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Thanks for another astute entry in the Woke lexicon project, Peter.

When I hear people say “I feel unsafe” in response to a new idea, I hear their insecurity about their own knowledge and their inability to defend what they intuitively sense is an indefensible ideological position. Those who are open-minded, confident in their ability to reason, and tolerant of ideas that challenge their own embrace the opportunity as a way of honing their understanding, expanding their mental map, and refining their own ideas in light of new knowledge as per John Stuart Mill.

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Psychologists who come to those broad assertions are why trust in the medical establishment is at an all time low.

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This is where the woke doom adherents to poorer psychological outcomes. If you feel “unsafe” when you encounter a viewpoint you disagree with, you’ll have a difficult life. You’ll have the least generous interpretation of events, leading to greater stress and anxiety. At one point, I would listen to a woke podcast weekly, but I stopped mostly because the tone was negative and fatalistic. Everyone and everything is racist, and we’ll never overcome it. Cheery life!

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There must be a bit of wiggle room though and allowance for relativism, the whole problem historians face often has to do with modern contextual interpretations influencing the way we conceptualize the “zeitgeist” of an era. Both positions are valid and need to be heard; and both are also defensive. Both positions are taking their respective stands so that they may preserve their own natures and feel somewhat in control of their social environment. If the external environment is in alignment with an individual’s internal values, that individual will tend to feel more comfortable with themselves and their surroundings.

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I wonder whether it would be more

accurate to say “they claim those words make them feel threatened,” “they claim to feel unsafe,” “they claim to believe…,” etc. I think many, if not most, make these claims, in order to shut down countervailing arguments. As Margaret Anna Alice said below, they are insecure “about their own knowledge and their inability to defend what they intuitively sense is an indefensible ideological position.” It’s so much easier to claim words are violence and demonize those who disagree than to have to reconsider one’s views — along with the sense of identity to which they might contribute — and engage in the hard work of informing oneself and engaging in critical thinking, not to find rationales that support what they already believe, but in pursuit of an ever more accurate picture of reality.

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