How the idea of 'wokeness' was bludgeoned beyond recognition

In the year 2023, former President Donald Trump decided he was fed up with the term “woke.” At a rally in June, he said, “I don’t like the term ‘woke,’ because I hear woke, woke, woke. You know it’s like just a term they use, half the people can’t even define it. They don’t know what it is.” It was a striking admission from a demagogue who had long used the term to whip up reactionary fury over a supposed social revolution. Given that Trump doesn’t back away from language because it’s unclear or tainted by bad faith usage, his lament hinted at exhaustion, the realization that so-called “wokeness” can’t be milked for fearmongering the way it once could.