The Perils of the Woke Dictionary
In Lewis Carrol’s Alice Through the Looking Glass, Alice engages Humpty Dumpty in conversation -- a decision she probably regretted as he said: “Who’s to be master, the people or the words? Do we control language or does it control us?”
It’s a worthy question, and one linguists and anthropologists continue to ask because, as with most things, there is no clear answer. I will offer that in today’s world, Twitter is the master of us all. In an era of protest, it’s Twitter after all that gave rise to ‘woke’ and what I’ll endearingly refer to as the Woke Dictionary. These words have become so ubiquitous that I defy you not use them at least once today. The Woke Dictionary isn’t just words and phrases though - meanings can change based on medium, audience, setting. It requires a fairly significant degree of social competence to comprehend, but no one is offering a Woke 101 course for the uninitiated. You’ve got to learn by doing - and fucking up. The trouble is, there’s little patience for fucking up.
Language changes. It’s the most consistent thing about it. Social movements to change language in support of one cause or another are nothing new, and the Woke Dictionary is just the latest example. A few decades ago, feminists across college campuses initiated the changes away from unnecessarily gendered language. “Mrs”. to “Ms.” etc. It was a thing they could win in a time where the Left’s momentum had waned considerably, and who could blame them for wanting a win? The problem is, this emphasis on policing people’s language has persisted to the point of neglecting building real political power. And not just neglect, but has actively hindered it.
An undue focus on “correct” language can serve to diminish effective political action.
An undue focus on the use of “correct” language can serve to diminish any effective political action that the "correct” language was developed to seek. It’s not the words that comprise the Woke Dictionary that are themselves problematic, but rather the norms Woketarian Left Twitter (and because we live in an internet world the Woketarian Left at large) has created around them that serve to shame and demonize those who are not in the know. In the end, performativity ends up being valued higher than tangible political action. Evidence, perhaps, that in answer to Humpty’s question, the language is controlling us.
The Woke Dictionary is a magnificent experiment in prescriptivism. A massive peer-pressure campaign that results in aggressive virtue signaling and meetings filled with endless references to ‘proper’ language but result in little action. The culture developed around the Dictionary is at least partly to blame for the predatory cancel culture that plagues the Twitterspheres like some kind of 21st century Reign of Terror. Rather like another familiar Carrol character, Twitter acts like the Queen of Hearts, demanding guillotines for all dissenters.
Earlier this week, an open letter was published in Harper’s Weekly and signed by a number of writers and intellectuals from a range of political ideologies. Though it didn’t cite it by name, the letter denounced #CancelCulture and pleaded for a cultural environment open to opposition. Some of the original signers have since asked to have their names removed after seeing who else had signed. Oh the irony!
The eruption of argument upon the letter’s release is an example of what happens when the Woke Dictionary takes control. As Lefties, it is our duty to support dissent! And yet, with the Dictionary in control somehow we find ourselves demanding more silencing.
As we use up all our energy here on denouncing people for their language, we’re missing the real fight. We mustn’t let the Woke Dictionary be master, we’ve got to master it ourselves.
