decent interview.

      The interviewers’ questions were fair and real-time responsive to what Mandel actually said. THAT is as rare as hens’ teeth nowadays.

      Mandel had difficulty blurting out a definition for “woke” because there is no way that you can quickly wrap that into a package with a ribbon, and as soon as you tried you’d get a multitude of “but…but” in return.

      But…but…that Mandel didn’t ascertain that she would rightly be questioned about what she considers woke to mean, as regards her book, is as dumb as dirt on her part. It’s an obvious question, asked in a way that was not a gotcha as Briahna Joy Gray recognized that it’s not easy to sum up a compendium of behavior that results from very recent changes in thinking.

      As an example of the spirit that generally motivates the demand for a definition of woke, I was asked to define the term via language not used by anyone else.

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    8. Anonymouse flying monkey 8:42pm, duh.

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    9. Republicans don't sit around all day trying to think of the stupidest things they can get their voters to believe. But I can certainly see why someone would think they do.

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    10. Poor Cecelia, she thinks having to say something in her own words (without copying others) is a huge burden.

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    11. Anonymouse flying monkey 9:01am, yes, it’s clear that you don’t have to directed to half-baked partisan pejoratives, theories, and bon mots. That comes naturally to anonymices.

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    12. Anonymouse 9:09am, define any concept via heretofore unique verbiage.

      That’s not a boundary, it’s a weaseling setup.

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    13. Cecelia,
      Did they teach you that in your Kindergarten CRT class?

      Delete
    14. Mandel had difficulty blurting out a definition for “woke” because there is no way that you can quickly wrap that into a package with a ribbon

      Well, you better come up with a clear precise definition before you pass fucking laws making whatever the fuck it is a fucking crime, Cecelia.

      Delete
    15. 9:21: Oh, that’s a feature, not a bug of Republican thinking. They can make it up on the fly, as long as they can go after some liberal somewhere.

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    16. Look at me being all bipartisan, by joining with Republicans to not understand what they're talking about when they mention "woke".

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  13. Next, frazzledrip will be the next big Republican complaint, and Somerby will ask “ can Republicans win on frazzledrip?”

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    Replies
    1. Oh, and the media will ask “what is frazzle drip? And why is it bad news for the Democrats?”

      Delete
  14. I’m woke, I’m bigoted against Cecelia, and I don’t believe in frazzle drip.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymouse flying monkey 9:18am, no, it comes in breast milk

    ReplyDelete
  16. Anonymouse 9:53, yiure not bigoted. You’re just angry as hell that you aren’t the spokesperson for the planet.

    You’re an anonymouse.

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  17. Anonymouse 9:21am, that’s a cute scenario and all, but we both know that if there were such guidelines and/or legislation, it would be written via language based upon protecting children from political indoctrination and on parental rights.

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    Replies
    1. No, Cecelia, I doubt anyone would have the balls to write a law outlawing Right Wing Hate Evangelical Christo-fascism from being taught to children.

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