Attempting to Censor X in the UK

[Father Heathen]

Forget about Musk.

In this and similar cases, the MSM tends to not report honestly when progressive-wokeism comes under fire. That's when platforms like X can provide an important counterpoint.

Don't get me wrong, I think social media has a lot of severe problems. But that said, much of the MSM has been totally captured by the woke.

Oh, ffs... "wokeism"? Whenever I ask for a definition for "woke", I never get a consistent or coherent answer. I've seen plant-based meat alternatives, metal straws, electric vehicles, women and racial minorities in starring roles, anti-bullying campaigns, and rainbow flags referred to as "woke". What do all of these things have in common? Not a damn thing other than that they're stuff conservatives don't like. That's it. So "woke" has been appropriated by the right and reduced to nothing more than a lazy pejorative for things they don't like. That's it. So people who mindlessly spew the word probably aren't worth taking seriously.

 

[Regiomontanus]

Can you separate people who post on X from Musk? Do you think everyone who posts on X should be banned?

? Most of those who post on X are just regular folks.

 

[Father Heathen]

Also, when it comes to The UK, those that actually live there are probably faaaar more knowledgeable than outsiders when it comes to their own rights and freedoms, the events that are unfolding there, etc.

 

[icehorse]

Oh, ffs... "wokeism"? Whenever I ask for a definition for "woke", I never get a consistent or coherent answer. I've seen plant-based meat alternatives, metal straws, electric vehicles, women and racial minorities in starring roles, anti-bullying campaigns, and rainbow flags referred to as "woke". What do all of these things have in common? Not a damn thing other than that they're stuff conservatives don't like. That's it. So "woke" has been appropriated by the right and reduced to nothing more than a lazy pejorative for things they don't like. That's it. So people who mindlessly spew the word probably aren't worth taking seriously.

For months and months now I've been enumerating a list of ideas that a group of people tend to defend and promote. These ideas include but are not limited to:

- intersectionality
- the oppressed vs oppressor worldview
- lived experience trumping critical thinking
- calls to curtail "offensive" speech
- gender ideology

I don't care what label we give these people, I have no attachment to "woke" as a term, but the people who champion these ideas are cagey when it comes to standing up and giving their group a name

==

In this case, the woke have captured the police and the government to such a degree that they will not dare utter the obvious conclusions that Islamists do not and will not assimilate into western culture, and that mass immigration is a failed experiment.

So the thought terminating cliches uttered by those in power are that these riots are caused by - you guessed it - "far right extremists". No further analysis is provided. What are these "far right extremists" upset about? According to the MSM and the authorities, they're just xenophobic.

Really? So the answer is to arrest people that might share videos of these riots on social media? The answer is to arrest people who say Islamism is a serious problem? I don't think attempts at suppression are going to work. I don't think lying about failed policies will put this genie back in the bottle.

 

[Father Heathen]

For months and months now I've been enumerating a list of ideas that a group of people tend to defend and promote. These ideas include but are not limited to:

- intersectionality
- the oppressed vs oppressor worldview
- lived experience trumping critical thinking
- calls to curtail "offensive" speech
- gender ideology

I don't care what label we give these people, I have no attachment to "woke" as a term, but the people who champion these ideas are cagey when it comes to standing up and giving their group a name

==

In this case, the woke have captured the police and the government to such a degree that they will not dare utter the obvious conclusions that Islamists do not and will not assimilate into western culture, and that mass immigration is a failed experiment.

So the thought terminating cliches uttered by those in power are that these riots are caused by - you guessed it - "far right extremists". No further analysis is provided. What are these "far right extremists" upset about? According to the MSM and the authorities, they're just xenophobic.

Really? So the answer is to arrest people that might share videos of these riots on social media? The answer is to arrest people who say Islamism is a serious problem? I don't think attempts at suppression are going to work. I don't think lying about failed policies will put this genie back in the bottle.

If you have valid points don't toss them under a lazy, wide sweeping pejorative. It reminds me of those black and white photos from the civil rights era of protestors holding signs that called racial integration "communism", which also made no sense. When people are calling the meat alternative sausage option at Cracker Barrel "woke", it makes your points hard to take seriously when you also refer to things as "woke". Also, I believe the term is an Americanism. Is it even used in Europe?

 

[Secret Chief]

It's not a surprise after disarming the civilians that UK

I didn't get that memo.

 

[Secret Chief]

Is it even used in Europe?

In the UK, generally by the most reactionary tory politicians; as a pejorative. Surprising huh.

- The Tories are learning that culture wars make you enemies as well as friends

and

- Home Secretary Suella Braverman reeled off a long list of people she dislikes, including the "Guardian-reading, tofu-eating wokerati".

(She inspired me to eat more tofu. On the downside, her rhetoric inculcated the toxic attitudes that contributed to the recent riots in England).

