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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   28224 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 23, 2023

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I disagree. I've seen so many different things be called woke and I haven't seen anyone give it a good definition. I think my definition of it being the inverse of historical American values is a pretty good heuristic though. You take whatever Americans traditionally thought before the 1960's (or what wokes think they thought) and invert that and you get the woke position pretty reliably. For example, Manifest Destiny -> Stolen Land or We're a Christian Nation -> Christianity is oppressive or capitalism is good -> capitalism is bad.

For capitalism, I see leftists and socialists blame everything on capitalism. So you get stuff like the problem with X is actually capitalism for literally everything. So crime or inequality are apparently caused by capitalism even though they existed before capitalism.

For capitalism, I see leftists and socialists blame everything on capitalism.

If you lived in North Korea or the USSR why would "Communism" or The Party and the society it created not touch nearly everything politically wrong? Capitalism is responsible for the life we live. If it's not the best of all possible worlds, a society of angels, then yes some level of blame should be left at its feet.

This is especially true for the Marxist and therefore often socialist conception of Capitalism and society. Where everything flows downstream of economics as a first mover, including things like religion, romance, and local custom.

So crime or inequality are apparently caused by capitalism even though they existed before capitalism.

Just to note, the same outcome can have different causes under different circumstances.

EG flooding can be caused by torrential rain or by tsunami, but it wouldn't be wrong for someone in a torrential rainstorm to say that the rain is causing the flooding they are currently experiencing.

Are the Proud Boys woke? No. Is BLM woke? Yes. Are the Proud Boys racist? Arguably yes. Is BLM racist? Arguably yes.

I can think of a few other things that are woke or not. I'm having trouble thinking of anything that is clearly and inarguably not racist.

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