Culture What Is ‘Dark Woke’? - Democrats are trying out a new attitude. It’s provocative, edgy and perilously toeing the line of not being too offensive

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By Jack Crosbie
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Representative Jasmine Crockett, Democrat of Texas, has on more than one occasion directed name-calling and insults at her political opponents

There was a time last summer when the Democratic Party was cool.

Kamala Harris had just stepped in as the Democratic Party’s nominee for president in the waning days of Brat summer. She went on the popular podcast “Call Her Daddy.” Tim Walz’s outdoorsy drip led to a Chappell Roan-inspired camo trucker hat. The memes were flowing, and the party’s mood was high.

That moment has long passed.

With Donald J. Trump back in the White House, the culture of dude-heavy pop-podcast programming, provocative insults and so-called masculine energy that helped him get there seems like the dominant one. And to some, the response from the left during the previous Trump era — defined by an earnest “resistance” to the president’s agenda — appears outdated and cringe.

As liberals try to get their groove back, some party insiders say Democratic politicians have been encouraged to embrace a new form of combative rhetoric aimed at winning back voters who have responded to President Trump’s no-holds-barred version of politics.

It’s an attempt to step outside the bounds of the political correctness that Republicans have accused Democrats of establishing. And it requires being crass but discerning, rude but only to a point.

Online, it has a name: “Dark woke.”

“Republicans have essentially put Democrats in a respectability prison,” said Bhavik Lathia, a communications consultant and former digital director for the Wisconsin Democratic Party.

“There is an extreme imbalance in strategy that allows Republicans to say stuff that really grabs voters’ attention, where we’re stuck saying boring pablum. I see this as a strategic shift within Democratic messaging — I’m a big fan of ‘dark woke.’”

“Dark woke,” for now, is a meme that lives mostly online. But its roots have been sown throughout the party for years.

In the waning days of the Biden administration, memes about “Dark Brandon” often referred to the version of the former president that conservatives most feared. Outside the party, the “dirtbag left,” the term for a cohort of leftists provocateurs who eschew civility politics, inspired headlines for their unrestrained derision of conservatives and liberals alike.

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Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota is among those who have tried to embrace the “dark woke” affect

Every so often, these political currents would come to a head.

During a meeting of the House Oversight Committee last May, Representative Jasmine Crockett, Democrat of Texas, found herself in a spat with Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, after Ms. Greene made a jibe about “fake eyelashes” that the chair, Representative James Comer, Republican of Kentucky, declined to prosecute under the committee’s rules on decorum.

“Mr. Chair, a point of order,” Ms. Crockett said. “I’m just curious, just to better understand your ruling. If someone on this committee then starts talking about somebody’s bleach blonde bad built butch body, that would not be engaging in personalities, correct?”

Ms. Crockett’s moment became a meme. It was printed on T-shirts. It got her an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel. And now, Democratic strategists say, it has become a perfect example of “dark woke.”

The reach of Ms. Crockett’s comment seemed to show that Democratic clapbacks could permeate into cultural spaces, giving the leaders who delivered them new platforms to spread their ideas. To a new, younger generation of Democratic staffers, this was exactly the link they had seen their opponents exploiting for years.

“All these new staffers, we grew up seeing extremely vile content overflowing from right-wing spaces into regular spaces,” said Caleb Brock, 23, the director of digital strategy for Representative Ro Khanna, Democrat of California. “We’re ready to combat that by any means necessary.”

Democrats have looked within their own ranks. Chi Ossé, the Brooklyn councilman whose meme-fluent, sometimes confrontational presence on X has put him on the radar of national Democratic organizers, says he was recently asked to help the Senate Democratic Caucus with their social media strategy.

“Being able to use this strategy of being raw and unapologetic and unabashed about our beliefs is something our base really wants,” Mr. Ossé said. He referred to a quote by one of Mayor Eric Adams’s advisers, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, who said, “When they go low, you gotta dig for oil.”

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Chi Ossé, a young councilman in Brooklyn, said he believes the Democratic base craves politicians who are “raw and unapologetic” about their convictions

It goes against the well-known credo of Michelle Obama, who in 2016 preached, “When they go low, we go high.” Instead, some Democrats want to see how low they can go, too.

In April, Ms. Crockett made headlines again when she referred to Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, who uses a wheelchair, as “Governor Hot Wheels,” a remark that many in the disability community found offensive. (Ms. Crockett’s office did not respond to a request for comment.)

That backlash, however, was short lived. Lately, the bar on acceptable speech seems to have been set low enough that “you would have to catch someone saying a slur or something for it to really break through,” said Tyson Brody, a Democratic strategist and opposition researcher.

“People are pretty forgiving,” he added.

