By now you have likely heard more than you ever wanted to hear about being “woke.” What does being woke mean? Woke people are “alert to injustice in society, especially racism.” Woke folks are also cool and smarter than everybody else!
You’ve probably also heard a lot about “cancel culture.” Essentially, cancel culture is shaming people or even businesses for doing, saying, or supporting something that is wrong or bad. Shaming usually occurs via social media, though traditional media outlets often follow suit with “news” stories that support whatever shaming is popular on social media.
One of the most recent examples of woke folks invoking cancel culture involves Georgia’s new voter reform act. You may remember that many states changed voting procedures during 2020 elections, blaming the pandemic for forcing the changes. At the very least, those last minute changes raised questions of voter fraud in a number of states. Georgia was one of those states.
The Republican dominated legislature in Georgia voted last week to make some changes in the state’s election law. You must understand, Republicans are neither woke nor cool, and they are not generally inclined to cancel anyone’s culture through shaming.
Cool people, by definition, are on the LEFT and are the most woke people in America. Shaming bad people, ideas, and symbols (think Trump supporters, Mr. Potato Head, and Aunt Jemima) is the raison d’etre of woke folks. It’s what they are called to do!
Let’s circle back to that new Georgia law. Woke people all across one end of the political spectrum are raising the alarm against Republican lawmakers and the Republican governor of Georgia, to the extent that corporate CEOs, the commissioner of Major League Baseball, and even President Biden are shaming them with many misrepresentations of what the new law does and doesn’t do.
Moreover, these powerful critics are withdrawing corporate support from businesses and industries in Georgia, removing the 2021 MLB All Star Game from Atlanta, and President Biden has labeled the new law “Jim Crow in the 21st Century,” saying, “It must end.”
Woke folks declare any voter ID laws are racist because it’s just too difficult for “underrepresented voters” to show any kind of ID. Hypocritically, Delta Airlines requires all passengers to show a photo ID. Only woke folks understand why it’s racist to require voters to show some kind of ID (driver’s license, utility bill, last four digits of SS#, or any other kind of traditional ID). Woke folks believe some voters are simply incapable of identifying themselves.
As a woke person, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said, “I have decided that the best way to demonstrate our values as a sport is by relocating this year's All-Star Game and MLB Draft.
Major League Baseball fundamentally supports voting rights for all Americans and opposes restrictions to the ballot box.” Of course, he did not identify how voting rights had been restricted in Georgia.
Commenting about the new law, President Biden said, “What I’m worried about is how un-American this whole initiative is. It’s sick. It’s sick. Deciding that you’re going to end voting at five o'clock when working people are just getting off work.” Biden’s woke statement, outrageously misleading, received four Pinocchios from the Washington Post.
Why would all these powerful critics lie? Shaming others is always based on lies.
Daniel L. Gardner is a syndicated columnist who lives in Starkville, MS. You may contact him at PJandMe2@gmail.com.
22 comments:
Can’t believe I woke up to this shit.
Hey DL,
America love it or leave it. If you don’t like the way things are then go find a libertarian paradise somewhere for yourself.
Talk about “ the Pot” calling “ the Kettle” Black. The ole “Truth Twister” is going to plain it to ya.
The important element in the "woke" movement is the demographics, and the most important demographic is age. Young people are always receptive to the idea that old values and customs are ignorant and outdated so that those who are not willing to embrace change must be unthinking sheep. They are open-minded and open to change so they must be "woke". They cannot fathom the concept that they are the sheep making changes and upheaval without appreciating the consequences. The problem with this "woke" movement is that some sly, older more experienced people see an opportunity to advance themselves and their particular interest group piggybacking on the "woke" culture. It's simply a time for the adults, the ones who give a damn, to stop being bullied by labels and a media made drunk on the excitement of change, and to stand up for common sense and stability. Let's do it before the "woke" puts this country to sleep permanently.
"WOKE" simply means discovering someone else is to blame for your failures. How nice.
This “freedom” is was WW2 vets fought for at Normandy.
Wake me up when we are talking about something new or different.
I think we've all seen this same compliant from every generation of old people about young people. Remember the 1960's?
DL is the village idiot. He is nothing more than a parrot squawking the words of his masters.
@11:03
Well said.
So, the unwoke" folks don't believe in capitalism or free enterprise? Do the "unwoke" give only lip service to the First Amendment? I can't figure out what DL is complaining about, unless it's that the American economic system isn't as repressive as communism.
