Huh! I had no idea this was a thing. Thanks for bringing it up!

The Wide Awakes were a youth organization and later a paramilitary organization cultivated by the Republican Party during the 1860 presidential election in the United States. Using popular social events, an ethos of competitive fraternity, and even promotional comic books, the organization introduced many to political participation and proclaimed itself as the newfound voice of younger voters. The structured militant Wide Awakes appealed to a generation which had been profoundly shaken by the partisan instability in the 1850s, and offered young northerners a much-needed political identity.

Woke started out as conspiracy theorists seeing through the lies.

I don't feel I see the North American left use the word any longer as it has basically become a pejorative against them.

Interesting. I don't feel that I have any inherent dislike of the work (especially knowing it's origins), but I can see how it would muddy a conversation, especially when it's an easy reverse dog whistle, usually meaning the the person who used it will refuse to think critically.

Now that I think about it, any situation where using the word "woke" or a similar sentiment of "awake" or "aware" would be appropriate usually requires some amount of nuance or is about a particular topic, so I'd usually just dive into the nuance. Saying I'm aware of something is less useful than being aware and sharing that awareness.

For example, instead of just saying "I try to be aware of the situation" or "I try to be woke", I might say: "I'm aware of rising housing costs, growing political extremism, corporate ignirance of climate change, and systemic racism and sexism, and I'm unsure of how such-and-such project might help with any of those, or if it might make them worse."

Such a simple and non-specific term might lend itself to perjoritive thinking, a simple way to lable people without having to think about their positions. I know many conservatives already use it as a thought stopping technique, demonizing the term so they can discard whatever argument is before them without thinking about it. This is kinda why I try to avoid labels in general.

I wonder how much use there is in using the term anyway? There's describing a change in thinking across time, like The Enlightenment, but if someone calls themselves an "Enlightened Thinker", it sounds like a red flag eh?