Wokeness

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Dustin Hertel

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B.A. in Public Policy & Economics, Mount Royal University (Graduated 2021)Jan 8

Why do liberals love wokeness?

I’m going to start with a bit of advice my first Philosophy prof gave us in our intro class. He said, “If you can’t paraphrase somebody else’s position in a way that they would agree with, you don’t understand it, and if you don’t understand it, you can’t debate it.”

I would bet good money that’s the problem you’re having: you don’t really know what one (or either) of these terms means.

If you stop just taking on-board how right wing outlets and pundits represent those words and look at what they actually mean, the answer is pretty obvious.

In short, “woke” means someone is aware of biases and systems in our society that create biases and inequality.

What you call “liberals” (and isn’t actually what that term means) is almost certainly what most people would call “leftists” or “progressives” - a group for whom one of the main shared values is equality/justice.

So now, let’s rephrase your question based on these definitions: “Why would people who care about equality be aware of, and want to fix, systems that create inequality?” …..sounds pretty obvious, right?

"Famous author ripped after trashing the Bible"

The headline  comes from an article is on Fox News (https://www.foxnews.com/media/famous-author-ripped-after-trashing-bible-work-fiction-fertile-ground-for-hypocrisy), but I got it from MSN (https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/famous-author-ripped-after-trashing-the-bible-as-a-work-of-fiction-fertile-ground-for-hypocrisy/ar-AA1mViRw) 

From the article:

"Oates declared, "The bible, as you call it, is a work of fiction; or rather, an anthology of fictions. It is not ‘the’ bible for much of the world's population & those who claim it as their own select those verses that appeal to them while ignoring other verses. Fertile ground for hypocrisy."

Various right wing and religious people weighed in.  My own feeling is simple.  Oates is renown as a brilliant author.  Who better to recognize a work of fiction, an anthology based on the variety of styles, and the use of selected quotes for misuse?

I rest my case.

Trust Jealousy/Lenny

Aria Yang's article ("When I get jealous of people, I use that envy as a guidepost. Here's how it led me to quit my prestigious Big Law job" https://www.businessinsider.com/big-law-associate-quit-job-jealousy-career-life-goals-2023-12) puts a neat twist on jealousy. In her case it showed her what she really wanted to do.

It made me think have I been jealous of someone? I remember being envious of a childhood friend who knew when he was only eleven that he wanted to be an electrical engineer. It probably doesn't qualify as  jealousy because I realized all the dedication that went into his success.

He was a good story.  To avoid the draft he got a job in a defense company.  He remarked, "It's amazing:  they're paying me to do this stuff."  He was the living embodiment of the saying, "If you never want to work a day in your life, do something your love."

He'd "steal" parts from work, work on them in his home lab at night, and bring them back to work.

He was kicked out of his college's honors program because he was working at the same time.

Besides the "stealing" the incident which stands out to me was his buying a stereo system which had a hum.  He diagnosed the problem, fixed it with a resister or capacitor, and sent them a bill for his labor. (Memory says it was a McIntosh component.)

Rest in peace Lenny.