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Daily Maverick reporter Rebecca Davis. (Illustrative image: Daily Maverick) Reporting by: Rebecca Davis
Edited by: Joel Seboa
Filmed by: Joel Seboa & Bernard Kotze
Produced by: Emilie Gambade
Sub-edited by: Ian Wolstenholme
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I take the word woke as an insult. It’s an insult to the US civil rights movement where the word was used lyrically to keep people aware of civil rights abuses by the US white supremists. Now it’s used to insult anyone who dares to show empathy. The MAGA right has even adopted the term ‘radical empathy’ to somehow differentiate between the gifting of a small donation to a poor person and someone who dares to try to uplift the poor. Because in their world, the poor deserve to be poor.
The term was invigorated and expanded by the left, largely through the BLM rubbish in the mid 2010's... if you espouse those radical ideologies and you feel insulted, good...as it should be.
Human rights is not radical. The irony is most of the anti woke brigade purport to be Christians. Somehow the concept of loving thy neighbour escapes them.
If you have been awake in recent history you will realize these issues have crossed the threshold far beyond the generic euphemism of so called "human rights".. Some examples: do you support abortions up to date of delivery? Do you believe men can become women overnight and be allowed in their private spaces? Do you believe children should be offered irreversible genital surgery and hormone blockers without parental consent? Do you believe we must eliminate all meat consumption and air travel? Do you believe countries should not enforce borders? Do you believe police should be defunded? This is definitively radical left-leaning ideology and the "woke" champions supporting it should rightly be embarrassed.
Do you believe in patriarchy? Do you really believe there is gender or racial equality in the workplace? Do you believe you have the right to tell women how to manage their bodies while men can do as they please? By the way, the word woke was first used by the US civil rights movement mostly in writing and songs to tell their compatriots to stay vigilant in the face of racial attacks by the US white supremists
Patriarchy, racial equality, gender equality...you sound off buzzwords like a purple haired college protester. Give us an unique thought, not what you heard from the thought-leaders on The View lol. And no, woke was first used as the past tense of wake which is linguistically obvious...so don't get upset when one group appropriates and another group re-appropriates.
It's been so radicalised that its fractured and introduced new identitarian and ideological terms within the political lexicon - such as TERF (Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist) - where now even JK Rowling stands accused of being anti-human rights.
