Freddie deBoer

I am becoming fond of the term "Substack Liberal." Disillusioned liberals still have the language and tone of liberalism when they criticise. Language alert.

The answer to the problem of what terms one should use if woke, identity politics, and political correctness are now disfavored is that it is the concept underneath that people are criticising. No matter how many times people say the phrase they like is entirely innocent but demonised by the opposition, it falls flat when the evidence keeps leaking out that they actually do mean what they are accused of meaning. Woke was intended to mean "alert to nuances of race, gender, etc in all interactions" and many people still think it was never anything worse.  But it got worse quickly, on its own terms, not its critics, and the opposition is not obligated to use words the way you are pretending you mean them, when you clearly don't. The term is poisoned, not because someone injected poison into it, but because its poison was revealed. "Reform school" was originally a hopeful-sounding name, and many people did want to strive for that meaning. But "kid's jail, plus some unfortunates whose parents should be locked up instead" is what it was, and there was no disguising it with language.