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submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

Army Gen. Mark Milley pushed back on claims from Republicans that the military is “woke” and as a result not prepared to take on modern threats, saying he’s “not even sure what that word truly means.”

“What I see is a military that’s exceptionally strong. It’s powerful; it’s ready. In fact, our readiness rates, the way we measure readiness, is better now than they’ve been in years,” Milley said in a CNN interview Sunday.

Republican politicians and candidates have blasted the Pentagon for so-called woke policies, pointing to efforts to recruit a diverse group of military service members and be inclusive to transgender soldiers.

Those claims have also headlined efforts to reduce military spending.

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[-] [email protected] 217 points 9 months ago

No one knows what the word woke means. Even people who use it can't define it. It's just a boogeyman word for things people don't like or want, and even they can't agree on it.

[-] [email protected] 132 points 9 months ago

I’m becoming more and more convinced that a “woke” person is anyone who calls right-wingers out on being overtly racist/sexist/fascist. Or maybe anyone who just isn’t obviously racist/sexist/fascist.

[-] [email protected] 75 points 9 months ago

It's a catch all just like "communism" and "socialism" were/are. Big words that people don't know the actual definition of that can sound scary

[-] jballs 24 points 9 months ago

God damn woke communists with their BLM Antifa caravans of socialist illegals!

[-] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago

At least "communism" and "socialism" have theoretical definition. But yes, they were so heavily pulled into propaganda warfare, that they basically are used as synonyms for "enemy", as opposite of "democracy" and "freedom", and so on.

Btw "free speech" is another term that is watered down more and more. Also again by the right wing fuckers who complain that whenever they are criticized it would be an attack on "free speech". Which is also bullshit. You can say (mostly) what you want without being suppressed. But you can't expect those that hear it to just swallow it.

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[-] [email protected] 14 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

It's anyone they think will call them out. They don't even need to be called out first.

They declare something new is woke and then we call them racist/sexist/fascist

They're the ones picking targets, not us.

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[-] [email protected] 37 points 9 months ago

Ok a court filing, DeSantis lawyers defined "woke" as, "the belief that there are systemic inequities in US society and the need to work against them".

Which is not bad as a definition, really.

[-] [email protected] 23 points 9 months ago

Shit dawg then I'm woke af fr fr

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[-] [email protected] 19 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

It still means what it always meant. Being aware of society's injustices to the poor, downtrodden, or minority population and wanting to do something about it. They can't fucking stand that.

Being against being "woke" truly reveals who they are. That they just want to sweep it all under a rug and forget about it.

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[-] [email protected] 16 points 9 months ago

No the problem is that woke does have a meaning, and most people know what that meaning is. The problem is that if republicans actually defined it out loud they'd have to admit what they actually take issue with and what they're actually fighting, and doing so would basically be admitting that they're the baddies. It'd be saying the quiet part out loud. By avoiding acknowledging the actual meaning of the word they get to pretend that wokeness is a nebulous Bad Thing that should be fought against.

[-] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago

"Woke is now defined in this dictionary as “aware of and actively attentive to important facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice),” and identified as U.S. slang. It originated in African American English and gained more widespread use beginning in 2014 as part of the Black Lives Matter movement."

[-] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago

Everyone knows what the word means, it's just impossible to define without sounding like a bigot. Because it means "not a bigot."

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[-] [email protected] 86 points 9 months ago

The first few times I heard "woke" used, it was in the context of people who don't follow the sheep because they aren't asleep. Hence, they have woke up.

[-] [email protected] 84 points 9 months ago

Yes, and now the sheep are using it as an insult.

[-] [email protected] 31 points 9 months ago

It was always a vacuous ambiguous way to say someone was liberally enlightened without having to justify the claim with anything specific. That is true for both the positive and pejorative use of woke. I enjoy the song "Wide Awake" by Parquet Courts that made fun of the term in it's original use.

[-] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago

That is true for both the positive and pejorative use of woke.

At this point, from what I can tell, there is no truth for the pejorative use of 'woke.' It means whatever the Republican saying it wants it to mean. If they want it to mean anything at all but 'this is a bad thing.'

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[-] [email protected] 86 points 9 months ago

Based General for not even entertaining the idea of knowing what the W word even means.

It's too bad all our journalists are sold out to corpos otherwise they should respond to anyone wanting woke with "what is that? Idk what you are talking about please elaborate".

[-] [email protected] 32 points 9 months ago

Not that "based" makes sense here either, but yes, exactly: "woke" means whatever the speaker wants it to mean at the time, like "cromulent".

[-] [email protected] 30 points 9 months ago

That's not entirely true. To pass the "stop WOKE act", the bill had to have a definition of"wokeness". You know what the definition is? Awareness of systemic injustice.

[-] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago

Jesus Christ, we all have the goddamn internet:

Dictionary Definitions from Oxford Languages · Learn more woke verb past of wake1.

