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When I hear someone way “ woke” i immediately assume they are triggered and cant formulate a cogent talking point.

So far my theory is 100%

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1 hour ago, Helobious said:

Woke to me is anything that undermines traditional masculine or American values like toughness, independence, freedom of speech, personal responsibility, and/or is an overreaction to a perceived cultural problem. It’s beyond politics. For example to me honoring black soldiers or teaching about the trail of tears isn’t woke. It’s just our history. Guardian caps in football, pronoun obsession, the extra first base bag in baseball, etc. are examples of woke things.

what lottery numbers are woke this week?

22 minutes ago, elfenix said:

The forward pass is woke!

17671288748341328969400220797379.jpg

1 hour ago, Helobious said:

Woke to me is anything that undermines traditional masculine or American values like toughness, independence, freedom of speech, personal responsibility, and/or is an overreaction to a perceived cultural problem. It’s beyond politics. For example to me honoring black soldiers or teaching about the trail of tears isn’t woke. It’s just our history. Guardian caps in football, pronoun obsession, the extra first base bag in baseball, etc. are examples of woke things.

Home Run Sport GIF by MLB

37 minutes ago, 'stache said:

Can't say I'm in regular contact with people like this, but a very common response I hear to this stuff is that the Natives lost their wars and should be grateful they weren't completely wiped out. They don't deserve special treatment because of their race (and as someone who works in this area I have to always try to correct people that Native American is not a race is a polical classification).

My queued up response to this is: “Oh! so you’re cool with the executive branch disregarding the judicial branch?”

If dullard says yes

Response: “So you’re not in favor of the constitution? Not into the 2nd amendment are we?”

That being said, this argument has lost its luster this year.

1 hour ago, Helobious said:

Woke to me is anything that undermines traditional masculine or American values like toughness, independence, freedom of speech, personal responsibility, and/or is an overreaction to a perceived cultural problem. It’s beyond politics. For example to me honoring black soldiers or teaching about the trail of tears isn’t woke. It’s just our history. Guardian caps in football, pronoun obsession, the extra first base bag in baseball, etc. are examples of woke things.

Laws against dranking and driving is woke, y’all

https://youtu.be/2xcQIoh3FQQ?si=_rKaSuBAZENq2uLY

I challenge anybody to watch that Reggie Jackson documentary and deny that this was/is a racist country.

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1 hour ago, Mo Horn said:

17671288748341328969400220797379.jpg

fify

ag5qzn.jpg

1 hour ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

eab03dee-e6b1-497d-b145-26f79690dfc2_text.gif

just what we need, another cult meld. because the last one went so well 🙄

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3 hours ago, Irwin F Fletcher said:

I know @Helobious is famous for batting below the "Mendoza Line" for takes, but this has got to be a bit....."Guardian caps in football, pronoun obsession, the extra first base bag in baseball, etc. are examples of woke things."

But he does demonstrate the anti-woke mindset, with the basic dogma of "Any societal changes after high school is suspect." We have this weird, natural inclination to believe we grew up "right." I first realized this when I spent my first Christmas with my ex and this weird belief we both had that our vision of Christmas was the version we should follow.

Being "woke" means you challenge what you assumed previously. There are a lot of people who struggle with that.

2 hours ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

Trump being surrounded and advised by Scientologists would be the icing on the cake. Not sure that even @Brisketexan could have developed that plot twist.

the simulation seems to have added the scientologists as a last minute checkout item.

1 minute ago, staboner said:

the simulation seems to have added the scientologists as a last minute checkout item.

Impulse buy

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Just really the stupidest people in this admin/orbit.

the incompetence is pretty impressive

1 hour ago, YChang said:

Just really the stupidest people in this admin/orbit.

11 minutes ago, mchookem said:

the incompetence is pretty impressive

It’s the only thing saving us right now

He looks worse than normal in that photo. It would be hilarious if someone put billboards around MAL with his worst photos.

