When did normies become "woke"?

[Erich Honecker]

I can't pinpoint when it started. What I do remember is that around 2016, maybe even as late as 2017, it felt like SJWism (as it was called then) was a widely unpopular ideology. There were several memes against it which were reposted on Facebook, Twitter and Youtube to the point of being overplayed. Eg. The triggered feminist, "Did you just assume my gender?", "I identify as an Apache attack helicopter", "Making a joke in 2016" with the image being a guy dodging multiple lasers, various things restating there being only two genders, etc. Edgy humour in general also seemed to be making a resurgence at the time, after having waned somewhat in the early 10s.

All this coupled with the political events of that year seemed to lead a lot of people to proclaim that SJWism had lost, that the vast majority of normies were clearly against it, and that the true believers would simply recede into the background and seethe. There are a few threads and posts on this board from circa 2016 that seem to make arguments to that effect, that SJWism was dead and buried and would become irrelevant.

But none of that came to pass. Instead, the opposite happened. I personally know several people IRL who went as far as being outright Trump sympathisers (though not American), and who were absolutely the types to make edgy anti-trans and racially tinged jokes in 2016ish, but who have done something of an about-face and now renounce their "problematic" pasts. When I was still active on Twitter in 2020, there was also a wider trend of very left-wing progressive people who talked about how they used to be anti-SJWs, but look back on that period of their life as "cringe" and of course now embrace all the pro-trans and pro-BLM talking points. What was the widely mocked trend of SJWism in 2014-2017 became the all-pervasive suffocating culture of "woke" that exists now, and it's weird because I can't really identify when - or why - that shift took place.

On a deeper level, it's scary to look back on things that were popular just a few short years ago and think "yeah, that couldn't happen now". I remember the first beginnings of the current transgender movement being ridiculed across social media and in certain parts of the mainstream news around 2014. Now, we have news outlets and politicians alike pussyfooting around it and seeming scared to call the bullshit out even if you know they disagree. The most ridiculous are supposedly "Conservative" politicians who are now nominally pro-trans, that would have been utterly unthinkable even a few short years ago. And normies who used to scoff at the pronoun nonsense are now mass adopting the trend of putting their he/him and she/her pronouns into all their social media profiles. Just when did this stuff all become mainstreamed exactly, and how did it happen even despite of the right's supposed culture war "victories" of 2016?

 

[Red Hood]

A lot of it's fear. Normies fear having their lives ruined by the woke so they won't say what they really think, they'll support the globohomo agenda publicly while being disgusted by it privately.

They fear rioters on their front doorsteps, they fear losing their jobs to cancel culture, they fear losing everything for a slip of the tongue.

 

[Dom Cruise]

Normies buy into the narrative that Trump and his followers are Nazis.

They might have found some aspects of SJWs weird but as soon as it was framed "but the other guys are Nazis" they picked the side of Woke.

 

[Jonah Hill poster]

It’s trendy to be a doormat for an ideology that’s not even popular outside of America.

 

[Lee Crabb]

Are you sure you aren't mixing up normies and left of center grifters?

 

[Erich Honecker]

Are you sure you aren't mixing up normies and left of center grifters?

It might just be my age group (young millennial/old zoomer boundary) but there's a scary amount of overlap now. Like I said, I have some friends and people I know from university etc who were absolutely not in the "SJW" camp a few years back and several even mocked it, but in 2021 they are mostly in line with the "woke" opinion on cultural/gender/race issues.

Where there seems to still be a lot of backlash is in issues of censorship. Take the Blizzard sexual harassment allegations for instance. Most people I know who know about them believe the allegations wholeheartedly, and so is the general consensus on Reddit and other normie nerd sites. The allegations if you read into them are mostly bogus and overblown shit that I think would have never got so much traction, say, 10 years ago. So I'd class their widespread acceptance as being a sign of how the old SJWs mostly ended up winning the argument on sexual issues. But then you have the slew of content in WoW and Overwatch getting censored or removed because of those allegations, and on that topic, most people I know seem to be completely against it, and even the subreddits are outraged and calling it a hysterical overreaction. So, while people seem to be a lot more "woke" here in the sense of willing to believe wishy-washy #MeToo type accusations and condemn the people involved instantly, they aren't yet in agreement with the "ban everything that offends me" extremists.

 

[Billy Beer]

Never, they're just fickle downie spastics who will go with whatever is socially relevant and culturally popular. It's why they're normies.

 

[UzumakiLeaf]

I think alot of it is fear as well and wanting to fit in and be on the "right side of history". Most people want to be and do good and be respected by their community. When the good thing seems to be supporting the narrative and anyone who disagrees is a bad person Most will give in.

Hell, when I tried to give Trump credit for something to a lefty friend I got my head bitten off. I don't want to derail this thread into being about Trump so I won't go into the details. What I learned from this interaction is you don't try with these people and my lefty friends would likely throw my ass under the bus to the PC police. So I shut up, give generic answers, and try to change the topic away from anything political.

