In an email, a spokesperson for the Democratic National Committee said the party’s main account on X had gained one million followers since the beginning of the year, pointing to several examples of viral moments — some embodying the principles of “dark woke” — that had garnered some 800 million impressions across platforms in the same time period.
As if woke (woke 1.0) were not enough, along came a few different ideologies that refer to themselves as woke right. Then the term woke rightwas used in a derogatory manner to refer to wokeness on the right. Before we could work out what any of these terms mean, along comes woke 2.0. Surely, that’s enough. But no, apparently not. There’s also woke washing and there’s such a thing as a woke mob, apparently. Now we have to deal with dark woke?
I, the editor here, Justin Trouble, do not really mind. Actually, I love this stuff, all these primate foibles, this human behavior.
HISTORY
According to author Sakshi, writing for KnowYourMeme,
The hashtag "#DarkWoke" can be traced all the way back to May 2022, when Twitter / X user (at)ThinkLearnVote wrote, "Woke politics is the opposite of MAGA politics. Extreme left vs. extreme right. #DarkWoke #DarkMAGA."
It's unclear what the cryptic tweet meant to the serious, and likely geriatric poster, but other Twitter users were more literal about where they got the inspiration for the term. On December 4th, 2022, (at)RoyHinkleyPhD posted about taking inspiration from Dark Brandon for the term #DarkWoke, and encouraging its usage.
In late 2024, the hashtags #DarkWokeness and the term Dark Woke saw renewed usage on Twitter, with screenshots showing tweets from X users (at)DarkWokeness and (at)tenbillionswans using the phrase in November 2024.
#DarkWoke began trending on Twitter/X. The hashtag – ostensibly a tongue-in-cheek reference to “Dark Brandon” – emerged in reaction to an exchange between the Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the far-right influencer Chaya Raichik.
Over the weekend, Ocasio-Cortez posted an Instagram Reel in which she explained her lack of interest in attending any inaugural festivities. “I don’t celebrate rapists,” she says bluntly. Raichik, whose social media account LibsofTikTok is widely recognized for proliferating the anti-LGBT “groomer” moral panic, shared the video, declaring “another person Trump should sue”.
The Congresswoman then retweeted Raichik, stating: “Oh, are you triggered? Cry more.” The post accrued more than 17m views, and in the process it birthed both a meme and a debate about Democrats’ approach to messaging for the next four years.
From 10,000 feet, #DarkWoke appears to be little more than an internet exercise of dirtbag left gallows humor. The most viral tweet associated with the hashtag reads “my Grandma voted for Trump so i made sure she fell down the stairs.” Attached to the post is a – presumably – staged photo of an elderly white woman recoiling in pain.
Another example pairs an image of the Philadelphia Flyers’ official mascot, Gritty, waving a Pride banner with the caption: “When he bludgeons homophobes with that flag that’s #DarkWoke.” One could dismiss the whole affair as black-pilled shitposting – aimless, nihilistic musings from a despairing online left. It would be a mistake for Democrats to come to this conclusion.
They make a point to report,
At a Senate Democratic luncheon last week, Cory Booker attempted to walk his colleagues through strategies to reach voters in the modern media environment. According to reporting from CNN, the best model they could come up with was a video of Senator Mark Warner making a tuna melt. Yes, in the same week Bishop Mariann Budde enjoyed a 72-hour news cycle for summoning the courage to call Trump a bigot to his face, Democratic lawmakers decided the secret to electoral success is sandwich tutorial videos.
They make that point to make their conclusion more pointed. That conclusion is,
In Trump’s America, disinhibition and transgression – not tuna melts – are the most powerful signifiers of authenticity. #DarkWoke is a plea for liberals to recognize this reality.
Progressive internet users are trying to encourage their Democratic counterparts to adopt the "#DarkWoke" movement and abandon their ostensible notions of civility in a recent politicalhashtag movement.
Imagine your typically polite liberal friend suddenly channeling their inner internet troll, gleefully sharing memes that celebrate and encourage cruelness in the ultimate quest for justice.
Soon after Donald Trump was sworn in for the second time, the internet started to fill up with clips of leftist vengeance, like the video of an anonymous body sprinting up to a Cybertruck and defacing its silver sheen with spray paint and a woman saying she used her daughter’s inheritance to buy a Corvette in reprisal for her having voted for Trump.