Screenshot_20251230-203728.png

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/30/trump-wind-turbine-bald-eagle-falcon

Unfortunately for Trump’s effort to sow outrage among American patriots at what he proclaimed to be an image of the national bird laid low, closer inspection reveals the photograph does not show a bald eagle and was not taken in the United States. The image actually shows a falcon that was killed at a wind farm in Israel eight years ago.

6 hours ago, Helobious said:

I never voted for trump. The right spoke to some very real cultural problems but our low IQ public could not see the hypocrisy behind it. I always could, all the way back to the Kaepernik thing. People were talking about woke on here and I gave my two cents on it.

Get Some Help GIF by Giphy QA

57 minutes ago, Pancho said:

If it was unanimously approved won’t Congress just override the veto?

5 minutes ago, DDD Dad said:

If it was unanimously approved won’t Congress just override the veto?

Who will enforce it? The executive branch currently breaking the law regarding release of the Epstein files?

4 hours ago, staboner said:

the simulation seems to have added the scientologists as a last minute checkout item.

Perhaps a little bit of Scientology Nationalism is a good thing to prevent Christian Nationalism from having too big of a market share?

I used to think Helo was one of the worst posters on this site, but now I'm woke to the fact that he's actually one of the best. Truly the gift that keeps giving all year round. A legend.

4 hours ago, Pancho said:
3 hours ago, DDD Dad said:

If it was unanimously approved won’t Congress just override the veto?

Congress will most likely make sure, because Johnson, for all of his faults, is going to try to shore up Republican seats anywhere and everywhere and Trump's little stunt hurts the GOP in Colorado. Trump doesn't think that far ahead - he saw a chance to fuck with Boebert and took it.

5 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

Congress will most likely make sure, because Johnson, for all of his faults, is going to try to shore up Republican seats anywhere and everywhere and Trump's little stunt hurts the GOP in Colorado. Trump doesn't think that far ahead - he saw a chance to fuck with Boebert and took it.

Trump could literally shit in their drinking water and they’d still support him.

8 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

Congress will most likely make sure, because Johnson, for all of his faults, is going to try to shore up Republican seats anywhere and everywhere and Trump's little stunt hurts the GOP in Colorado. Trump doesn't think that far ahead - he saw a chance to fuck with Boebert and took it.

She looks a lot better without a ton of makeup on.

I'm sure The Barrack Obama and The Thomas Jefferson Memorial would have gone over just swimmingly with everyone, with no complaints.

18 hours ago, Helobious said:

Woke to me is anything that undermines traditional masculine or American values like toughness, independence, freedom of speech, personal responsibility, and/or is an overreaction to a perceived cultural problem. It’s beyond politics. For example to me honoring black soldiers or teaching about the trail of tears isn’t woke. It’s just our history. Guardian caps in football, pronoun obsession, the extra first base bag in baseball, etc. are examples of woke things.

No.

“Woke” means to be vigilant and aware of racial prejudice and systemic injustice. It was about critical thinking and used that way for 70+ years.

Quite a few people have criticized my increasing condescension towards people on this board, and I have taken their feedback to heart. So rather than patronizing you myself I asked ChatGPT 5 to explain this for you:

How did woke go from meaning vigilance and awareness of systemic injustice to what it means today?

The short answer is: political struggle, media amplification, and semantic drift. The longer story shows how a word tied to Black political consciousness was broadened, commercialized, and then weaponized.

1. Original meaning: “stay woke”

“Woke” comes from African American Vernacular English (AAVE). As early as the 1930s–40s, it meant being awake to danger, especially racial injustice.

By the mid-20th century it clearly meant awareness of systemic racism—police brutality, discriminatory laws, economic exclusion.

  • “Stay woke” = stay alert, don’t be fooled

  • It implied critical thinking, not ideology

  • It was inward-facing: advice within a community, not a label for others

This usage resurged during Black Lives Matter (2013–2016) as a shorthand for social awareness.

2. Expansion and dilution (mid-2010s)

As “woke” entered mainstream culture, two things happened:

A. It broadened beyond race

It came to mean awareness of many injustices: gender, sexuality, climate, colonialism, disability, etc.

This wasn’t inherently negative—but the word now covered:

  • deeply thoughtful critique

  • shallow signaling

  • sincere activism

  • performative gestures

One word was doing too much work.