Then you have all the censorship, calls for more censorship, and the fucking algorithms controlling what you see. It is hard to not get blackpilled. Most people do not even want to break out of their bubble or hear other perspectives. Then they go down the rabbit hole and get further radicalized to the point where acknowledging biological reality is bigoted (transphobe).

I think people being terminally online is fucking them up as well. You say something the community "agrees", you get a bunch of likes, then you double down to get more likes whether you agree or disagree with what you actually said. If you say the wrong thing and get assblasted, well you don't post the wrongthink anymore and then you bend to the will of the mob. Few people are willing to standby their controversial views.

Then there is the fear the mob could come for you or you want to show how virtuous you are so you change your avatar to whatever the symbol of the flavor of the month "oppressed" community is and make the stunning and brave statement about how you support them.

I think the worst of the normies embracing clown world is an illusion but I think some of it is sinking in which scares me.

 

[Bongocat]

Do not mistake twitter for normies. Twitter users are legitimately the top worst 5% of people on the entire planet. When I get a resume on my desk and it has a twitter account, I immediately knock off points regardless of what's even on it.

 

[Stormy Daniel's Lawyer]

Normies were pushed to support BLM and Troonish bullshit due to fear and nothing else. Everyone sees what happens when you take a stand against these online mobs of nobodies. They come calling with doxing, online harassment, and censorship tactics.

People who value online peace and quiet simply go along to get along with the mouth-foamers.

 

[I Love Beef]

Everyone sees what happens when you take a stand against these online mobs of nobodies. They come calling with doxing, online harassment, and censorship tactics.

And they call this place "alt right nazi land full of evil."

At least when I do it, I know I'm going after the scum of the earth.

 

[Lee Crabb]

It might just be my age group (young millennial/old zoomer boundary) but there's a scary amount of overlap now. Like I said, I have some friends and people I know from university etc who were absolutely not in the "SJW" camp a few years back and several even mocked it, but in 2021 they are mostly in line with the "woke" opinion on cultural/gender/race issues.

Where there seems to still be a lot of backlash is in issues of censorship. Take the Blizzard sexual harassment allegations for instance. Most people I know who know about them believe the allegations wholeheartedly, and so is the general consensus on Reddit and other normie nerd sites. The allegations if you read into them are mostly bogus and overblown shit that I think would have never got so much traction, say, 10 years ago. So I'd class their widespread acceptance as being a sign of how the old SJWs mostly ended up winning the argument on sexual issues. But then you have the slew of content in WoW and Overwatch getting censored or removed because of those allegations, and on that topic, most people I know seem to be completely against it, and even the subreddits are outraged and calling it a hysterical overreaction. So, while people seem to be a lot more "woke" here in the sense of willing to believe wishy-washy #MeToo type accusations and condemn the people involved instantly, they aren't yet in agreement with the "ban everything that offends me" extremists.

Some thoughts (I'm tired, so there might be inconsistencies):

1) I think "normies" are by their very nature not all that political and that most of them don't even know what "woke" or SJW even mean. And when they DO get political, its tends to be in a pretty surface level non-confrontational and non-committal way. Racism and crooked cops bad? Yeah BLM! Rape bad? Yeah #me too! It doesn't necessarily mean kill whitey and all men like political animals.
2) I'd say its important not to put too much emphasis on personal experiences to make a society wide observations.
3) People change in both directions. I mean, in the last 10 years I went from a center right wishy washy universalist "everyone goes to Heaven" Christian to unironic Deus lo vult "the French Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race" monarchist. I might change in another 10 years. I might not.
4) As an addendum to #3, I don't know what the future holds for certain, but the political pendulum is undoubtedly a real thing. Its clear as day when you look at history. Victorian sensibilities were a direct response to the sheer dresses and religious irreverence of the Regency era/French Revolution. The "everything goes" zeitgeist of the Roaring 20s gave way to the 1950s ultra trad housewife. Wokism will die. It might take another 10-20 years, but its going to wear out its welcome eventually like the last Progressive era.

 

[Stormy Daniel's Lawyer]

And they call this place "alt right nazi land full of evil."

At least when I do it, I know I'm going after the scum of the earth.

If you disagree with the online mob over the thickness of ketchup, you are a racist, homophobic, blah, blah, blah cis white Nazi..

 

[Dojima's Dragon]

Started noticing this with youtubers that i used to watch slowly becoming full blown lefties like h3h3 and NFKRZ that were against the sjw bs and the comments in some of the youtubers i watch becoming leftist orgies

It’s trendy to be a doormat for an ideology that’s not even popular outside of America.

Go tell that to the lefties in the white house who will either sanction your ass or coincidentally your country has DEMOCARCY

 

[Mewtwo_Rain]

The earliest I saw SJW shit being pushed was in the 1990's near the end (start of early 2000's) first time I saw it was on forums like Game Faqs which ironically had some of the most left wing (by yesterday's standards) tos rules of it's time. People followed it to keep in line. Around 2005 is when I began seeing pushes of "including gay characters and minorities because representation" this was before hearing of it popping up on campus which I didn't hear about until 2010-2014. 2011 was my first argument with what we now call the SJW mindset, and the problem is they were good at manipulating the conversation with good intentions which used debate magic and pseudo intellectual argument and that swooned normies over.

