Everyone Misremembers "Woke 1"

For the first time in the internet age, minorities were able to exercise power publicly, that's why the right wants you to remember "Woke 1" as out of control

I'm not sure why, all of a sudden, reactionary centrists and the right are trying to relitigate the woke era, but here we are. Maybe it's because Trump's approval numbers are a dumpster fire and conservative politicians are likely going to suffer historic losses this fall. I suspect that right and center pundits are trying to recreate the cursed formula that allegedly led Trump back to the White House two years ago.

There was also Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez going on ABC News and getting quoted out of context saying "Woke 1 was crazy," (she was quoting another person when she said this and The Hill made it seem like it was her own words). But through all the discourse, I find myself feeling like I'm taking crazy pills, because the so-called "Woke 1" being described is not at all what I remember having lived through it.

For one thing, no one has ever been able to define what woke even means. It originated on Black Twitter and meant being aware of systemic injustices. The term, to me, entered the wider lexicon when activist DeRay McKesson got arrested in Baton Rouge, LA at a protest and a photo of him getting arrested wearing "Stay Woke" shirt went omega-viral.

Does anyone remember that his shirt also had the Twitter logo on it? I do.

It was at that point that you really started seeing right wingers push back and attack "woke". And it morphed into something completely different.

Here in 2026, woke essentially means anything that right wingers get offended by: the existence of trans people, Black civil rights, whatever else has them mad on a given day. Conveniently, this gives the right unlimited license to expand their targets at will in the forever war on woke.

But "Woke 1" is another, separate concept, referring loosely to the time period and internet discourse spanning roughly 2017-2024. It's hard to pinpoint exactly when Woke 1 started but it definitely ended upon Trump's re-election in 2024. But no one today seems willing to recall the events of those years with any kind of accuracy.