Star Trek Icon William Shatner Explains What “Woke” Means

Star Trek icon William Shatner, who played Captain Kirk in Star Trek: The Original Series, took to Twitter to explain what “woke” means.

The conversation started when Shatner responded to a now deleted tweet criticizing millennials for striking individuals from history who have been deemed “intolerable” by them.

Shatner wrote:

“Those children who grew up in that kinder gentler world use Presentism to remove books, have decided that any historical figure who has done things that by today’s society are intolerable should be struck from history. How is the next gen going to learn from past mistakes?”

Shatner would double down explaining that he finds it “utterly ridiculous” that individuals would attempt to use presentism, the idea of interpreting past events with current day values and concepts, in order to erase individuals views because they don’t adhere to current day PC culture.

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Given the original Tweet he was responding to was deleted, Shatner clarified that it “was a threat that Millennials could erase my past work.”

Shatner also explains it was in reference to Laura Ingalls Wilder and the Wilder Award which was renamed. According to the New York Times the award was changed in 2018 by The American Library Association because of “culturally insensitive portrayals in her books.”

The American Library Association specifically stated that the award was changed to “align the award’s title with the ALSC’s core values.” Those core values are “inclusiveness, integrity, respect, and responsiveness.”

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Shatner continued that the Library association made the change due to complaints.

That’s when Shatner would explain what “woke” really means. He writes, “To be woke is to be uniformed which is exactly the opposite of what it stands for.”

What do you make of Shatner’s definition of woke? What about his defense against presentism?

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