I don't like the world right now

Being aware of social injustices is a good thing, but it can also be taken to toxic extremes by some people. It's that toxicity that caused right leaning people to justify their discriminatory and hateful views because nobody understands nuance these days, only absolutes

Alice-nice-Alice said:

Im long retired and write very little now despite I believe having valid things to say.

Me too. I was disheartened by a spiteful Amazon review, years after my publisher let me publish them under my own steam, because I wanted to try being a micropublisher]. After shoulder injuries I write very little now. I don't think readers realize how much work is involved in researching, designing, editing and writing a book, putting your heart and soul in it, then a random stranger who has only read a tiny bit trashes your hard work. 

Iain said:

Consider the way the claims of cultural appropriation lead to some people being hated on for having haircuts (eg braids or dreadlocks) that are seen as from other cultures therefore other people who are not from those cultures should be denied the right to have them.

When I saw you use the word WOKE my first reaction was negative hackles rising but reading carefully your post is more nuanced. 

The section I have highlighted very much applies to myself. I was a writer, both professionally and as a hobby (poetry). In my poetry, much of which was published in mainstream publications, books, magazines and newspapers, I often reflected on other social and ethnic groups, I am certain no publisher would touch them now for exactly the reason you highlight. The fact that I am a “privileged” white woman would mean the poems I wrote about (for example) disadvantaged black people in urban Manchester, people I actually knew and sometimes worked with, would be regarded as cultural appropriation and rejected.

Im long retired and write very little now despite I believe having valid things to say. Though now Im apparently part of the “global minority” my experiences should be valid!

Alice

Hergé said:

Why is being "woke" a negative thing.

It is not inherently bad but it is being taken to extremes in too many cases.

Consider the way the claims of cultural appropriation lead to some people being hated on for having haircuts (eg braids or dreadlocks) that are seen as from other cultures therefore other people who are not from those cultures should be denied the right to have them.

There are a wide range of areas where I see this happening and people who have no real business making a fuss are standing up to virtue signal their intolerance about it.

Awareness if good an appropriate in my eyes but so many people just don't have the sense to know where to stop. 

Jamesmac said:

hateful ideologies that I'm pretty sure EVERYONE used to agree were bad

I don't think 'everyone' ever applied to anything: All social media does is project the views of those who write it and use it most often - there are many who don't use social media but you don't know their views because they are invisible by default. To me, a sociopath is a clinical term describing a certain slew of characteristics, classed as 'severe personality disorder' -  an estimated 10% of the population. Every human has choices that could be described as 'good' or 'bad' [yin yang; dark light; positive negative - however you perceive it] - it is impossible for anyone to 'be' one or the other all the time [except for psychopaths, who are born without capacity for conscience]. If you are feeling down, it is likely you will perceive the 'bad'; if feeling upbeat, you will notice more 'good'.

So, in summary, I don't think people have fundamentally changed, it is just that everything is more visible because of TV, books, newspapers, social circles, freedom of speech etc. There is a huge amount of positivity in the world, but those who add to this are often not the sort who seek publicity or speak out. There have been 'bad' events throughout history, but in modern times 'ordinary' people often get their views aired and can protest - this is what I describe as, 'progress'. The other factor is that we have access to far more news than any humans in history - and journalists love the controversial, because it sells far more than good news.

Why is being "woke" a negative thing. To be aware of all the crap that's going on and being concerned about the impact it has on others isn't a bad thing!

Too many Rachel Rulebooks.

Tech companies are increasingly able to influence public discourse and government policies. They use algorithms to shape public debate so they can make bigger profits and they have an unfair advantage in shaping the narrative. 

I don’t think it is possible to say that more people are becoming sociopaths as people use the term ‘sociopath’ to mean different things. Its definition depends on which part of the world you are in. Perhaps tech companies are merely facilitating those with the loudest voice and worst behaviour.

I often wonder who the "silent majority" are?

Personally I think social media has a lot to answer for, there are to many keyboard warriors out there, spiiting hairballs of malice at people who they'd never hear of otherwise and have probably never met or will meet.

I'm woke and proud to be so, but I think it's a term thats much abused, is it wrong to challenge things that we know or believe to be wrong, such as racism, homophobia, domestic violence, rape and sexual abuse, to question the "respect" given to people who if they lived today we would abhor? We can't and shouldn't try and rewrite history, but we should question it, we should be critical in our thinking and not accept what we're told. We should ask questions about the motives of those who tell us what is real and what is not, no matter what end of the political spectrum we or they are on.

Honestly I think all that nastiness has always been there, it might not have had the platforms that it has today, but it didn't come out of nowhere, it is down to all of us to challenge attitudes and opinions we don't like and do it in a way that promotes dialogue before resorting to abuse and violence, although sometimes it's really really hard not to lose your head and go after someone who i deliberately trying to incite violence and abuse. It's one of the things I've noticed about rightwingers, they want to dish it out but they can't take it back at them and do try intimidation, abuse and violence, I've met a couple of them, needless to say I wasn't intimidated.

Iain said:

wokeness

An unpleasantly loaded word.

Desmond1979 said:

entering the Government and Corporate World; imposing their Worldview on us.

I find there are many people (even here) who often want ot impose their world view and values on us.

It isn't just the "big corporations" pushing this but many virtue signallers too.

The problem is the Industry imposing a 'One Size Fits All' society. Aided, and abetted, by the Counterculture Advocates, from the Seventies and Eighties, entering the Government and Corporate World; imposing their Worldview on us.

Jamesmac said:

More and more people are becoming sociopaths and being misled by other sociopaths to follow hateful ideologies that I'm pretty sure EVERYONE used to agree were bad

I think that is is just that the wokeness that has become more common has given those with the "bad" ideologies are now allowed to have much more of a voice than they used to have in the interests of "equality".

For example people who worship the devil are now positioning themselves as just having a different religious preference to those who worship whichever form of God the mainstream choose. Technically it is a perfectly valid choice as the likes of christianity has taken Lucifer and painted him as being bad when he is still an angel. When you lay out the logic it is a smear campaing so they have every right to be recognised.

The same goes with fascism - it is being promoted as capitalism and dressed up to appeal to the issues that their supporters want to have "dealt with" - all perfectly valid under freedom of choice.

In the end is there really "good" and "bad" or just perspectives that differ? Society and laws evolve so something that was bad 50 years ago is not quite acceptable (think homosexuality for example) so who is to say that what we believed growing up is still valid today?

Life is so many shades of grey that I no longer believe in good and bad in such monochrome terms - there are just laws that constrain peoples expression of things and their actions. These will almost certainly adapt with time in most cases and others will change to only apply to certain groups (it seems only the rich get away with stealing, lying and fiddling with kids now).

Social media seems to be accellerating it but I noticed a lot changing even back in the 1990s so to me it just looks like the evolution of society to meet the laws of entropy.

The Silent Majority will, one day, raise their voice.

What you have to remember is that those that are not “sociopaths” still exist. They’re just quieter than those that follow hateful ideologies.