LEMON DROP | The Rise of #DARKWOKE
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How did the host declare ‘wokeness is dead’ and why attribute it to Trump?
Let's talk about something that has been brewing under the surface of American politics for quite some time now, for a while now. And that is the death of the wokeness movement. Yeah, you heard me right. Wokeness, as we have come to know it, is dead and buried. It's not just six feet under. It's about 60 feet under. Who killed it? One Donald J. Trump. And to borrow a term from Charlie Sykes, the clown with a flamethrower took aim at wokeness and set it ablaze. During his inaugural address, Donald Trump vowed to, quote, end the government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life. The days to follow saw him make good on that pledge. He issued an executive order terminating, quote, illegal DEI throughout federal agencies, revoked Johnson era anti-discrimination hiring rules and threatened government workers with adverse consequences if they don't snitch on colleagues who resist his purge.
Corporate America took notice and they quickly followed suit. Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Target, Walmart, McDonald's, Amazon and Meta all announced that they would roll back their diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Companies that for years and years at least pretended to care about righting historical wrongs and moving society forward. They said, screw that. No more virtue signaling. No more performative allyship. No more so-called rainbow capitalism. Once again, the only color that matters is green. So yes, wokeness is dead. But here's the real question. What comes next? What fills that vacuum? Enter hashtag dark woke. What is dark woke? Well, to answer that, we need to turn to this article in The Guardian, written by...
What actions did the Trump administration take to roll back DEI and corporate responses?
Peter Roth pledged. Peter explains that as Donald Trump was standing in the Capitol Rotunda blundering his way through his second oath of office, online liberals were preoccupied with debating another matter. Quote, who will be the first Democrat to call Republicans the R word? That conversation, along with others. made the hashtag dark woke go viral. Now, Peter argues that from 10,000 feet, dark woke appears to be little more than an internet exercise of dirtbag left gallows humor. The most viral tweet associated with the hashtag reads, my grandma voted for Trump, so I made sure she fell down the stairs. But there's something deeper to dark woke than just joking about slurs or wishing ill upon Trump voters.
At its core, the dark, woke phenomenon is a plea for Democrats to fight back, to engage in the messaging war that actually exists, to play by the same rules Republicans do. Because right now, Democratic voters are so, so frustrated. How are the Democrats fighting back? Amber had it right before. They're not doing anything. Is that right?
Is it? Say it's not, Roy. They're doing something. Oh, okay, great. It's going to be effective. Everybody, put your feet up. This is going to be great. Hey, bud, what are they doing? Here's Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. We will win. We will win.
We will win. I feel better already. What voters see from elected Democrats right now is flailing incompetence. They're utterly failing to meet the moment. They're not recognizing the fascist threats within the Trump administration. Dark woke isn't about abandoning progressive values. No, it is about getting smart. It's about getting ruthless. It's about trading in moralizing for power. Dark woke doesn't care about making people feel good. It cares about results. It's the realization that playing by the old rules of engagement where liberals beg for fairness and bipartisanship while their opponents trample over them simply, it doesn't work anymore. Dark Woke is about talking to members of the Trump administration like Tiffany Pollard once called out Omarosa.
So you don't want my sympathy vote? Is that what you're saying? I need to hear it because I need to know. You just said in front of all these people that you did not want my vote. Since I already said that, Omarosa, may I also say that I find you to be a sucking, guzzling Republican.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
How did the host declare ‘wokeness is dead’ and why attribute it to Trump?
0:00–1:47
2
What actions did the Trump administration take to roll back DEI and corporate responses?
1:47–6:17
3
How did the episode introduce the #DarkWoke hashtag and its viral origins?
6:17–6:39
4
What does The Guardian’s take reveal about dark woke as online gallows humor?
6:39–6:46
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from The Don Lemon Show
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