This is “dark woke.” It’s the newest evolution of what was once labeled, in Trump’s first term, the dirtbag left—a name for young progressives who weren’t afraid to viciously mock their political opponents. It’s things that you wouldn’t normally say or do, made acceptable because they’re directed at Republicans. The idea is to subvert the qualities that people think made wokeness cringe—the virtue policing, the polite “when they go low, we go high” posturing—and go Joker Mode to Make Democrats Cool Again. What qualifies for dark woke, per social media: A kid calling Trump “GAY,” A$AP Rocky calling homophobia in hip-hop “retarded” in 2012, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez telling the woman behind the Libs of TikTok account to “cry more” and asking if she’s triggered. One viral tweet described a dismal Travis Kelce stat from the Super Bowl—0 RECEPTIONS IN POSTSEASON FIRST HALF FOR FIRST TIME IN CAREER—as dark woke.
The flurry of these memes comes in direct opposition to the flood of new executive orders every week, as Trump and Elon Musk attempt to dismantle the government in real time.
Also,
And maybe at best, dark woke memes infesting the content streams will prime centrist Democrats for hardcore leftist awakenings. But right now, it mostly feels like an algorithmic fad built on quick thrills, destined to become cringe just like “Dark Brandon” did. It’s a meme, not a movement, and many people are already dismissive of it.
Note that at that time, March of 2025, Kieran Press-Reynolds wrote that
dark woke is in its current form
a
viral aesthetic
and a
a flimsy patchwork of amorphous vibes, a la cottagecore
Additionally,
“Woke” is such a stained word, it’s difficult to imagine anyone seriously rallying around it. The cutthroat “dark MAGA” has succeeded in part because that bigotry and violence was always lurking under the surface, among the racist forum dwellers and citizen militias and white supremacist influencers. There isn’t an equivalent “dark woke” ecosystem on the left. Without a critical mass of current Democrat politicians practicing “dark woke-ism,” the whole thing just feels like a LARP, a pathetic consolation prize for losing the election. It’s fan-fic—fun but not real.
If the Democrats do with “dark woke” what they did with Dark Brandon and BRAT—adopt it as a marketing exercise, a tactic to signal edginess without real follow-through—it won’t help them win elections.
The author concludes,
“Dark woke” is a rebrand. We need a new idea.
On April 21, 2025, the damn New York Times published “What Is ‘Dark Woke’?” by Jack Crosbie. In this piece, he writes,
Democrats are trying out a new attitude. It’s provocative, edgy and perilously toeing the line of not being too offensive.
He also writes that “dark woke” is
an attempt to step outside the bounds of the political correctness that Republicans have accused Democrats of establishing. And it requires being crass but discerning, rude but only to a point.
So far, it sounds like they are talking about having some wit and growing a sense of humor. Crosbie also writes that as
liberals try to get their groove back, some party insiders say Democratic politicians have been encouraged to embrace a new form of combative rhetoric aimed at winning back voters who have responded to President Trump’s no-holds-barred version of politics.
He writes,
Online, it has a name: “Dark woke.”
and he describes it, more-or-less, as having a sense of humor and being sharp rather than being a dull and moralistic bore. Crosbie writes,
“Dark woke,” for now, is a meme that lives mostly online. But its roots have been sown throughout the party for years.
“Republicans have essentially put Democrats in a respectability prison,” said Bhavik Lathia, a communications consultant and former digital director for the Wisconsin Democratic Party. “There is an extreme imbalance in strategy that allows Republicans to say stuff that really grabs voters’ attention, where we’re stuck saying boring pablum. I see this as a strategic shift within Democratic messaging — I’m a big fan of ‘dark woke.’”
This image is cropped from an image in the NY Times article in which it is captioned, “Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota is among those who have tried to embrace the “dark woke” affect. Credit...Jeff Swensen/Getty Images”
He writes that Democratic strategists say that a perfect example of “dark woke” would be when Jasmine Crockett implied that
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, after Ms. Greene made a jibe about “fake eyelashes”
had a, “bleach blonde bad built butch body”. Furthermore,
The reach of Ms. Crockett’s comment seemed to show that Democratic clapbacks could permeate into cultural spaces, giving the leaders who delivered them new platforms to spread their ideas. To a new, younger generation of Democratic staffers, this was exactly the link they had seen their opponents exploiting for years.
“All these new staffers, we grew up seeing extremely vile content overflowing from right-wing spaces into regular spaces,” said Caleb Brock, 23, the director of digital strategy for Representative Ro Khanna, Democrat of California. “We’re ready to combat that by any means necessary.”
Crosbie reminds us of when, in 2016, Michelle Obama said, “When they go low, we go high.”
Instead, some Democrats want to see how low they can go, too.
Democrats have looked within their own ranks. Chi Ossé, the Brooklyn councilman whose meme-fluent, sometimes confrontational presence on X has put him on the radar of national Democratic organizers, says he was recently asked to help the Senate Democratic Caucus with their social media strategy.
“Being able to use this strategy of being raw and unapologetic and unabashed about our beliefs is something our base really wants,” Mr. Ossé said
and, according to Crosbie, he made reference to Ingrid Lewis-Martin’s aforementioned, “When they go low, you gotta dig for oil” phrase.
