Comment by spondylosaurus
6 days ago
> Did I misunderstand?
Yes, and perhaps deliberately so, lol.
"Woke" was a word invented by black activists in the context of civil rights activism and is now being used disparagingly by people who are against modern forms of progressive activism. (I didn't use the word "white" once in the comments you're replying to, and you can CTRL+F me on that.)
I also think it's telling that a lot of people like to die on the hill of "retarded used to be a clinical term!" but far fewer people are willing to die on the hill of "mongoloid used to be a clinical term!", despite both being true in roughly the same context.
>I also think it's telling
What is it telling you? I feel like there is some big aha here that I am missing.
They both literally demonstrate the same thing -- the evolution of language -- albeit in different eras. "Mongoloid" had reverted to being considered disparaging if not clinically nonsensical by the late 70s. Retarded, literally meaning slowed, continued through to the 90s before the great cultural cancelling occurred. But both saw mainstream use that shifted to being cancelled (although everyone still chuckles when an Airbus implores the pilot to retard the plane), in the former case because it's nonsensical, and in the latter because we thought it just sounded too mean. That if we just impugned a word everything would be better.
No one is dying on a hill about that, and what a ridiculous way to frame it.
I love that people are busy running around down-arrowing every one of my comments, and hysterically clicking flag. Just yesterday I saw the same from the fanatical right. Get a grip.