What does “awake” mean? Kast’s controversial term for President Boric

Today, the founder of the Republican Party and former presidential candidate, Jose Antonio Kast , is visiting Europe. And, this Friday, he participated in a meeting organized by the American Conservative Union .

These are the Conservative Action Political Conference (CPAC) and The location of this year’s event was Hungary, a country from which he harshly criticized the president’s efforts. Gabriel Boric .

During his speech, Kast stated that ““In certain regions of Latin America, and particularly in Chile, progressivism is devastating and destroying our societies. » .

According to him, this trend it is “condemning them to poverty, marginality and insecurity” .

With, He assured that “in Chile we are governed by an ‘awake’ president” .

In this sense, he described the head of state as a president “who is under 40, who goes out to cycle in the street with police escorts, who arrives late for work, who comes home early” .

“There are even days when he doesn’t even go to work,” specifies the former candidate. during the meeting which takes place in Hungary.

After launching a series of harsh comments towards the president, He reiterated that “this is how it is, but so ‘woke’ that he promised that Chile would be the progressive paradise and ended up transforming it into a nightmare” .

“A real nightmare”, underlined José Antonio Kast .

The word “awakened” in a literal sense refers to “awakening.” However, the concept is deeper .

It originated in the United States and It was initially used to refer to those who are “aware of social and political issues, including racism.” as detailed in the dictionary of Oxford .

However, Over time, it began to be used by more conservative groups to address sectors with opposing ideologies in a derogatory manner.

As the aforementioned dictionary specifies, “the word It is often used disapprovingly by those who think others get upset too easily about these topics, or talk about them too much in a way that makes no difference. “.

On the other hand, that of Merriam Webster adds that used to talk about someone “politically liberal or progressive (as in issues of racial and social justice), especially in a way that is considered unreasonable or extreme” .

The author of a series of articles on this concept, Elijah Watson, explained to BBC in 2022, The term is considered to have been coined by the novelist William Melvin Kelley, since “in 1962 he published an essay in the New York Times title If you’re awake, you dig it (“If you’re awake, you understand,” in Spanish). »

In this time, The writer alluded to awareness of social issues, just as when the word saw a later resurgence. with the Black Lives Matter movement.

But Over the past decade, the other definitions already mentioned have also been attributed to it. which may be offensive.

For this reason, it is a word that can have a completely different meaning depending on how you handle it in what context and to whom it is addressed.