I would like to point out the so-called “Eric Mays "When They Go Low" Sermonette” too.
Crosbie writes,
Lately, the bar on acceptable speech seems to have been set low enough that “you would have to catch someone saying a slur or something for it to really break through,” said Tyson Brody, a Democratic strategist and opposition researcher.
“People are pretty forgiving,” he added.
As evidence for this, Crosbie notes how short-lived the backlash was when, in April,
Ms. Crockett made headlines again when she referred to Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, who uses a wheelchair, as “Governor Hot Wheels,” a remark that many in the disability community found offensive.
Crosbie gives us the following to weigh,
But others say there is a line that Democrats should be sure to toe as they ramp up their attacks.
“You don’t have to be cruel to be sharp,” said Annie Wu, 29, a communications strategist based in Philadelphia who has worked for both Mr. Khanna and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. “We can be bold, we can be petty, we can be punchy and still have a moral compass. We don’t have to replicate the right’s formula.”
Still, Democrats have embraced some aspects of the right’s tool kit. As Trump advisers like Elon Musk have used slurs and profanity online, communications consultants for Democratic politicians have encouraged — or allowed — more swearing. Profanity, Mr. Brody, 38, said, is often seen as a “shortcut to authenticity,” though it can also be overused and backfire.
Crosbie notes that
Alex Peter, a lawyer and left-wing commentator who makes content under the handle LOLOverruled, said the Democrats’ new focus on viral “dark woke” posts was just “a lot of hot air.”
“Part of the problem with the mainstream Democratic Party is that it all kind of rings hollow,” Mr. Peter, 33, said. “I don’t care about another clapback. People want concrete deliverables.”
Republicans, as well, do not seem phased. Vish Burra, 34, the press secretary for the New York Young Republicans Club, said the Democrats’ fledgling attempts to go dark woke were not a significant threat.
“They’re getting spicier and being more vicious in their attacks,” said Mr. Burra, who has advised the former Representatives Matt Gaetz and George Santos. “Whatever. You have no power against us. The best you can squeeze out is Chuck Schumer on TikTok and Cory Booker going on for 25 hours?”
An other example Crosbie gives is something Tim Waltz said to which we will come back to below.
It seems that the Democrats have finally figured out which way they're going to go. In the months since Kamala Harris lost the presidential election to Donald Trump, it's been unclear what the Democrats stand for, what their vibe is, or how they plan to proceed.
It's been a toss-up as to whether they'd veer further left into the progressive wing of the party or embrace the center. They've decided: they're going "dark woke," veering progressive, vibing brat, and cursing up a storm.
A new article out from The New York Times paints a picture, with a photo of Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett standing in shadowy sunlight as the graphic, of a Democrat Party leaning into their dark side.
This is the same NY Times piece we looked at above which she discusses in her own way, all of which you can read here. We will, however, look at some of it to make a comparison. The NY Times piece stated,
“I know I’m doing something right when the Fox News crowd is all just bitching at me like crazy,” Mr. Walz said at a town hall in Lorraine, Ohio, this month. “I’m loving it. Elon Musk was crying last week, ‘Tim is being mean to me!’”
What does that look like in practice? It's Tim Walz blasting Elon Musk on stage, then saying he made the billionaire "cry." Walz notoriously said he enjoyed watching Tesla stock drop, despite it being a holding of pension funds for workers in his state. Everyone in Walz's party loved it while many others saw it as desperate, cringe, and out of touch.
Emmons also notes, about ‘dark Brandon’ and what the NY Times wrote about it that it
referred to "the version of the former president that conservatives most feared," the Times notes. However, the "Brandon" meme was based on a viral moment at a NASCAR race when, after winning, a driver was interviewed only for the crowd to be heard in the background chanting "f*ck Joe Biden."
The interviewer told viewers the crowd was saying "Let's go, Brandon," as the driver's name was Brandon. After that moment, saying "Let's go, Brandon" became synonymous with "f*ck Joe Biden" and Dems tried to rebrand it as a positive, but it mostly fell flat.
Emmons predicts,
As the nation moves right, the Democrats want to curse their bloody heads off, keep calling everyone they disagree with Nazis, and still not stand for anything. They say that cursing is a "shortcut to authenticity," meaning that Americans can expect more bleeps from Dems in the coming months.
I find Emmons to be an astute observer of such matters and would bet that her forecast will turn out to be accurate. Indeed, expect a hollow charade, say I, a pantomime not meant to mock but rather to imitate a way of conveying memes - which are not just pictorial expressions of ideas, but any ideas that propagate by way of imitation, so sayeth Britannica- that the right seems to be much better at in terms of wit, irreverence and overall effectiveness. However, try as they might, as the saying goes…
