The one word put-down favoured by media elites

afr.com:

Pat Cummins has been called it. So have King Charles and Pope Francis. Florida governor Ron De Santis has made it the centrepiece of his campaign for president. It also follows around everyone involved in the Yes campaign for the Voice.

The word “woke” has become the favoured catch-all accusation in political conversations. It was originally used by progressives to describe being aware – or awake – to social ills. But conservatives have latched on, flinging around the word as a put down to those who want progressive change.

Former president Donald Trump said he doesn’t like the word ‘woke’ because “half the people can’t even define it”. AP

According to new data from media tracking group Streem, “woke” has now laid its roots into the media. The media monitoring company found the terms “woke”, “wokeness” and “wokeism” have been used more than 35,000 times across the Australian media in the past year.

Online media was the dominant home to the terms, with almost half of mentions. TV and radio each have 22 per cent of the share, while print took up only 6 per cent.

It has become favoured by journalists, pundits and politicians who have been influenced by conversations happening in right-wing corners of the internet. Sky News Australia and The Australian’s opinion pages are now awash with “woke”.

Those who fling around the word rarely explain what they mean, raising questions about whether listeners or readers even know what they’re talking about. Former prime minister Tony Abbott appeared on 2GB radio in July accusing businesses figures who supported the Voice of being “woke foundations and woke billionaires pouring in their virtue-signalling money”.

Polling from The Australia Institute found 57 per cent of Australians were