Being called ‘woke’ used to be a compliment. Wasn’t it?

Hands up who five years back thought being called “woke” was a compliment? Please tell me I’m not the only one with my hand up.

Woke in fright.Credit: Simon Letch

I thought people were being praised for their social consciousness and their awareness of important issues in the context of current times. Instead, they were being insulted for those exact same things.

It seems quite obvious now as adding an eyeroll and sarcastic drawl to flip a meaning has been a mainstay for satirists forever, and our ability to virally spread clever linguistics courtesy of our digital age means everyone’s a lampooner.

Five years older, and none the wiser apparently, I recently experienced a flush of delight when it was suggested I was “virtue signalling” in one of my articles. My chest puffed a little as my eyes locked on to this admittedly unfamiliar appraisal. Someone finally gets me.

You see, I’d taken to reading about the Stoics during the pandemic when we were all doomed and I needed guidance from a group that hadn’t appeared before a royal commission. Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, Cato and Epictetus enlightened me with three wisdoms by which to live my life. Want what you have, be present in what you do and live a virtuous life, the latter now indisputably validated by the endorsement from that reader.

Marcus may have been proud until, like me, he realised that it wasn’t meant as he and his ancient mates may have imagined. I sat at my desk and entered “virtue signalling” into my browser and was confronted with; noun, derogatory, meaning “expressing social conscience or moral opinions to demonstrate one’s good character”.

My chest deflated, punctured by that one word that turned this seemingly positive statement into an insult. I was being accused of being a Miss Goody Two Shoes seeking praise and adulation. Seems my soft-hitting, anti-inflammatory, gloves-on opinions had hit a nerve.

Am I insulted by this derogatory accusation? No, just mildly concerned someone has cottoned on to my maniacal plan to lure the gullible into my evil web where I will be elevated to influencer, convincing them to subscribe to my dripping-with-sincerity YouTube channel and buy my snake oil. Note to self; must start a YouTube channel.

There is a more serious point of concern here, however, and that is the attempt to draw eyes away from an issue by discrediting the individual. Have we become so dogmatic, so polarised that we fear dilution of our chosen opinion if we consider another and will seek to discredit reasonable observations with name-calling in hope we will turn others away too?

US President Donald Trump has declared a “war on woke”.Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto

This, of course, is a mainstay in politics with barbs being thrown with such regularity it could very well be a contender for an Olympic sport. Punters will boo and cheer from the sidelines, demonstrating their undying loyalty to their chosen party. After all, we don’t go to the footy wearing one jumper and celebrate the goals of the team wearing the other.

Should only polarising views get an airing? The ones that like to kick down your door and get up in your grill whilst holding a megaphone, screaming their message until you agree it is the right one. Do I need to add a vitriolic spray to be considered genuine?

For me, being accused of virtue signalling is less worrying than not knowing what it meant. I’ve been around the block a few times and was an early adopter of adding “not” to the end of my statements when the movie Wayne’s World was released in 1992. I once was worthy!

In the likelihood the erosion of my slapstick youth will continue to catch me out, I plan to keep a tab open in my browser ready to search the definition for any compliments I perceive in the future.

As to this derogatory accusation, columnists who don’t roar at their audience with capital letters is not a sign of wokeness or weakness. Don’t mistake a virtuous piece as self-serving vanity, especially if you feel the need to call it such.

I had clearly hit a nerve in my rhetorical saboteur with their unkind comments, so quick to question my virtue. A much younger me may have blushed.

Jo Pybus is a freelance writer and host of the Alex the Seal podcast.