It wasn't until around 2015 (late) and 2016 I saw youtubers start adopting SJW mindset to their fanbases, and those fearful of it (Thoughty-Two for instance)

The reason the SJW's took over normies is because they took it over with violence and force and since the right sat by like a good little boy normies adopted it in fear of facing violenc and these people would attack and force it on their own families.. The SJW ideas had begun to bleed into movies for decades. I sometimes rewatch old movies that I never noticed politics in and notice they have them in it. Subtle but they reinforced it to effect those with weak minds to push it on them so they would adopt those values. Since normies adopt things they see such as subliminally it wasn't hard to brainwash them over time. We're talking 1960-1970 movies here.

By 2018-2020 Normies had become part of the woke crowd or protecting it or "not noticing any SJW politics" because it became normal for them.

The problem when people claimed SJW's lost is those people were blind. Since 2011 I warned people of the left myself, when I first became aware of their insanity (around the first time I began debating them) The others were people who wanted to believe "oh it was just a temporary thing and it would fade." Now we have kids being trooned out on average and child abuse has become common or the sexualization of children.

The big issue many will have to realize is some ideologies should NEVER be allowed in society and even violence may not be out of question to stop it or gate keep it from taking hold, because now even normies are SJW-lites. Until the after effects hurt them and then they fall right back in line again regardless of ramifications. Many Boomers still just see the left as just "gayer and more diverse" instead of genocidal and nuts as they are.

A lot of people will realize they've changed from their initial position too but that is because of the overton window shifting largely over time to the left, and as a counter to how far the left is.

 

[TheBallPit]

I'm not entirely sure how to tie this into the whole "when did normies become woke" despair, but no matter the year, it was generally considered a wise idea to not talk about PSR(S) amongst friends, even immediate relatives, for fear of starting a hellish rucks. PSR(S) = Politics (fairly obvious), Sex, Religion, and sometimes Sports, as some people elevate their favorite football or baseball team to evangelical status (e.g., soccer hooligans). Unfortunately, given the rise of social media, people became more relaxed about broaching these topics to strangers, which then inevitably spilled-over into IRL acquaintances via emboldening online "likes". After all, if you got 1000 hearts and retweets from said electronic strangers over a politically charged topic, surely your parents and friends agree, too, right?

This eventually led to the tribalism you see today. As others have written, many people were dragged into SJW lunacy not because of its inherent appeal or faux virtue, but due to the fear of being ostracized and not being "good". It doesn't take much for an obviously insane ideology to become mainstream, particularly if it can be monetized in some fashion and/or lead to more favorable power dynamics. It also greatly helps when those viewpoints are warmly embraced by age-old institutions that should know better, like universities.

I also personally think the political right hasn't done itself many favors by deifying the rich and belittling or outright vilifying the poor. People who've been kicked to the curb time and time again will eventually latch onto anything, no matter how outrageous, to regain some social power and validation. However, that's another story for another time.

 

[Mariposa Electrique]

It started with new axis of evil. Macron, Merkel, Obama, and most of Northern Europe. I had a feeling when major news outlets began trying to force immigrants down our throats. They've been doing it for a long time, but this just seemed completely radical and unhinged.

 

[BlueSpark]

Being "woke" is just conforming to leftist ideology, so basically for hundreds of years at this point. But it started picking up momentum in the west from the 1920s onward.

 

[LeChampion1992]

I would argue most people haven't changed their views since 2015/2016 but what did occur is the far left and the corporate media began to work together. The far left unironically believing that they could effect corporate change. So the consent of individuals got manufactured. Basically non binary and trans rights got pushed to the forefront on twitter and Reddit via mass censorship and mass promotion.
Most Americans on the issues agree. But the reality is well the media has manufactured consent to make people believe that all normies are social justice warriors. Because of the dishonest framing by the media as our opponents are dangerous far right extremists people will natrually side with the insane left if the other side are literal Nazis as the media proclaims. But there is a catch a double edged sword so to speak. Because if the left says let us rape and turn your kids trans or else you're Nazis. Well I hate to break it to you but people will eventually break the conditioning and when they do ohh boy oh boy people can go from left wing liberal to far right reactionary very very quickly. Remember Weimar Germany had legalized homosexuality and was on the forefront of transgender research at that time.

 

[Knight of the Rope]

Normies were pushed to support BLM and Troonish bullshit due to fear and nothing else. Everyone sees what happens when you take a stand against these online mobs of nobodies.

A lot of them are just pretending, too; they know that they'll be left alone if they appear to be supporting the mob's nonsense, but behind closed doors it's a different story. They just maintain the facade because a lot of them have actual stakes in society (like jobs, a family, a reputation, etc) that they're not willing to risk with political bullshit, which is understandable.

One of my favorite personal examples: there's a guy at work that seems like the soyest leftie cuck you'd ever meet, until you get him on a night out in safe company and a few beers down. It was almost heartwarming to realize that he wasn't the damned soul that I thought he was, and that a lot of his apparent beliefs were deliberate slight-of-hand to distract the crazies away from fucking his shit up.