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The talk about "peak woke" as if it was in the past or "woke 1" as if there was some sort of stopping of "woke" where it would make sense to say that some new "woke" thing is "woke 2" instead of "woke continued" reminds me of the 2024 POTUS election when people were breathlessly trying to establish consensus that there had been a "vibe shift" among Democrats who were finally getting excited again and lining up behind the young(er), energetic Harris compared to the decrepit Biden or calling Walz's insult of Vance as "weird" as some brilliant bit of marketing. I can understand both why people who dislike Woke would have wishful thinking that it has receded and why people who like Woke would want to act as if they're powerless, but I think the fact of the latter should make people in the former highly suspicious that they're falling into wishful thinking. From where I sit, there's more overt pushback to Woke than ever before, but that's akin to there being more pushback to Nazis in 1942 compared to in 1932. it's not an indication of the Nazis' lack of power, influence, harm; rather, it's the exact opposite.
Exactly, woke 1, woke 2, woke 100, doesn't matter. I don't want ANY shit sprinkle in my ribeye, zero. And I consider woke as objectively shit.
Yes, some pushback against woke has become socially permissible now than before, but zero material gains are made until you significantly dismantle female and minority associated privileges in political, social and cultural contexts. An all white, all straight gender conforming cast in Odyssey for example. Zero girlbosses in male oriented media. Media napologetically catering to the straight male gaze. Regardless of who it offends. No more diversity hiring and affirmative action (at least, not based on anything beyond income levels). No more woke pandering in academia. These are real gains, "well, more people hate it now" is just a consolation prize.
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