The Crowhill Journal

I saw something somewhere where a critic of right-wing complaints about wokeness demanded a definition.

Yeah.

I’m sympathetic, but I also realize that is a left-brain obsession that doesn’t work in the real world.

On the one hand, we have Lewis Carroll’s caterpillar, who claims that words mean exactly what he chooses them to mean at any moment, and on the other hand, we have legal contracts, where there are pages of definitions.

But even at that, not every term is defined. Because it can’t be.

“Before you can use a word, you need to define it.”

I’ll consider your proposal if you start by defining every word in that sentence.

The idea is nonsense. While I appreciate and endorse the desire to be precise, you can’t define every word. Words are flexible and squishy.

Also, we can know a thing without being able to articulate it precisely.

Man: “I love you.”
Woman: “Define love.”

That’s not going to work out well.

But … “wokeness” is a relatively new term, and it does us good to try to narrow down what we mean by it.

At first, it meant “alert to racial prejudice and discrimination.” E.g., young blacks were “woke” when they realized how many things in society were slanted against them. A young black being pulled over by a cop had to be extra careful to stay out of trouble.

[Whether that’s true or not is irrelevant.]

In order to get to its more modern meaning, you need to reflect on the underlying attitude behind that earlier definition. That would include …

• There are classes of people who have legitimate grievances against “the man” / the system.
• Appreciating the extent of those grievances requires a change of perspective. An englightenment.
• Blacks getting pulled over by racist cops is just one example of how the system disriminates against … against what?
• The “what” that causes this discrimination is the hegemony of white, heterosexual men, who are steeped in “western” values (mostly Christianity), including capitalism and the validity of past conquests (colonialism).
• True freedom requires a release from all the assumptions of this white, heterosexual, Christian, western value system.

That’s my attempt to spell it out. Can you think of a common use of “wokeness” that isn’t adequately encompassed in that description?

Remember the scene in “A Few Good Men” where the Jack Nicholson character yells “you can’t handle the truth!”

IOW, we — the tough and smart people in charge — take care of the hard things and make the bad decisions so you can have your pleasant little delusions and live like free and happy-go-lucky hobbits.

This article reminded me of that.

Monkeypox outbreak sparks debate over guidance on sexual behaviors

Public health officials are grappling with how far to go in advising gay men to alter their sexual behavior as the monkeypox virus spreads mostly through their social networks but is a threat to anyone.

Oh dear. If we say A, people might do X. If we say B, people might do Y. And we absolutely can’t say C, because then people will do Z.

When did we accept the idea that it’s okay for public officials to lie to us to nudge our behavior toward their chosen path? Isn’t that the purpose of propaganda?

Perhaps there are times when the truth would cause more harm than a lie. Perhaps. But we seem to have taken that exception and built a 4-lane highway through it.

We don’t even expect public officials to tell us the truth anymore. It’s understood that they will craft a message designed to get us to behave a certain way.

Only a population of wimps would accept this.

I never read comic books, and I’ve learned to avoid superhero movies. I watched them with my kids, but I think superhero movies are stupid and I don’t enjoy them.

As a consequence, I know very little about any of the characters, which “universe” they’re in, etc. It’s not that I’m against pretend worlds. I like Tolkien. I like Dune. I just find superhero stuff over the top in too many ways, and underwhelming in too many other ways.

So I don’t give a rat’s fleas about She-Hulk, or any of that stuff, but one comment about that show (from this page) caught my eye.

Writing female Heroes as smug and sarcastic isn’t ever going to work well. It’s like writers these days only have one default personality they go to when making “strong” female characters. Masculine and smug.

That rings true.

There are all kinds of male heroes, with different temperaments, personalities, and quirks. But female heroes seem to fall into a very narrow zone. They have a chip on their shoulder. They’re snarky. They’re angry. And it’s all the fault of men.

Okay, fine. Do that character every once in a while. But for the sake of (the most holy and honorable) Diversity (praise be its coming and going), why not try something different? How about a female hero who’s grateful? Full of thanks. Pious.

How about one who doubts herself — not because she’s a woman, but for some other reason?

Or how about this? Rather than finding some male hero and making a female version of him, make an authentically female hero, who isn’t a copy of anybody.

There are probably some examples of each of these things. But not nearly enough. We usually get one, very narrow and predictable female character.

It’s boring.

In the last few days, Google has let me down three times.

First, I tried to buy some photos. Google Photos said I could pick them up at the local Walmart. Unfortunately, the Walmart had a fire and that section was closed. Didn’t they have some system to ensure the order was received?

Second, I was looking for a restaurant that served Peking Duck. Google showed a local restaurant as open for sit down eating, but it was only open for carry out. It may be on the restaurant to update such things, but the bottom line is the same. What I saw on Google was wrong.

Third, I wanted to get Mrs. Crowhill some cinnabons for her birthday breakfast. Google said the store was open until 9:00. I got there at 8:04 and they were closed. This was not only a failure in data, but customer service. They should have sold me something anyway.

There have been several examples recently where Big Tech has rushed to the rescue of the poor and downtrodden by banning people or apps or concepts from their search results, app stores, or platforms. They move swiftly, in lock step, whenever a left-leaning talking point is threatened. They’re protecting us from those dangerous people who say hurtful things like “men are men.”

The woke clearly have Big Tech by the sensitive parts, and Big Tech dutifully perform according to woke demands.

How does Big Tech respond to other requests, like when an FCC commissioner asks them to remove TikTok from their stores because it’s abusing customer data, and because it’s probably a front for Chinese espionage?

Oh, who cares about that? I mean, they didn’t do anything awful, like use the wrong pronouns.

Wokeism must be destroyed, and Big Tech must be reined in.