I'm tired of the "cancel culture," too. But it tickles me when the right wingers (that would include you, D. L.) seem perfectly fine with the fact that the main cancel culture in the country features the canceling of all of the reasonable Republicans who vary, even slightly, from the Trump Autocracy. Remember the Soviet idea of a "Nonperson"? Comrade Trump and his asslickers would love to turn the U.S. into the U.S.S.R.
I recommend that you read John Boehner's new book. Now there's a man I could ride the river with.
The drivel that D.L. pays to have posted here is an example of stuff you write when you are either too ignorant or too scared to write about the real bad actors in the world.
Of course Kingfish isn’t real big on honest discussion either so he wouldn’t post it no matter how much he got paid.
I wish I was as dumb as DL Gardner. I’m so jealous of the bliss of his ignorance and stupidity. I feel like life would be much simpler.
Woke folks won't wake up and go to work though.
Well @1:34 I’ve read some pretty asinine statements here on the JJ, but dude you won the numbskulliosis award. Congratulations! DL has hit the nail on the head although he doesn’t mention where these young jackanuses learned to hate America. Liberal colleges across the country are nothing but communist hotbeds of idiotic teachings. Antifa, BLM all learned to despise this country while they were supposed to be getting an education to better themselves. Instead they’ve been taught that the older generation need to be disposed of in any way possible. Mao Zedung did the same thing in the 1950s when he thought the communist party was turning against him. What all the 50 million he had killed I guess people just got tired of him. Mao simply called on all young people to destroy the older generation. Kids turned in their parents for disposal. He called them His Red Guard. Now it’s happening here. Same communist ideal different country. Doesn’t anyone read history?
@DL and 4:22PM
All that bloviating and none of you named the pieces of shit responsible for this seditious garbage.
Top of the list should always be Howard Zinn. He has been dead for 10 years so nobody can consider this as “doxxing” or threatening him.
I recommend that you read John Boehner's new book. Now there's a man I could ride the river with.
Not surprised you're a Boehner fan since he sold Republicans down river in the name of 'compromise'.
Daniel, my condolences to you for being a victim.
His column is 100 % correct. Totally.
"Woke" and " Cancel Culture" are political buzz words just like "Family Values" that allow people to oversimplify complex issues and rationalize party loyalty or adherence to false information.
As to the Georgia law, it's a response to a lie. DL ignores a core piece of the lie. That is that REGISTERED VOTERS have already provided the forms of identification when they registered and are being asked to present them again when they vote. It ignores their names and information are on a list of registered voters with which ballots can be compared.
The bill targets urban areas where people don't have cars. They travel by bus or subway or walking( Atlanta). Strategically being able to reduce voting access is the strategy.
The bill includes allowing the legislature to appoint the State Election Commissioner to future who has the power to make sure that happens in less urban areas as well.
The bill eliminates Sunday voting as churches in Georgia often provided buses to voting locations after church service. They also brought along food and water...without directing anyone for whom to vote.
If you are poor or working poor, taking off time from work to vote is harder.
Like every nefarious bill, the Georgia one has some perfectly reasonable sections. This is to allow them to tout the bill as " reasonable".
They rely on those who will not do due diligence and actually read existing laws or learn the mechanics of voting that insure "fair" already.That is especially true of how the computer programs make the list of REGISTERED voters accurate.
Did you not a poll worker match your name to the existing list in your precinct, DL?
You need to be "woke" because I know you did need to match up or your ballot would have been held as a "provisional" ballot and looked at in detail to discover whether or not you are a "citizen" and if your vote for the offices you filled in could be counted for that candidate.
There will always be human error in any system. There will always be those who think they are clever enough to "game" a system. In Mississippi , do remember the courthouse night raid and longer ago, the elected county election official who " cleaned" the registered poll list in favor of one party. By the way, both were Republicans and were every attempt at fraud caught in the last national election.
" Woke" seems to realizing you were in an unrealistic nightmare and " Cancel Cultural" is cancelling dysfunctional myths like women can't become pregnant when raped.
Being a well adjusted,well educated ( you can self-educate), responsible grown up is good, not bad. Understanding that a doctor in radiology might not be as reliable a source as a virologists about a virus might even save your life! That too is being " woke".
Does Gardner ever have an original thought? I don’t recall one.
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