PS
I don't think "wokerati" caught on.

 

[Absolutely Frank]

- intersectionality
- the oppressed vs oppressor worldview
- lived experience trumping critical thinking
- calls to curtail "offensive" speech
- gender ideology

What makes these ideas "woke"?

 

[England my lionheart]

Summary: The UK is experiencing a lot of rioting these days, and one of the measures some politicians are calling for to combat this unrest is to attempt to censor comments made on twitter.

The video below provides evidence of these attempts at censorship and goes further to claim that in many cases the media in the UK (and elsewhere), are often not reporting the truth and that in many cases, the most accurate reporting is coming from sites like X.

This is yet another attempt to curtail free speech and we cannot give an inch. If we lose free speech, we've lost our freedoms in general.

We certainly shouldn’t give an inch,I like “we love free speech until we hear something we don’t like”,can’t remember who said it but it’s true,as long as it’s not actually inciting violence everything is fair game imo.

 

[Secret Chief]

What makes these ideas "woke"?

They're not liked. Keep up.

 

[Twilight Hue]

I didn't get that memo.

Maybe you weren't alive when the UK banned firearms without a license requirement.

 

[Secret Chief]

Maybe you weren't alive when the UK banned firearms without a license requirement.

So when were the British "disarmed" ? Not sure my grandparents had guns.

Do you prefer the situation to be without licensing?

 

[Twilight Hue]

So when were the British "disarmed" ? Not sure my grandparents had guns.

Others did.

 

[Absolutely Frank]

They're not liked. Keep up.

Why not? Is it something those concepts and ideas did to them in middle school? Did intersectionality stuff them into a locker or something?

 

[Secret Chief]

Others did.

A few. So when did this national disarming followed by the "roaring in" of mass surveillance take place? What happened to all the weapons after the great disarming?

 

[Secret Chief]

Why not? Is it something those concepts and ideas did to them in middle school? Did intersectionality stuff them into a locker or something?

They can't use the showers after sports classes. And they are forced to eat tofu at dinner times.

 

[icehorse]

If you have valid points don't toss them under a lazy, wide sweeping pejorative. It reminds me of those black and white photos from the civil rights era of protestors holding signs that called racial integration "communism", which also made no sense. When people are calling the meat alternative sausage option at Cracker Barrel "woke", it makes your points hard to take seriously when you also refer to things as "woke". Also, I believe the term is an Americanism. Is it even used in Europe?

Again, I'm happy to insert a different term. But this movement is real and in order to talk about it, it must have a name.

As for being a pejorative, I get your point, but... The woke are the first to abuse identity politics and create pejoratives for anyone and everyone who disagrees with them, even in the slightest. Which gets us back to the old question, do we tolerate the intolerant?

As for woke being an Americanism, I think it started in America, but now I believe it's used throughout the Western world.

 

[icehorse]

What makes these ideas "woke"?

As I've said, I'm not attached to using the term "woke". If you have a different term, I'm happy to consider it.

 

[anna.]

Again, I'm happy to insert a different term. But this movement is real and in order to talk about it, it must have a name.

Do you realize how many times you've said you have no attachment to the term (several times at least, in various threads), and yet you run the term into the ground using it and all sorts of variants - woke-ism, woke-ists, "the woke" and so on. If you don't realize that, try doing a search of your posts using the term woke and maybe you'll realize your actual and real attachment to the term.

As for being a pejorative, I get your point, but... The woke are the first to abuse identity politics and create pejoratives for anyone and everyone who disagrees with them, even in the slightest. Which gets us back to the old question, do we tolerate the intolerant?

As for woke being an Americanism, I think it started in America, but now I believe it's used throughout the Western world.

No, you don't get the point, but it hasn't stopped you from (over)using it until you've deprived it of meaning except for what it means to you.

As for the origin of woke:

When Did “Woke” Lose Its Meaning & How Do We Get It Back?

The word “woke” is at the centre of the battle over books – a war against wokeness has turned into a war against Back history and sharing the true stories of the Black experience. We explore the word's origins, its current usage, and where it goes from here.

www.refinery29.com

 

[Father Heathen]

Again, I'm happy to insert a different term. But this movement is real and in order to talk about it, it must have a name.

As for being a pejorative, I get your point, but... The woke are the first to abuse identity politics and create pejoratives for anyone and everyone who disagrees with them, even in the slightest. Which gets us back to the old question, do we tolerate the intolerant?

As for woke being an Americanism, I think it started in America, but now I believe it's used throughout the Western world.

From what I've seen "the movement" has been straw men and caricatures from the imaginations of conservatives. For example, the archetype of the dyed hair girl who complains about "micro transgressions", which has no significant presence in reality. Conservatives however have convinced themselves that there is a vast army of this stereotype, who are all living amalgamations of everything they hate.