This isn't hard!

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[-] [email protected] 42 points 9 months ago

How's not being woke working out for the slowly imploding Russian military?

[-] [email protected] 24 points 9 months ago

You mean the one only staffed by minority serfs and white male convicts?

[-] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago

Where raising morale is when they shoot anyone who retreats?

[-] [email protected] 41 points 9 months ago

How can a military be "woke"? They literally tour the world killing brown poor people.

The word has no meaning any more, and likely never did.

[-] [email protected] 16 points 9 months ago

"Woke is the word I use to express my absolute and utterly baseless hatred for any Person, Thing, Idea or Concept, without having to resort to the hard slurs that would get me eviscerated and remove my plausible deniability" - Republican Zeitgeist

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[-] [email protected] 37 points 9 months ago

Woke is rights for minorities, women, the LGBTQ community, non Christians, and workers.

It a code word for hateful bigots.

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[-] [email protected] 31 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Absurd on the face of it. But making a cogent point is beside the point here, all they're really doing is sending the message that as soon as they're back in power, the military will be politicized.

Edit: Or possibly given the Russian military treatment; contracts awarded, real units never delivered, and the money all absconded with by craven oligarchs until the only way to prosecute a war is with mercs.

Edit 2: Merc squads padded out with penal legions. We do have plenty of prisoners, after all.

[-] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago

The military would be changed to defend the regime instead of the country.

Part of it was communicated via Trump's pardon of the war criminal. In Trump's mind, he was signaling that he would let the military do whatever they wanted in exchange for loyalty. For most of the military senior brass, it was a symbol of giving up on their ideals.

[-] [email protected] 24 points 9 months ago

when you've got an organization filled with high school grads, funded by religious gun nuts, you're not gonna get the brightest people

[-] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago

Tbf, the way Republicans use the word to mean anything, even I wouldn't be certain what the word means in that context.

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[-] [email protected] 23 points 9 months ago

These people never change. They complained when they allowed non white people to enlist. They complained when they stop segregating the units. They complained about woman, about inclusivity etc. They just keep moving the goalpost whenever there is progress then, claim the next thing will destroy the military. Just their thinly weiled prejudice.

[-] [email protected] 23 points 9 months ago

Can you imagine going through everything it takes to become a high ranking officer to then have to answer to these asshats?

[-] [email protected] 19 points 9 months ago

Just look at this guy's career. 44 years with his nose to the grindstone and boots on the ground just to have chickenhawks scream at you about "wokeness."

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[-] [email protected] 20 points 9 months ago

I love how republicans navigated themselves into a position where the best thing anyone else can do is ignoring them.

No discussion, because it doesn’t lead anywhere.

No listening to them, because they talk about the end of the white race, autism from vaccines or woke stuff.

It’s like living with children, but you at least listen to a child when something bothers them. You don’t care for republicans, conservatives or nazis. It doesn’t matter how they call themselves. At this point, they march together and therefore are the same.

If only they hadn’t the right to vote…things could be easier.

(If you read any kind of 4chan conspiracy theory about leftist communist cannibals from lizard space who want to abolish their right to vote, now you now where it came from.)

[-] [email protected] 16 points 9 months ago

Most accurate headline ever, on both counts 😂

[-] [email protected] 15 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I find it hard to believe that the largest and most effective organization designed specifically to kill or otherwise incapacitate whichever opposing forces their set against, isn't woke.

It's pretty obvious that Gen. Milley is wearing a wig, and what do you think he's hiding below that wig? Yep, you guessed it, blue and purple dyed hair.

I guarantee you that after this sham of a hearing, Gen. Milley's entire polycule was laughing at how xe hoodwinked us yet again.

FYI Gen. Milley's preferred pronoun is Xe, so put some respect on that shit.

[-] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago

It's pretty obvious that Gen. Milley is wearing a wig, and what do you think he's hiding below that wig?

My guess would be an M1A1 Abrams, painted in blue, pink and white.

Gen. Milley's preferred pronoun is Xe, so put some respect on that shit.

And if those idiots are going to keep up with this 'military woke' shit, Gen. Milley is going identify as a fucking/problem.

[-] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago

"Woke" could be taken as the opposite of "denialist".

Wikipedia defines "woke" as "alert to racial prejudice and discrimination", although today it's often extended to other prejudices besides racism.

Thus, "anti-woke" can be taken to mean "in denial about racial (etc.) prejudice and discrimination".

For example, we could say that the Association of German National Jews, the pro-Nazi Jewish group that existed from 1921 to 1935, was an "anti-woke" organization. This group sought to convince German Jews that they could drop their Jewishness and assimilate within a Nazi-dominated Germany.

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[-] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago

Why does anyone care what Miley Cyrus has to say about the military?!? I mean, she sits on a wrecking ball naked!!

What?

Oh, nevermind.

— Roseanne Roseannadanna

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this post was submitted on 22 Sep 2023
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