B. Corporate and cultural co-option

Brands, universities, and institutions adopted “woke” language:

  • marketing campaigns

  • HR trainings

  • symbolic gestures without structural change

This created “woke-as-style” rather than “woke-as-analysis.”

Once something becomes a brand, it becomes a target.

3. Backlash and weaponization (late-2010s → now)

Conservative media and politicians recognized something important:

“Woke” was vague, emotionally charged, and already contested.

So they redefined it from the outside.

Instead of meaning awareness of injustice, it was reframed as:

  • authoritarian moralism

  • hypersensitivity

  • identity obsession

  • censorship and punishment

  • elitist scolding

Crucially, this reframing collapsed distinctions:

  • good-faith reform efforts

  • clumsy institutional policies

  • fringe activist behavior

All became “woke.”

It became a negative umbrella term—useful precisely because it’s imprecise.

4. Why the new meaning stuck

A few forces made the shift durable:

  • Media incentives: outrage travels faster than nuance

  • Bad actors: some activists did embrace puritanism, purity tests, and coercion

  • Institutional failures: top-down policies imposed without consent bred resentment

  • Language asymmetry: defenders had to explain; critics just had to sneer

Over time, “woke” stopped functioning as a self-description and became almost entirely pejorative.

Even many progressives now avoid the word.

5. Where that leaves us

Today, “woke” usually means:

A bundle of perceived excesses associated with contemporary progressive politics

That’s very different from:

Being alert to injustice and power.

So the word didn’t just “change.”

It was pulled apart by conflict.

The original meaning still exists—but mostly without the word.

In one sentence:

“Woke” went from a warning within a marginalized community to a mass-market identity, and finally to a political insult, because once a term becomes powerful, vague, and visible, someone will turn it into a weapon.

If you want, I can also:

  • compare “woke” to earlier words that met the same fate (e.g., politically correct)

  • map how different groups use the word simultaneously in incompatible ways

  • or trace how this plays out differently in the US vs Europe

8 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

Congress will most likely make sure, because Johnson, for all of his faults, is going to try to shore up Republican seats anywhere and everywhere and Trump's little stunt hurts the GOP in Colorado. Trump doesn't think that far ahead - he saw a chance to fuck with Boebert and took it.

But the Americans who didn’t support Trump…by all means attack them.

8 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

Congress will most likely make sure, because Johnson, for all of his faults, is going to try to shore up Republican seats anywhere and everywhere and Trump's little stunt hurts the GOP in Colorado. Trump doesn't think that far ahead - he saw a chance to fuck with Boebert and took it.

They really do just say the quiet part out loud. Boebert thinks it’s ok if Trump attacks and punishes Denver residents since they didn’t support him but that he shouldn’t attack his supporters in her district.

Maybe I’m naive but should we ever want any president to attack any Americans out of spite?

Edited by Nice Guy Eddie

23 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

They really do just say the quiet part out loud. Boebert thinks it’s ok if Trump attacks and punishes Denver residents since they didn’t support him but that he shouldn’t attack his supporters in her district.

Maybe I’m naive but should we ever want any president to attack any Americans out of spite?

But right there, you've captured the complete split in American political thought. This ties directly to the cry of "he's hurting the wrong people!" we heard early in Trump's first term. Not "he's hurting people," but "he's hurting the WRONG people," necessarily implying that there are RIGHT people for the POTUS to hurt.

Group 1 thinks that the government's primary purpose is to serve the people of and in the United States. All of them, to some degree or another -- whether it be something as indirect as building and maintaining a good system of roads, or mid-level like public education, or direct like supplemental nutrition assistance to the poor and hungry. Nothing's perfect, some people will not get all they want or need, the government only has so many resources, etc. But the overarching goal is "serve the people." Yes, with a national defense and law enforcement function, but again, the purpose is not to HURT the people at the receiving end of those mechanisms, but to help and protect the greater good and other members of society.

