‘Dark woke’: what it means and how it might help Democrats

The dynamic among politicians has been shifting lately, as some Democrats embrace more confrontational, crass tactics from across the aisle. As the left ramps up for the midterm elections, it seems party members may be willing to try out less polite forms of communication, an approach known in online circles as ‘dark woke.’

What defines dark woke?

Party insiders say that Democratic politicians have been encouraged to “embrace a new form of combative rhetoric” aimed at “winning back voters who have responded to President Donald Trump’s no-holds-barred version of politics,” said The New York Times. This is an attempt to “step outside the bounds of the political correctness that Republicans have accused Democrats of establishing.” It’s an affect that “requires being crass but discerning, rude but only to a point.” Examples include California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s aggressive meme warfare and Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett’s “alliterative insults” (“bleach blonde bad built butch body”).

Republicans have “essentially put Democrats in a respectability prison,” said Bhavik Lathia, a communications consultant and former digital director for the Wisconsin Democratic Party, to the Times. There is an “extreme imbalance in strategy that allows Republicans to say stuff that really grabs voters’ attention,” while Democrats are “stuck saying boring pablum.” That has shifted with stunts like Newsom showing off knee pads on Thursday that he suggested were for leaders “selling out” to the Trump administration, said CNBC.

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The objective of the dark woke agenda is to “subvert the qualities that people think made wokeness cringe — the virtue policing, the polite ‘when they go low, we go high’ posturing,” said Kieran Press-Reynolds at GQ. The left is now trying to “go Joker mode to make Democrats cool again.”

Dark woke is a “meme with amorphous contours,” said Unherd. Sometimes, it is “merely rhetorical,” other times, it “offers serious strategies to challenge MAGA with a dose of its own post-liberal medicine.” Either way, it is “rooted in the same demand posed by grassroots Democrats to the party establishment: throw some punches, or we’ll primary you into oblivion.”

Will it boost Democrats?

Some Democrats are all in for the harsher rhetoric. Being able to “use this strategy of being raw and unapologetic and unabashed about our beliefs is something our base really wants,” said Chi Ossé, the Brooklyn councilman whose “meme-fluent, sometimes confrontational presence” on X has put him “on the radar of national Democratic organizers,” said the Times.

Others say there is a “line that Democrats should be sure to toe as they ramp up their attacks,” said the Times. You do not have to be “cruel to be sharp,” said Annie Wu Henry, a communications strategist who has worked with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), to the outlet. “We can be bold, we can be petty, we can be punchy and still have a moral compass.” Democrats “don’t have to replicate the right’s formula.”

For some, the Democrats’ new focus on viral dark woke posts is just a “lot of hot air,” said Alex Peter, a lawyer and left-wing commentator, to the Times. Part of the problem with the “mainstream Democratic Party” is that it “all kind of rings hollow,” he said. “I don’t care about another clapback. People want concrete deliverables.”

Dark woke content “could serve as a cathartic release for the many jaded progressives fed up with the tame grandstanding and insipid inertia of their party’s leaders,” said GQ. But right now, it “mostly feels like an algorithmic fad built on quick thrills, destined to become cringe.” It is “a meme, not a movement,” and “many people are already dismissive.”

The “real trouble with dark woke” is that it is a “plainly false, calibrated attempt at gritty authenticity,” said Ross Barkan at Intelligencer. “It doesn’t mean anything or stand for anything.” It is “awkward and alienating” when politicians suddenly decide they must “dispense with decorum to catch up to Trump.” At best, dark woke is a “cheap trick” that offers “shock value and allows Democrats to think they can suddenly make the Joe Rogan and Theo Von fan bases trust them again.” But “young, male, and politically heterodox” voters are not “hunting for garden-variety Democrats who belch out ‘fuck’ and ‘damn’ every once in a while.”