This is also why “woke” becoming a common word was bad for both sides. Not only is it nonspecific, but it starts to mean different things to different people and diverges over time. It’s easier to demonize something with a nonspecific meaning for exactly that reason.
There’s a meme that says “everything I don’t like is woke”, and while it’s funny, that’s literally the process that happens when such terms become catchalls – what they catch depends on what any individual speaker wants out of using it.
With DEI, the process has been the same. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are many people who believe it’s bad (because they were told that and lack critical thinking skills) and may not even know what the acronym stands for.
Reminds me of that time (as if it was only once) a depressing amount of people, mostly conservatives, didn’t know that the ACA and “Obamacare” mean the same thing.
Conservative politics depend heavily on placing labels on everything because it’s a built-in way of telling the rubes what they should think and feel.
This is also why “woke” becoming a common word was bad for both sides. Not only is it nonspecific, but it starts to mean different things to different people and diverges over time. It’s easier to demonize something with a nonspecific meaning for exactly that reason.
There’s a meme that says “everything I don’t like is woke”, and while it’s funny, that’s literally the process that happens when such terms become catchalls – what they catch depends on what any individual speaker wants out of using it.
With DEI, the process has been the same. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are many people who believe it’s bad (because they were told that and lack critical thinking skills) and may not even know what the acronym stands for.
Reminds me of that time (as if it was only once) a depressing amount of people, mostly conservatives, didn’t know that the ACA and “Obamacare” mean the same thing.
Conservative politics depend heavily on placing labels on everything because it’s a built-in way of telling the rubes what they should think and feel.