cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/62976508
Just 10 years ago the US was still seen as being progressive and racism was slowly becoming a thing of the past… and not even in 10 years all the major civil rights achievements of rhe past 70 years are being thrown out so fast it is making my head spin.
No, it’s really, really not because of the “woke movement”. That’s just Republican propaganda. People - in general - were living their lives and moving along with society, the way they always do.
A lot of other people didn’t like that, the way they always do. The same type of people that didn’t like Lincoln so much they started a war. The same type of people that didn’t like Reconstruction, the same type of people that put up confederate statues in the 1960s and pretended it was “heritage”, the same type of people that claimed gay marriage would destroy society, the same time of people that are out there right now waving a confederate flag and screaming about “wokism”.
That hate has always been there, seething beneath societal progress as these people felt left behind. “Woke” didn’t inspire them to come out of the woodwork - Trump and his ilk did.
“Woke” didn’t turn people into bigots and haters. Some always were, others were persuaded by the very effective propaganda machine designed to (again!) inspire hatred, and fear.