Group 2 thinks that government's purpose is to "hurt people I don't like." And what these morons don't fucking get is that does not work out as "hurt the people YOU don't like" -- it is "hurt the people TRUMP doesn't like." At first, you think it's just gonna be those dirty mexicans and uppity negroes -- that's good, those aren't "real Americans" anyway, they should get what's coming to them. But then....it becomes every single American who didn't vote for Trump. Then, it becomes every single American who lives in a STATE that didn't vote for Trump. Then, it becomes every single American who doesn't give their complete and total support to whatever insane, idiotic, corrupt thing Trump is trying to do this minute -- what, you are a Republican from a red county in a red state, and you have flown a Trump flag for the last 10 years, but now, you have concerns about your ACA premiums skyrocketing? You're a RINO, and you must be punished.

A governmental philosophy built on inflicting pain, vengeance, and retribution, particularly when it's not built on a factual narrative, and PARTICULARLY when that power is entrusted to a single, psychopathic narcissist, is suicidal.

And this country pulled the cord on that suicide vest in November of 2024. Now, as we experience series after series of limb-flinging explosions, we cough through the blood and debris, and gird ourselves for the next explosion. Good job, well done. Brilliant choice, America. We went Group 2's way, and it is going EXACTLY -- not partially, not mostly...exactly -- as should be expected.

Maybe, just maybe, we should not take that Group 2 approach ever, ever, ever again. What say you, you utter fucking malignant dumbasses?

Edited by Brisketexan

Oh, except I should caveat what I posted above.

I also fully support a Dem regime taking power and inflicting righteous vengeance and inflicting unimaginable pain on all Trumpers and all red state sycophant suck-up and collaborator states that enabled this shit. Dead serious. Texas shouldn't get a penny of federal funding for highways, any of that shit.

Because the only language that MAGAs speak is pain. So speak it very loudly, very clearly, so they can fucking understand. Don't ever do this again, because you WILL suffer.

We crossed the rubicon. There is no going back. The Group 1 approach is dead for at least a generation, maybe longer.

I don't know Brisket. I think a President Newsom or President Mayor Pete in 2029 would shift immediately to a "return to norms" as opposed to your group 2 approach.

53 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

They really do just say the quiet part out loud. Boebert thinks it’s ok if Trump attacks and punishes Denver residents since they didn’t support him but that he shouldn’t attack his supporters in her district.

Maybe I’m naive but should we ever want any president to attack any Americans out of spite?

Probably not but like @Brisketexan above, I’d sure love to put the screws to the MAGAts and others in power who orchestrated, or allowed, this scourge upon this once-great nation. The idiot, Average Joe Americans who were duped by this nonsense can go back to being what they were previously — you know, morons.

Gene Wilder Lol GIF

Edited by C-Man

6 minutes ago, C-Man said:

The idiot, Average Joe Americans who were duped by this nonsense can go back to being what they were previously — you know, morons.

No. They need to experience pain too. It's the only thing they actually understand.

Hurt some dirty mexican? They like it.

Hurt their neighbor? They really don't care.

Hurt them? Well, a hit dog will holler.

Sorry they are so stupid that they can't get why the first two scenarios are awful for any functioning society. Time to not just LET them all touch the hot stove, but MAKE them touch the hot stove. Gee, that burn hurts, don't it? Now maybe you understand why burning people is a bad path?

32 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

No. They need to experience pain too. It's the only thing they actually understand.

Hurt some dirty mexican? They like it.

Hurt their neighbor? They really don't care.

Hurt them? Well, a hit dog will holler.

Sorry they are so stupid that they can't get why the first two scenarios are awful for any functioning society. Time to not just LET them all touch the hot stove, but MAKE them touch the hot stove. Gee, that burn hurts, don't it? Now maybe you understand why burning people is a bad path?

Ideologically, you're not wrong. But that ain't reality. That shit isn't getting solved in any of our lifetimes. I'm content with things getting back to some sort of pre-MAGA normalcy in this country. Hopefully, we can plant a few seeds that future generations can use to make the human existence better for all of us, regardless of color or ethnicity.

That would otherwise be the stupidest thing a US president has ever said, but it's just another day for the dotard.

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