For Republican politicians, the word "woke" has become the equivalent of Pavlov's bell: it is a

[Atticus]

noise they can make to elicit a predictable response from their ignorant "subjects".

Saying the word or ringing Pavlov's bell has no real meaning that either the Trump cultists or the dogs really understand.

When Pavlov rang his bell the dogs had been conditioned to associate the sound with getting food and so they salivated.

When a Trumplican says that an adversary is "woke", the mindless MAGA faithful have been conditioned to grin, smile and mumble nuggets like "Woke BAD!" or "Lock them up!".

Asked to explain what is meant by "woke", the average red cap wearer will hem, haw, mutter and eventually decide to act offended by the question. You'd actually get a better response if you asked one of Pavlov's dogs to explain why they're drooling all over themselves.

Come to think of it, why not ask the Trumplcans why THEY drool all over themselves?

[GoodRaisin]

1. I laughed when read this.

[FuzzyRabbit]

2. Amen brother!

[pecosbob]

3. Florida and Texas are the home base of woke these days

As much as they apply it to others, the GOP is the party of wokeness. If you want to give it a definition, it might go like this: woke is unjustly penalizing someone or something simply because you disagree with their political statement or belief.

When Dems boycott a corporation it's because the corporation is engaging in bad behavior and not simply exercising a right to free speech with which we happen to disagree.

[Caliman73]

8. I would amend your definition.

Woke (to a right winger) is penalizing someone or or somethin simply because you disagree with (their own, as in only right wingers') political statement, belief, or behaviors.

They have no problem with trying to cancel or stop speech or actions that disagrees with their own ideas. They are currently trying to boycott Disney because Disney has come out in opposition to the "Don't say Gay" bills signed by DeSantis. They have also tried, unsuccessfully to boycott Gillette, the NBA, the NCAA, and many others.

For right wingers, any pushback against their desire to maintain the use of slurs and discriminatory practices against historically marginalized people (LGBTQ, Black People, Immigrants from Latin America, Asian groups, Women, etc..) are seen as discrimination against them. Not allowing Christianity to dominate social discourse and public education is discrimination to them.

[sboatcar]

4. They're also the only ones who use the term now

Like 'woke' fell out of fashion before Obama was even out of office. They're always way behind the times with their teminology.

[milestogo]

5. When I WOKE up this morning...

[Caliman73]

6. You are unfortunately, correct.

Republicans, as much as some say, "facts don't care about your feelings" are operating in completely fact free, feelings only territory. Their message is purely emotional arousal.

"Woke", from my understanding was first in the parlance of African American people in the 1920's and 30's who would tell each other to "stay Woke" meaning to stay alert to the systemic injustices of the time, that were working to hold back movements against racism.

As with any statement, the message and meaning changes over time. The thing about right wing strategy however, is that they love to take phrases and corrupt them and make them unpalatable to the average White person. They take the power away from the word or phrase and try to render it useless as a tool for organizing and advocacy.

Ask any right winger to explain ANY of the words or concepts that they use to signal "bad" concepts like "Socialist", "Communist", and Antifa. You will get similar responses. It seems that for Conservatives, the only utility of words is to evoke an emotional response.

[lagomorph777]

7. They prefer sleepy voters - easier to fool.

It's confusing to me that they call Biden "sleepy" as an apparent (and obviously false) insult.

So is sleepy good, or is sleepy bad?

[lambchopp59]

11. Therein the ultimate irony!

Railing against the "woke" while they are completely bamboozled in something akin to a dream state, in reality a hateful nightmare.
John Carpenter's alien vision film "They Live" in 1988 had a major television network broadcasting a presumed subliminal "sleep... sleep... sleep..." message keeping consumers in a dream state unable to see the reality all around them. it wasn't supposed to be prophetic!

[Initech]

9. It's a way for them to be racist without having to say "I'm not racist, but..."

[Ferrets are Cool]

10. You are so correct Atticus

[llmart]

12. This is what people who co-opt a word do to belittle someone or an idea.

There is only one real reason they do this and that's because they don't have the ability to have a debate or conversation that is anything remotely intellectual.

In other words, they're ignorant.

[inthewind21]

13. Well

We are discussing the same people who called themselves the Tea Party, dressed in colonial attire referring to the Boston Tea Party, went out and protested (about what exactly I'm still not sure of ) carrying signs that said "Teabag congress" Keeping up with words and definitions or History is clearly not high on their priority list. And their not bright enough to know to be embarrassed about flaunting their sheer ignorance in public.

[llmart]

15. Yep. Sums it up nicely.

It's also interesting to me that they dropped the whole Tea Party thing and just became MAGAts. You'd at least think they could come up with a more respectable term but then as you said, they're not even bright enough to be embarrassed.

[usonian]

14. Words are weapons to them

Whatever identifies the "others". Just serves to give them "meaning" because their lives don't have any meaning other than cult membership.

Nothing has meaning outside of cult membership. Contradiction is fine, when nothing has meaning, only intent to divide and harm.

I posted this elsewhere today.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=16575331

Very short excerpt:

Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison on Wednesday offered a particularly apt summation of Republicans on MSNBC's Morning Joe.

“It is a party built on fraud, fear and fascism," Harrison said. "They don’t deserve to be in power.”

That's great! Thank you Chairman Harrison.

Now, if you want to toss a few catchphrases back to the vocabulary-challenged, how about
"I'd rather be woke than ...
broke
coke
croak
a joke
poison oak
slowpoke
artichoke"

[struggle4progress]

16. Sleepers, awake!

[struggle4progress]

17. Sleepers, awake! (Bach Cantata 140)

[struggle4progress]

18. Sleepers, awake!

[louslobbs]

19. Woke? As in aware or alert? I've never understood

their issues with the word. As opposed to asleep, slumbered, sacked out, numb skulled? I mean, I’d rather be awake and aware, rather than unaware and asleep. What’s their point?

It’s like if you were listening to a speech, would it be a bad thing to be attentive to the speaker, or would it be a better thing to be inattentive?

Oh, look how attentive they are!
That’s called attentive culture!
I’m so sick of people who pay attention!
The problem is, those people pay attention!

I mean, REALLY???

[struggle4progress]

20. Sleepers, wake!

[Sympthsical]

21. People use words as shorthand to vilify opponents?

What an unexpected development in all of history ever.

I wonder what my fascist neighbor thinks of this. He's a Russian agent, though. So he's probably fine.

[LizBeth]

22. I clicked on this thread to find out what the right means by 'woke'. lol

Because I have wondered what they mean with invoking the word all along and I see I still do not know. Too funny.