No Stupid Questions

Currently, it's a largely meaningless buzword used exclusively by a hate group to smear something as bad.

Aware of social injustices and a desire for them to be removed.

Depends on who is using it. It's either "Aware of structural institutional and social conditions that affect outcomes absent individual intent" or "Everything I personally feel is bad or makes me uncomfortable." Most people use it to mean the latter these days, and it's a meaningless shibboleth that describes everything in general and nothing in particular. Trans is woke, LGBT+ is woke, race is woke, education is woke, government is woke, private companies are woke, my stove is woke, beer is woke, whiskey is woke, Christianity is woke, Atheism is woke, everything is woke, and nothing is woke, and no one knows or cares what it means but they're very mad about it.

To me woke is a term that right wing, sexist, racist, miserable, shitty people use.

As a definition? Someone covered it already: aware of social injustices at bare minimum. As a flag? Basically a stand-in for a word that would get someone else banned on a platform. Woke to a rightoid means a woman, ethnic, or of a culture that isnt white/christian/cishet nuclear family profile. I have heard "woke" used to describe Latin Jazz before. It literally just meant ethnic to him.

Initially used by Black USAmericans to mean "aware of the racist reality we live in". Then racists started mocking Black people for saying it and using it as a slur against social movements. Now people mostly treat it as a meme word meaning vaguely left-wing, but in a funny way.

Depends on the context: When used positively it means being aware of social injustice or having empathy for your out group.

When used negatively it means anything/anyone they don't like, and they mostly don't like people who are a different color skin, gender, ablement, or sexual orientation to themselves.

Caring about other people

The past tense of wake of course.

Being aware of, and trying to fix structural inequality

at this point its more of a way for assholes to out themselves by raving about how "woke" everything is.

but essentially it means to me being aware of things (more than just racism)

I have always thought of it as having just stopped sleeping, but I think it's been reworked into a slur used on people capable of empathy. I'm still not clear on why empathy is a bad thing though.

Calling something “woke” is basically saying “I am an idiot.” The usage of the word means indicates literally nothing about the subject and only reflects the speaker’s lack of education.

Actual meaning? Being "awakened" to the incompleteness of civil rights, aware of the long and difficult social justice work that needs to happen to make oppressed peoples equal, and willing to learn and act in response to that knowledge; particularly as it pertains to the position of Black people in the United States, but generalized more broadly to oppressed peoples outside that group.

But today? It's been co-opted by the Worst People You Know to mean "anything not regressively conservative," and synonymous with "socialist" (the actual definition of which they also don't care about). It is often a red flag that the person you're talking to holds an extremely propagandized view of modern life; and at best thinks that civil rights is done, and at worst thinks that people of color are subhuman.

Recently stopped sleeping.

Or.

How twats refer to anything they don't agree with, anything that involves a minority, or any person or thing or institution they don't like.

"Woke" is the latest term used by American Republican strategists to paint the left as self-righteous, superficial and condescending. It's taken over for "Social Justice Warrior"

Eyes open, you can see thru the bs.

Woke is not caring about how someone who uses the handicap bathroom stall.

Trans people, disabled people, elderly people. If you stand and watch someone go in and out of the handi-cap bathroom, and think that them existing is not fair to you.... you're anti-woke.

Awakened to the historical and contemporary socio-economic and political realities surrounding colonialist and native populations' ruling classes' manipulation, subjugation, and exploitation of marginalized peoples who were and are deemed as the "others".

Originally, it was all about the awareness of systemic injustice, particularly surrounding African Americans.

Eventually, it shifted to an awareness of systemic flaws in general, and social imbalances and injustice, outside of purely governmental bounds.

Now? It's turned into a clear and easy way to tell someone is a moron because nobody else uses it any more, so it's always someone saying that woke is bad without eve. Understanding what it is

It's just a new flavor of an old shit sandwich, In my lifetime:

Bleeding heart

PC thug

SJW

Woke mob

It's all the same bullshit class warfare in reality.

Anything the right doesn't like basically. Solar panels? Woke. No war crimes? Woke. Trans rights. Absolutely woke.

When someone wants a group of people to not like something without giving them a reason to, they label it "woke", usually for political reasons.

Caring about people outside of your friends and family.

I use 'woke' and 'sjw' with a heavy dose of irony when dealing with bullshit from people who get off on tone policing and acting holier than thou.

It's truly sad how many of these bigots are lefty/liberal/anarchist identifying, hence the irony.

