I wonder if there’s a better real world example than ‘woke’ that demonstrates how Orwells newspeak works.

There’s ‘fake news’ but before that there was Lügenpresse I guess so it’s derivative.

Then again before woke there was Kulturbolschewismus, so again, derivative.

Hard to pick which era of thought terminating cliche was better. It’s a tough choice.

11 hours ago, Ethan Tremblay said:

It’s unbelievable these days though that people concern themselves with what sexual orientation another person is. Does it matter?

I don't believe for a single second that is what you meant.

10 hours ago, Ethan Tremblay said:

In posters attempts to out-woke each other and prove that they’re the sites No. 1 most perpetually offended person, you’ve misunderstood the point of my message.

Demonland has its fair share of the out-woke, perpetually offended & smartest person in the room types.

Gay issues are ho hum. Try discussing Indigenous matters or racism.

12 hours ago, Ethan Tremblay said:

In posters attempts to out-woke each other and prove that they’re the sites No. 1 most perpetually offended person, you’ve misunderstood the point of my message. So, I’ll explain and I’ll dumb it down as much as humanly possible; he’s gay and it’s 2026, very surprised that in 2026 people care and report on what someone else’s sexual preference is.

I think like you on this ET. Equality is the golden rule and treat people as people.

I do however feel that we need to have milestones like these to get to the normal and not a big deal part. For these people the struggle has been real and repressing a part of their true self in a football club and to the media world would have been extremely difficult.

It's not easy to get this balance right. I'm certainly not going to condemn those who just want to see people equally, there's worse attitudes happening in the world right now.

Edited Thursday at 22:551 day by layzie

11 hours ago, Big Col said:

Given that statistically they'll be amongst the 660 AFL listed players, obviously those who are gay aren't currently comfortable in announcing it (eg at a Brownlow function).

What disturbs me is that it’s the press who get hold of this news (by whatever means), and they use it as click bait on social media such as Facebook, because they know that it’s going to result in massive numbers of hits and it will bring out all of the homophobes in droves! All it does is add to the reasons that anyone, let alone an ex footballer (of any code), will remain silent about their sexuality… and I’m not talking about just in the sense of telling the world…it’s very possible they will be afraid to even tell those close to them. There is far too much encouragement of hate in social media!

I’d love to see gay players, rather than announcing themselves via press releases or whatever means was used in this case, just rock up to club events (even the Brownlow) with their partner, without making any announcement.

Woke is having empathy.

I care. Shoot me.

1 hour ago, rpfc said:

Woke is having empathy.

I care. Shoot me.

<sarcasm>Ok, I’m going to hit you with my greatest insult: I bet you’ve just had your 10th shot, libtard!</sarcasm>

14 hours ago, BoBo said:

Lügenpresse

FYI Lügenpresse ist ein politisches Schlagwort, das polemisch und mit herabsetzender Absicht auf mediale Erzeugnisse gerichtet ist und sich seit der Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts im deutschen Sprachraum nachweisen lässt.

14 hours ago, BoBo said:

I wonder if there’s a better real world example than ‘woke’ that demonstrates how Orwells newspeak works.

I thought that "woke" was just a cuss-word for the angry right. It avoids the brutal taskmaster of logic. It should not be assumed that those who use the term have something meaningful to communicate other than their discomfort and anger.

BTW Figjam is still a poo-poo head.

4 hours ago, rpfc said:

Woke is having empathy.

I care. Shoot me.

Barack Obama explains woke pretty well.

Having empathy means actually doing something. Being woke means posting smug comments on social media.

15 minutes ago, Cranky Franky said:

Barack Obama explains woke pretty well.

Having empathy means actually doing something. Being woke means posting smug comments on social media.

Good thing I don’t post on social media

17 hours ago, Big Col said:

Announcing that you're gay and played AFL football should not be of concern or interest to anyone. So why is it? Why don't we know about other AFL players being gay?

We don't know about other AFL players being gay because its nobody else's business how they conduct their personal lives, and the vast majority of the population, football fans or otherwise, have a million and one more important things to worry about.

There is a very small group of people, most of them in the AFL media, who are obsessed with this issue. I assume this is because they want to paint the picture that this is a safe, welcoming space for the gay community when there is a 99.99% chance that it isn't going to be.

Wow so brave, I think someone misses the lime light, who cares, this is not news.

On 26/03/2026 at 13:52, Wodja said:

Like different religious beliefs I don’t care who you believe in or who you think you are or identify as or whatever. Good on you. I hope life is good for you. (But please don’t try and convert me!)

....

It bemuses me how some mainstream folk get so worked up about and fear and even sometimes hate anyone that is not 100% like themselves. Live and let live.

Has anybody tried to convert you?

The Fox Footy commentary title writes itself.

"Leigh Ryswyk.

- First openly gay AFL player."

I thought that the term woke was appropriated years ago by old white bitter conservatives for anything they don't happen to like. The only person I ever hear use it is my boss at work.

13 minutes ago, Rab D Nesbitt said:

I thought that the term woke was appropriated years ago by old white bitter conservatives for anything they don't happen to like. The only person I ever hear use it is my boss at work.

the anti-wokesters are actually worst than the wokesters but both are unbearable.

12 minutes ago, BDA said:

the anti-wokesters are actually worst than the wokesters but both are unbearable.

Agree both are bad but the woke crowd started Cancel Culture & love to ban anyone who disagrees with them.

8 minutes ago, BDA said:

the anti-wokesters are actually worst than the wokesters but both are unbearable.

I do feel it takes a special kind of weird to go to the trouble of opening a thread and commenting that you don't care. Or to go out of your way to find something so you can then claim it is being obsessively shoved down your throat.

It is like a pub two suburbs away had a pot&parma discount night and you travelled there just to say you prefer schnitzel and why isn't there a discount on schnitzel, when schitzel is already discounted every wednesday at your local place.

6 minutes ago, Cranky Franky said:

the woke crowd started Cancel Culture & love to ban anyone who disagrees with them.

the anti-wokesters love a cancellation as well

which is one of the reasons they are worse than wokesters because they bleat about free speech all the time.

they're only for free speech when it suits them.

38 minutes ago, BDA said:

the anti-wokesters love a cancellation as well

which is one of the reasons they are worse than wokesters because they bleat about free speech all the time.

they're only for free speech when it suits them.

Actually I think the evidence shows the progressives ie the left started Cancel Culture. In particular extreme femminists and extreme transgender activists.

6 minutes ago, Cranky Franky said:

Actually I think the evidence shows the progressives ie the left started Cancel Culture. In particular extreme femminists and extreme transgender activists.

cancel culture is just a modern term for something that has been around forever Cranky. It was not invented by a bunch of manhaters

Ostracism, blasphemy laws, boycotts, blacklisting, ex-communication etc. etc. have been with us since we organised our societies.

3 hours ago, BDA said:

cancel culture is just a modern term for something that has been around forever Cranky. It was not invented by a bunch of manhaters

Ostracism, blasphemy laws, boycotts, blacklisting, ex-communication etc. etc. have been with us since we organised our societies.

Totally disagree. Cancel culture can't happen without modern communication & social media.

34 minutes ago, Cranky Franky said:

Totally disagree. Cancel culture can't happen without modern communication & social media.

Name someone that’s been ‘cancelled’ because of social media, and not because they said or did something wildly inappropriate?

36 minutes ago, Cranky Franky said:

Totally disagree. Cancel culture can't happen without modern communication & social media.

So feminists and trans activists control communications and social media and use it to cancel people. That’s your take.