Army Gen. Mark Milley pushed back on claims from Republicans that the military is “woke” and as a result not prepared to take on modern threats, saying he’s “not even sure what that word truly means.”

“What I see is a military that’s exceptionally strong. It’s powerful; it’s ready. In fact, our readiness rates, the way we measure readiness, is better now than they’ve been in years,” Milley said in a CNN interview Sunday.

Republican politicians and candidates have blasted the Pentagon for so-called woke policies, pointing to efforts to recruit a diverse group of military service members and be inclusive to transgender soldiers.

Those claims have also headlined efforts to reduce military spending.

  • nucleative@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    The first few times I heard “woke” used, it was in the context of people who don’t follow the sheep because they aren’t asleep. Hence, they have woke up.

    • Copernican@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      It was always a vacuous ambiguous way to say someone was liberally enlightened without having to justify the claim with anything specific. That is true for both the positive and pejorative use of woke. I enjoy the song “Wide Awake” by Parquet Courts that made fun of the term in it’s original use.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        That is true for both the positive and pejorative use of woke.

        At this point, from what I can tell, there is no truth for the pejorative use of ‘woke.’ It means whatever the Republican saying it wants it to mean. If they want it to mean anything at all but ‘this is a bad thing.’

        • nonailsleft
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          1 year ago

          Well playing some bozos’ advocate here, but

          At one point it was very woke to expect the actors from Friends to apologise because they weren’t Black