I Actually Don't Know What "Woke" Means.

I'm sort of a stickler about language.  My offspring lovingly (I hope) call me the "grammar Nazi."

"Woke" is a verb, sort of, and it's the past tense of wake.  But it's sort of a sloppy usage, and the better way to say it is awakened.  Awoke isn't awful.  Although it can also be an adjective, but not a correct one, and the way to say that is awake.  I awakened or awoke someone, and they're awake.  That sounds like an advantage.

But "woke" has been perverted into a word with a meaning that really doesn't...mean anything.  It's used as a criticism of or insult to liberals.  As best I can tell, making my best effort to read between the lines, "woke" sort of means...well...liberal.  It's very nonspecific.  Conservatives use the word "woke" to mean any of a range of things, like being anti-racist, or opposed to police brutality, or permissive of personal choice regarding sexual preference, or permissive of personal choice about abortion, or almost anything for which liberals advocate.  I'm leaving aside entirely why conservatives don't advocate for the same things, since none of this affects them in any way.  But for whatever are their reasons, they don't advocate for those things (that most Americans want), and they call anyone who does advocate for them  "woke."

This past weekend, I visited friends who spend most of the winter on the Gulf Coast of Florida.  They're right on the coast, or on the western intracoastal (but with easy access to the Gulf), and they're so close to the water that they have a sailboat within very short walking distance of their apartment.  We met up at about dinner time Friday, I was there all day Saturday, and I left late Sunday morning.  Not that you have any reason to care, but we had a wonderful time together.  Except for one problem.  As it turns out, there's apparently an overwhelming algae bloom right now.  The term "red tide" was mentioned, but the water looked to me to be green.  The wife, who's very familiar with how the surroundings are supposed to look, said it looked a little brown to her.  And here's what happens when the algae is out of control.  Everyone coughs, even though you don't see anything that looks like a fog.  People who probably wouldn't otherwise wear masks wear them.  Fishermen don't catch any fish, because all the fish are dead.  (The algae sucks up all the oxygen, so the fish can't breathe, and the result is a "dead zone.")  If you go for a ride in your boat (we did), you soon enough just want to go back home, between the coughing and the extensive distribution of dead fish floating on the water.

I would be the first to admit that I had close to the dimmest possible view of Ron DeSantis when he first ran.  He presented himself as a MAGA and Trump sycophant, which indicated that he was really stupid.  (It's not clear to me how an Ivy League educated person can be that stupid, or how someone who doesn't have a head injury, dementia, or other brain disease, can get stupider over time, but he has.)  However, I must admit that when DeSantis first ran, I was frankly impressed that he claimed to take a great interest in Florida waterways, streams, and the Ocean and the Gulf, and he alleged that he was going to protect them.

So, here's how algae blooms and dead zones occur.  Those in the agriculture industry load massive amounts of fertilizer on various plants, trees, and groves, that fertilizer eventually washes into waterways and makes its way to places like the Gulf and the Ocean, it supercharges the algae, which massively overgrows, sucking up all the oxygen, and nothing else can grow.  So if DeSantis claimed he was going to do one thing in the interest of this state, he didn't do it.  It's actually gone the other way.

I was listening on the radio to stories about the various ways Reps/cons want to prioritize "business" above everything else, and that's what they're doing.  As my friend said, instead of DeSantis doing anything to protect the state of Florida and the people who live here, he dedicates himself single-mindedly to denigrating Democrats.

And DeSantis isn't the only one.  I get petitions all day, every day.  I sign many of them.  The ones that are directed to Florida's US Senators and our area's US Representative commonly result in some sort of boilerplate reply.  The replies that come from Rick Scott and Fredericka Wilson are devoid of content.  Many of the ones that come from Marco Rubio also lack content.  But some of Rubio's responses do have content.  And the content is always the same: he's offered a bill about just that matter, and the Democrats are terrible.  He can't even reply about any issue without trashing Democrats.

Well, I still don't know what "woke" means, except it seems to be some mindless mantra that comes from conservatives, and is intended somehow to suggest some unspecified insult to liberals.  I think if conservatives had an actual agenda, they'd communicate that instead.  At least I'm back home now, so I'm not coughing from algae fumes any more.  It would be nice to have a governor who gave a shit.