Ever on the cutting edge of political insight, teleprompter-challenged Rev. Al Sharpton shared some of his incomparable wit as he turned an MSNBC panel into an impromptu focus group in a foolhardy effort to coin an anti-woke pejorative.
(Video: MSNBC)
It is widely believed that leftists, unable to win debates on facts, resort to emotional pleas, engage in some form of mental gymnastics, or press an attack on their rival to claim control of the argument. Friday, during an appearance on MSNBC’s “The 11th Hour” with host Stephanie Ruhle, Sharpton instead cut right through the pretense and announced how he would “change the argument.”
During a discussion on the meaning of the word “woke” prompted by a USA Today/Ipsos poll, Sharpton offered, “What I say to people when they start talking about ‘woke’ is, well what’s the opposite, ‘sleep?’ You’d rather be ‘sleep?’ And I think you change the argument. Do you want to be ‘woke’ or do you want to be ‘sleep?'”
“You have to define what ‘sleep’ means and what ‘woke’ means and you can’t let them define it,” he said encapsulating precisely how corporate media had covered for the inclusion of critical race theory in curriculum while denying it as well as the ongoing dishonest coverage about legislative battles to protect children from groomers. “Whoever defines you confines you, Jesse Jackson used to say.”
The poll from USA Today/Ipsos offered respondents a binary choice on the definition of wokeness between “To be informed, educated on, and aware of social injustices” and “To be overly politically correct and police others’ words.”
The vast majority of self-identified Democrats had chosen the former at 78 percent while little more than a third of Republicans had, at 37 percent. Independents had edged favor toward the first choice at 51 percent and the older the respondents were, the more likely they were to gravitate toward the second choice until the 65+ group, which lost eight percent compared to the 50-64 demographic; still three points higher than 35-49.
Ruhle fed off Sharpton’s argument to accuse the right of defining what “defund the police” meant and said “It was effective for Republicans to talk about defund the police because they redefined what it meant and then they leaned into it,” before asking, “Is it the new defund the police?”
“It is,” Sharpton gladly agreed, “and defund the police worked with a lot of elections around the country because we did not come out and define what it meant or to say that that is not our slogan. Cause I kept telling a lot of my friends…we should use the slogan ‘define the police’ not ‘defund the police.”
“But, you need to control the words. I mean, I’m a preacher, you gotta control the words,” he concluded with his primer on propaganda.
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
- Illegal immigrant shot by Ind. National Guardsman after stabbing two – escapes back into Mexico - April 15, 2024
- ‘Decline to participate’: Nonbinary physician at Minn. Children’s Hospital stresses need for proper pronouns - April 15, 2024
- ‘Unspeakable agony’: Two police officers killed in upstate New York shootout - April 15, 2024
Comment
We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.