But others say there is a line that Democrats should be sure to toe as they ramp up their attacks.

“You don’t have to be cruel to be sharp,” said Annie Wu, 29, a communications strategist based in Philadelphia who has worked for both Mr. Khanna and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. “We can be bold, we can be petty, we can be punchy and still have a moral compass. We don’t have to replicate the right’s formula.”

Still, Democrats have embraced some aspects of the right’s tool kit. As Trump advisers like Elon Musk have used slurs and profanity online, communications consultants for Democratic politicians have encouraged — or allowed — more swearing. Profanity, Mr. Brody, 38, said, is often seen as a “shortcut to authenticity,” though it can also be overused and backfire.

“I know I’m doing something right when the Fox News crowd is all just bitching at me like crazy,” Mr. Walz said at a town hall in Lorraine, Ohio, this month. “I’m loving it. Elon Musk was crying last week, ‘Tim is being mean to me!’”

In an email, a spokesperson for the Democratic National Committee said the party’s main account on X had gained one million followers since the beginning of the year, pointing to several examples of viral moments — some embodying the principles of “dark woke” — that had garnered some 800 million impressions across platforms in the same time period.

It’s not resonating with everyone. For some, the universal truism that it can never be cool to try so hard applies here. Others, too, have criticized Democrats for seeming to place a premium on affect over policy.

Alex Peter, a lawyer and left-wing commentator who makes content under the handle LOLOverruled, said the Democrats’ new focus on viral “dark woke” posts was just “a lot of hot air.”

“Part of the problem with the mainstream Democratic Party is that it all kind of rings hollow,” Mr. Peter, 33, said. “I don’t care about another clapback. People want concrete deliverables.”

Republicans, as well, do not seem phased. Vish Burra, 34, the press secretary for the New York Young Republicans Club, said the Democrats’ fledgling attempts to go dark woke were not a significant threat.

“They’re getting spicier and being more vicious in their attacks,” said Mr. Burra, who has advised the former Representatives Matt Gaetz and George Santos. “Whatever. You have no power against us. The best you can squeeze out is Chuck Schumer on TikTok and Cory Booker going on for 25 hours?”
 
The current liberal/progressive establishment will never be able to win any kind of "meme war" because they're unable to embrace absurdity. Any attempts from them at being funny come off as dishonest and out-of-touch.

Just take a look at what kind of memes people on the "right" are making in the current year:
  • George Droyd
  • JD Vance edits
  • Hyperborea edits
  • The lion rapes the small dog when it barks
The only "leftist" meme in recent memory is the "fell for it again award," which was gaining traction right before Trump crashed the stock market and is inherently tied to soyjak culture, which is undoubtedly "right-leaning" politics-wise.

As long as they're unable to make fun of themselves, they will have a hard time being funny in the first place. There's a reason why there is no liberal equivalent of Stonetoss, while there are multiple copycats on the "right."

And now, here's a rare example of a funny meme that could be pro-Democrat:
 
“Republicans have essentially put Democrats in a respectability prison,” said Bhavik Lathia, a communications consultant and former digital director for the Wisconsin Democratic Party.
No, you did that to yourself by using "respectability" as a bludgeon to keep cuckservatives in line, while being as vulgar and nasty as possible themselves.

I remember the Dubya years. Liberals were just as deranged and vulgar towards "compassionate conservatives". They only became the party of "When they go low, we go high" once the Right chose Trump as their champion.

And why did that happen? Because Trump doesn't give a shit about their emotional blackmail. He returns their own ruthlessness and vulgarity with interest.

When you're accustomed to your only opposition being pushovers who wave the white flag at the word "racist!", it looks like aggression when they grow some balls and stand up for themselves.
 
It really sounds like they're trying to make lefty memes into a business that they run and control. That's not going to work, you can't recruit people to create the "dark work" edgy memes because if they make something that happens to step over a boundary they're fired and dragged through the mud! Everyone they put to work will make super-safe unfunny memes with committee approved wording, it really is too dangerous for them to do anything else so they won't ever be able to accomplish anything with that dumb strategy other than pissing away money.
 
This is all about a committee trying to build an effective meme. They can't. They have no spontaneity, no sense of humor, and no willingness to go beyond group consensus. In the past, the Democrats at least had competent men shaping their communication, so they could embrace the transgressive countercultural figures the boomers are still reminiscing about. A bunch of middle aged women will never make that decision and never okay an opportunity that came their way. Brat Summer and Tim Walz were what they came up with, and that's their best.

But there are deeper structural reasons too. If you are someone trying to make it in the lefty ecosystem, you'd better watch carefully where you step, because one wrong sentence can get you taken down permanently, your life ruined, and your act blacklisted. Can you imagine someone like Sam Hyde surviving among leftists? Not even much milder people can, because getting offended is the leftists' currency, and the easiest way to gain that currency is to join the circular firing squad.

