I haven't written much on politics recently. It's hard, knowing that very few people want real information or care to be educated about subjects. People, instead, only want to hear from people who already agree with them--echo chambers. They are pressured (and agree to) see the world as us vs. them and that 'them' are less than human.
Anyways, you ever notice that if a 2 or 3 year-old hears a word, they start repeating it all over the place--especially if they know it'll draw a reaction from an adult? It is a sign of an immature brain--not a problem with a toddler...because we know that vocabulary will EXPLODE with every passing month and year as they grow up and go through school. Unfortunately, adults today (especially white people over the age of 50 or politicians who believe in Jewish space lasers or giving handjobs in public theaters...) use words similarly.
So--this post is about a couple of words that get used a ton on Fox News and by Republicans pejoratively. If you read the actual meaning of the terms and their origins, you'll see that media use of them is the equivalent of a 2yo's tantrum/seeking attention.
Word #1: WOKE
Woke now is used as a buzzword for ideas that are somehow anti-American or worse...*gasp* liberal (another word misused and assumed to be an antonym to 'conservative'...which doesn't mean what it's used for either).
Some argue it comes from politically-active Northerners before the Civil War known as 'the Wide Awakes' who agitated for the abolition of slavery. This would be ironic given that you'll find 'woke' used regularly by Southern GOP members (some things don't change, only the labels...these guys were Democrats until the 1960s), but while 'awake' and 'woke' are used interchangeably in African-American English vernacular (AAEV), this isn't the modern origin. That comes from the interwar years.
It's modern use comes from the late 1930s--first from the 'Negro Motorist Green Book', written so that black automobile owners knew where they could drive, stay, or eat safely while crossing the United States. Many communities were 'sundown towns'--which meant if it was after dusk and you were black and in town, you were at risk of being beaten or arrested. The book listed those towns--but also warned motorists driving at all times to be alert to potential racism and segregation, that you've got to 'stay woke' when you are traveling to stay out of danger. 100% justified, especially for travelers in the south.
Woke is also used in the song Scottsboro Boys about a group of black teenagers falsely accused of raping two white women...black men falsely accused...that NEVER happens in the American South, right? Sung by Lead Belly, the lyrics advise "Best stay woke, keep your eyes open."
Used regularly after that, it became an AAEV synonym for 'well-informed' or 'aware of current events'...and was quickly co-opted as a word used by white folk singers and street poets/Beatniks. And then, the 21st century--this part I didn't know--for the first 10-15 years of the century, the term got shifted, so that to be 'woke' meant to be aware that your partner was cheating on you...in addition to the original term...unless you were in the music-scene in which case 'woke' came to be used to mean feeling the music, feeling the crowd's reaction to how you were playing.
And then, it was used after a 2014 shooting by protest organizers of what came to be known as 'Black Lives Matter'--and once it caught on as a buzzword against police shooting or beating people for no real reason, it morphed into its current mangled usage.
So the lesson--'woke' is a black term for watching out for situations that are going to get you into trouble. The modern use is thrown in just to provoke an emotional reaction/righteous fury from already-sympathetic listeners.
WORD #2: ANTIFA
I suppose it isn't a surprise that the far-right doesn't like 'antifa' as a word, given that it is short for 'anti-fascist'--which means an antifa would immediately despise people like Vladimir Putin...you know...fascists, the same sort of guy that Republicans don't want to fight against in places like Ukraine. The word now is used as an epithet against any sort of protesters of the government and, as always it seems, as a synonym for 'liberal'. You know who was antifa though?
Dwight Eisenhower ....actually, quite a few guys were (and are)...99,9% of the Greatest Generation were proudly antifa. Of course, that link will tell you it's pretty American to be antifa. Except that's not where it comes from (and I didn't know that when I wrote that link back in 2019)
Remember Germans always like crunching words together into shorter words (like Gestapo--Geheimstaatspolizei). Antifa is the same. It's short for antifaschistich and was applied first to a German political organization called Antifaschistcihe Aktion! as Hitler climbed to power. To be antifa meant to oppose concentrated power or there being no check on police powers, you know...like when cops beat a guy to death in the street and it takes years for prosecution to take place IF it takes place at all. You get the drill.
The problem is, right-wing media uses the term any time there is a protest against their sensibilities, whipping it out as criticism even though organizations such as the Anti-Defamation Leagu chide them--that using 'antifa' as a term to describe protesters or counter-protesters is irresponsible. Others note "It is used as a lazy catch-all for lumping anyone opposed to Donald Trump's ideas together into a single group to hate." That's not using a word for its meaning. That's lazy, immature.
...which is where this blog started, noting the predilection of media and politicians to use words they themselves don't understand to stir up visceral feelings in their audience...who also don't understand the words, so that they can share anger at something they can't define (and maybe don't want to define--because that would lessen anger and anger is addictive)
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