One of the most common terms in today’s political and cultural scene is “woke.” It’s an intrinsically annoying term, since it is the misuse of the past tense of the verb “wake” as an adjective. This erroneous adjectivization sounds like an offensive imitation of Ebonics, which is ironically opposite of the term’s very purpose. The word has been used by the civil rights movement since the 1960s, but it was appropriated by the mainstream media around 2015. Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines it as “aware of and actively attentive to important societal facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice).” However, it’s most often used by its opponents to mean conforming to the extreme leftist, liberal, or even Marxist agenda which is being pushed by the mainstream media these days. Some conservatives use the term “awake” as the opposite of “woke.”
Cropped lobby card for the 1950 film "Born Yesterday." MovieStillsDB
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