Also, what they are looking for is inherently masculine and competitive, and they can't do masculine. It comes from guys just being guys, and if there is one thing leftist fucking hate, it is just that. The kind of young, edgy white men they'd need to come up with good material are just about the most hated demo on their side. Even the talented homosexuals they used to have, the Milo types, have left them. This leaves the dregs and rejects. No wonder they are floundering.
That's a good analysis. I had a microcosm of that at work, where a senior worker made an off color joke at a meeting that was effectively something like "How do you know your girlfriend is getting fat? When she fits in your wife's clothes!" as an ice breaker. Well, some bitch who hadn't been there even a month got her panties in a wad, went to HR, tried to get the guy fired, and ultimately it ended with him having to humiliate and grovel in front of everyone at a later meeting to keep his job. When every joke has to be reviewed and approved by a humorless, malignant cunt like that woman, how can anyone be funny about anything? Well, you can't, and that's the problem with making a bunch of miserable sows your primary political base, especially if you want guys like that older male worker to join your political base.

Take Bill Bur for example. He used to be spicy and hilarious, and while he was a lefty he was not afraid to mock sacred cows with glee, which is why he was successful. Then he got old and lonely, wifed up a feminst sheboon, and now he lost every bit of edge he ever had. Why? Because he runs every joke past his humorless wife before he uses them in any standup, so every joke boils down to "white man bad, right wing bad, please clap". The closest thing he gets to edgy is mocking white women aka "Karens", but even then he is going more after the fact they're white than the fact they are women, lest he anger his testicle-keeper. He is a total has-been loser now, in no small part because his humor has to be approved by an HR commissar before it can be used.
This is just a rebrand of 'the problem is the messaging'. No consideration of the possibility the actual message is the issue, no real introspection, just changing the foam on the corporate microphone.

At the end of the day, as edgy as 'dark woke' will get, it'll never get to the point where it needs to be to get traction... putting even just the bare minimum discussion of 'we fucked up on a personal level' on the table, let alone introspection about their policies or the effects.

You can barely get them to acknowledge that Biden's late dropout was a problem. At best, you can maybe get a 'he should've dropped out sooner' from them, but never a 'he should've been shuffled off long before he ever got there'.
Progressivism is an inherently feminine ideology, so it unfortunately follows that it utterly rejects accountability and introspection as concepts. It isn't that their message is vile, divisive, and incredibly unpopular, but rather it's the white men who are the problem for not immediately capitulating the moment they are told to do so. They never alter the message to appeal to the people to convince them, but rather try to scheme new ways to either trick or force their objects of hatred into capitulation and submission. Any progressives who were capable of accountability and introspection stopped being progressives years ago, and if they still hitch their wagon to that defunct ideology, then there is no hope for them.
 
It's interesting how the Dems keep trying to come up with an angle of attack that will actually hurt the right wing, yet all they can come up with is pure cringe because they are made up exclusively of the most pathetic retards imaginable.

I recall a while back how some astroturfed "Mean Girl" leftist chick on TikTok was somehow gonna "save democracy" by snarking in front of a camera.

Of course, that worked out about as well as having a group of mentally-challenged bottom bitches shilling for Kamala during the past election cycle and now nobody knows or even remembers her name.

The dirtbag left is utterly irrelevant because they can't actually insult right wingers in a way that hurts. They lack not only the brainpower, but also the balls.

All of the best, most cutting, insulting words are verboten to be uttered by lefties, and that's why they will always lose the meme war.
 
And way back in the day, they supported slavery.
They still do.. all of the things they love come from slave labor, and Trump trying to end this has caused literal violent reactions from democrats

And don't forget about all that holocaust stuff
Of all of the various alternate history timelines that are speculated about, I wonder most what the world would be like today if Gore won in 2000.
Not much would change, bush and gore had the same essential policies and 911 was already going to happen regardless of who "won" and gore, being a Clinton stoolie, was already well primed for war with iraq
 
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any very cool guys here from the ORG?

if u know u know

I have a picture of one of ur moms. Shes like 30, short hair in the 70s or 80s I believe in a pink sweater looking somewhat intensely at the camera. She was hot. This is all the paperwork I have that I was once one of you. Perhaps still a few memes somewhere : (
 

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Democrats and Progressives lack credibility and authenticity.
Credibility is lacking because they got every major political scandal wrong. Or if they got it right it was so minor it was out of the news in a day.
Authenticity is lacking because during COVID it became apparent every leftist saying "I am fighting for Civil Rights" had a giant asterisk after it suggesting that civil rights came with rather large limitations.
 
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