Paul --- I'm glad you cited Allison's article on the history of the word "woke," because it was extremely eye-opening to me when I'd first read it several weeks ago. But, as she even implies within the article: now that the word "woke" HAS been misappropriated beyond its original intent, the question becomes how we deal with it from this point forward?

This ties into what I believe Hermes is trying to say: that there is this religious, cult-like behavior possessed by people who often self-identify as "woke" -- much of it performative, and most of it practiced as a way of juxtaposing themselves as "morally-superior" compared to everyone else. This is a subculture predominantly found within leftist circles, although I wouldn't go so far as to say it's emblematic of "the Left" as a whole. But it needs to be dealt with. They want to be the only voices in the echo chamber.