Thank you Garrett. I've been wanting to write about wokeness, and you've helped provide some excellent history and perspective. And more than anything, I appreciate your closing statement: "Hatred is nearly impossible to transform. Fear isn’t, though. Fear is an ellipsis. Fear is an invitation. Fear is a desire to be heard. And hearing that fear, in turn, is a first step towards transforming it into empathy."
The tributes to Jen Angel have been really beautiful. I didn't know her, but we're pretty likely only a degree or two apart socially (zine world is small). It's awful to see her death and her values weaponized in culture war bullshit, but I hope it also causes at least a couple people to think about care and abolition and how to be a brighter light in the world.
This is so important. It made me realize that I have come to equate "woke" and "performative" in my mind, which is not actually how the fearful right is using it and so is a dangerous conflation for me to carry around. Thank you.
Beautiful. I've had an idea knocking around about the right's appropriation and redefinition of words like woke, fake news, and now even anti-war (siding with Putin against Ukraine). Invoking Orwell is cliche at this point but it does smack of doublethink.
As human beings, we all have this intense (and understandable) desire to be on the "good side"-- the side that speaks truth to power rather than the side that represents power and oppression. The contemporary right is extremely good at weaponizing that emotion and one of their main ways of doing that is through that kind of rhetorical trick (like defining a college kid as "the elite" rather than a billionaire).
Thank you Garrett. I've been wanting to write about wokeness, and you've helped provide some excellent history and perspective. And more than anything, I appreciate your closing statement: "Hatred is nearly impossible to transform. Fear isn’t, though. Fear is an ellipsis. Fear is an invitation. Fear is a desire to be heard. And hearing that fear, in turn, is a first step towards transforming it into empathy."
Beautifully said.
Thanks Ted!
The tributes to Jen Angel have been really beautiful. I didn't know her, but we're pretty likely only a degree or two apart socially (zine world is small). It's awful to see her death and her values weaponized in culture war bullshit, but I hope it also causes at least a couple people to think about care and abolition and how to be a brighter light in the world.
I love that silver lining
This is so important. It made me realize that I have come to equate "woke" and "performative" in my mind, which is not actually how the fearful right is using it and so is a dangerous conflation for me to carry around. Thank you.
We have learned to be embarrassed by our earnestness and our attempts at care, and I don't think that helps anyone!
Beautiful. I've had an idea knocking around about the right's appropriation and redefinition of words like woke, fake news, and now even anti-war (siding with Putin against Ukraine). Invoking Orwell is cliche at this point but it does smack of doublethink.
As human beings, we all have this intense (and understandable) desire to be on the "good side"-- the side that speaks truth to power rather than the side that represents power and oppression. The contemporary right is extremely good at weaponizing that emotion and one of their main ways of doing that is through that kind of rhetorical trick (like defining a college kid as "the elite" rather than a billionaire).
My goodness so beautifully said!
Appreciate it!