Honestly, it's not really a part of my vocabulary, but I think a bit of history on the term is interesting here.

The word "woke" actually came from a certain segment of the left, originally, to describe themselves. They were using it as to say "we're awake and are aware of the way things are", almost the way some people (with vastly different opinions) talk(ed?) about being redpilled. Mind you, it was often used as a kind of virtue signalling, which already gave it a fairly snobby undertone. Add to that that it implied that everyone else was asleep or dreaming, and it was not well received by many, not just amongst the right. That's where it was picked up by the right to be used to this day as "anything that seems left of my position that I want to rail against", taking advantage of that poorly received undertone and painting everything to the left of them with that brush. Meanwhile, it's been ages since I've seen someone on the left use the term to describe themself unironically.

I started calling myself a woke libtard ironically. Woke just means you give a shit about your fellow human beings. A wild concept for right wingers.

A combination of "Awareness of systematic biases" and "thoughtfulness of people different from me"

To me personally, "woke" means living in the real world.

A lot of people nowadays reject reality and prefer to live in a world of falsehood. They desire a simpler world, so they refuse to acknowledge the complexities of the world.

Woke people don't do that. They engage with reality, not fiction. Which is what makes them a danger to those that do prefer to escape to a simpler fictional world. Hence them denying and opposing woke. It's a defensive reaction to a perceived threat to their alternate worldview.
Or at least that's how I see it.

As an American, the acknowledgement that we live in a state that was started by slavers on land that was stolen from indigenous people.

Woke means being good and genuinely accepting of all human beings regardless of anything. Also being accepting of human rights also and not being afraid to speak up for goodness too.

Originally it meant being aware of racial inequality and injustices

The way it is currently used seems to mean being in favour of diversity and it's said like that's a bad thing somehow

I don't understand why the people referred to as woke don't seem to be reclaiming the word. They take it as an insult when it should be taken as a compliment to be aware of injustices and in favour of correcting injustice. Why don't we start using it as a compliment and erase its power as an insult?

15 years ago when woke was more a liberal word I just thought it was dudes pretending to be feminists to get laid. Now that conservatives took it over, they seem to use it as a label for anything they don't like. So that means anything woke is now good.

Its kinda like how conservatives used to call the left snowflakes but now we call them snowflakes because they throw temper tantrums about the smallest things.

Being 'awake' to the fact that there are many injustices built into the systems and laws that society uses to govern itself. At the end of the day, people are people. We all deserve the same respect and dignity as each other, no matter what our differences may be. We also deserve to be treated equitably, meaning that those below our standard may need much more help than we do to get to the same level. There's nothing unfair about this.

Originally it meant what it sounds like: to be awake and alert about what is really going in around you, and not being pulled into a false sense of security or fooled by propaganda. This is as old as the 1930s, then got repopularized by Eryka Badu in the 90s. There were some minor memes about it like "wake up sheeple!" poking fun at truthers, or "woke vs broke". Sometimes a meme, sometimes legit messaging.

Broke: Racism is over bro, and slavery was a million years ago.

Woke: Racism has gotten more hidden and insidious. There have been systematic changes to keep racial minorities in the poor parts of town with lots of crime, the FBI introduced crack cocaine to inner cities in the 80s, and then fake post racism truthers glorified gangs and the drug trade and praised it as "black culture". Then they proceed to have private prisons and have young black men perform slave labor in jail when they are inevitably arrested, as a way to get around traditional slave labor."

Then the state of high budget media devolved into what it now is: pandering, fake "woke" garbage with race swapping popular characters. Inevitably this rage baited a lot of people, even minorities that are supposedly being "represented" now. So "woke" became an ironic term to mean "fake woke", rainbow capitalism as one example.

Then this ironic use got way out of hand and just means "any positive messaging about anything remotely progressive" or "acknowledging that nonwhite males exist sometimes" or even "something that I don't like". In a way, this in a way is back to the original meaning. Reactionary conservatives hate anything that breaks them out of their fragile bubble and makes them consider reality for what it is.

Both original meaning and ironic meaning is somewhat usable still, but only if I have already gotten to know someone and where they stand politically and ethically. To have someone I don't know well bring up the term unprompted in a non joking way throws up red flags.

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk

Doing the bare minimum to not be an asshole in every situation is considered woke.

Used to mean awareness of inequality.

Now it's just a lazy way to express dislike for pretty much anything.

"Kind" - any action or position where you consider the effect of your actions on others. It's the opposite of selfishness.