A new trend is popping up in some left-wing corners online, where critics of President Donald Trump are embracing things generally considered offensive or politically incorrect to go scorched earth on Republicans.
It's called DarkWoke, a nod to the "Dark Brandon" trend, which fans of former President Joe Biden coined in response to the right's "Let's Go Brandon" digs.
On X, proponents of the trend have leaned into it to crack jokes about deporting undocumented Trump supporters and being okay with using slurs—as long as it's targeting a right-winger.
"Me calling ICE on my Mexican neighbor’s illegal Grandmother because they voted for Trump #DarkWoke," reads one such post.
"We're building a movement," one viral post that has racked up nearly two million views states, along with images calling for Elon Musk and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be raped.
"#DarkWoke," another poster quipped of that post.
Other fans of the trend were quick to defend a TikTok creator who came under fire from right-wingers after posting a video mocking RFK Jr.'s spasmodic dysphonia, a neurological condition that causes his vocal cords to spasm involuntarily.
"Based and hilarious #DarkWoke," one commenter replied to criticism of the video.
Based and hilarious #DarkWoke
— Tim (@trouble_man90) January 30, 2025
The growing—but still fringe—movement is partly ironic, though many are serious about the need for new, no-apologies messaging from Democrats.
"Dark Woke is the way forward. No more of this namby-pamby language policing that nobody likes," one X user said in response to an article about an ex-Biden supporter who wanted the freedom to say the f-word and r-word.
"When someone says a slur to you the response shouldn't be 'wehhh you can't say that', your response should be to call them a slur right back," the user added.
"the enemy doesn't care about your emotions so why should you look out for theirs. bad people should be ridiculed and told to k!ll themselves," argued one of the trend's supporters.
Another person argued that some on the right lost the privilege of politeness.
"dark woke is when someone is really evil, they lose the privileges of PC, such as RFKs speech impediment," he wrote. "you should never make fun of someone for smth out of their control but when you are a nazi willing to kill kids and also sound like that, you wont catch me on the high road."
"#DarkWoke is funny as hell but remember it should be the act of leaving civility politics behind, not just straight up being a bigot 'for the greater good' or whatever," argued someone else.
But far from everyone on the left is on board with the trend.
"'Dark Woke' is just being racist and ableist against conservatives..." criticized one user.
"The last bastion for liberalism has been to revel in the pain and suffering that their opposition will inflict on the most vulnerable amongst us," blasted another person.
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