Its got a huge endowment and a strong brand that can be subverted into fighting for progressive causes instead of what it used to do. It's woke 101 playbook.
Basecamp and coinbase showed that you either choose to have zero tolerance of politics in the workplace, or the woke will make you spend as many resources as possible on political activism instead of whatever you used to do. A dynamic that has been so toxic to work dynamics and productivity that even a woke company like Basecamp had to course-correct.
The organizations that have chosen to forbid political activism at work have lost employees that prioritize this over work, but those that remained have gotten back to work with fewer distractions and its arguable that loosing people that prioritize activism at work over the company vision is a net positive.
What does the term “woke” mean in this comment? You use it like it has a specific set of definitions I should know, but it mostly looks like a catch-all for any uncomfortable positions someone would rather not confront.
In brief, “woke” means having awakened to having a particular type of “critical consciousness,” as these are understood within Critical Social Justice. To first approximation, being woke means viewing society through various critical lenses, as defined by various critical theories bent in service of an ideology most people currently call “Social Justice.” That is, being woke means having taken on the worldview of Critical Social Justice, which sees the world only in terms of unjust power dynamics and the need to dismantle problematic systems. That is, it means having adopted Theory and the worldview it conceptualizes.
Under “wokeness,” this awakened consciousness is set particularly with regard to issues of identity, like race, sex, gender, sexuality, and others. The terminology derives from the idea of having been awakened (or, “woke up”) to an awareness of the allegedly systemic nature of racism, sexism, and other oppressive power dynamics and the true nature of privilege, domination, and marginalization in society and understanding the role in dominant discourses in producing and maintaining these structural forces.
Furthermore, being woke carries the imperative to become a social activist with regard to these issues and problems, again, on the terms set by Critical Social Justice. This—especially for white people—is to include a lifelong commitment to an ongoing process of self-reflection, self-criticism, and (progressive) social activism in the name of Theory and Social Justice (see also, antiracism).
Roughly speaking, it generally refers to a combination of progressive political goals with a you're-either-with-us-or-against-us intolerance of anyone who is neutral (or insufficiently supportive) toward those goals. I assume this is more or less what asabjorn meant.
I am not the person you replied to (I am the root commentor). As he's been down voted he won't be able to reply for a while I think.
As it is, I think a good faith reading of his comment would just require woke to mean "people who expect their work to conform to their politics".
I worked at an investment bank recently, they just wanted to make money -> not woke. After that I worked at a brokerage, the CEO announced she wanted more female managers, not just because it would be profitable but for her political beliefs -> woke.
What the ACLU does is inherently political, talking about basecamp and coinbase here doesn’t make much sense to me.
The question facing the ACLU is should they be partisan (fight for the rights of just one side) or merely political (fight for all side’s rights, even the sides that you disagree with).
I would change the framing a little: should they continue to be non-partisan.
And becoming partisan isn't just a way of pushing for the core mission more/less effectively. It means dropping huge chunks of the core mission (rights for anyone you disagree with).
It is relevant because you had an organization with a clear creed and track record to protect the liberal principles even when its inconvenient, that is now subverted into political activism for progressive causes in the same way that similar activism subverted basecamp and coinbase.
Basecamp and coinbase showed that you either choose to have zero tolerance of politics in the workplace, or the woke will make you spend as many resources as possible on political activism instead of whatever you used to do. A dynamic that has been so toxic to work dynamics and productivity that even a woke company like Basecamp had to course-correct.
The organizations that have chosen to forbid political activism at work have lost employees that prioritize this over work, but those that remained have gotten back to work with fewer distractions and its arguable that loosing people that prioritize activism at work over the company vision is a net positive.