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What's Up With Memes About Going 'Dark Woke'? Here's What The Hashtag '#DarkWoke' Means And Where It Originated
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 political hashtag 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.
This mirror-world reflection of wokeness has been gaining traction on the internet the last few months, with people posting jokes about pushing their Trump-voting grandma down the stairs or threatening more plane crashes until DEI policies are officially restored nationwide.
The largely unserious movement, clearly an offshoot of the Dark Brandon memes that Democrats embraced in 2022, seems to have gathered some very serious proponents as of late.
Here's a recap of where "Dark Woke" originated and how it spread online.
Where Did The Phrase 'Dark Woke' Originate?
The hashtag "#DarkWoke" can be traced all the way back to May 2022, when Twitter / X user @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, @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 @DarkWokeness and @tenbillionswans using the phrase in November 2024.
When Did The Hashtag #DarkWoke Start Gaining Traction Online?
The term "Dark Woke" only began gaining real traction online in early 2025 after Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) posted a tweet replying to Libs of TikTok, saying, "Oh, are you triggered? Cry more." The post gathered over 400,000 likes in five days.
The next day, X user @ProgDirectorate then quoted the post, writing, "proto-#DarkWoke…maybe #GreyWoke? who will the first democrat to call republicans retarded be?" The post gathered over 1,000 likes in four days.
Early tweets about the hashtag #DarkWoke came from internet users finding instances of liberal voters vowing to abandon their more conservative family or taking glee in the suffering of others. A January 22nd tweet by X user @ettingermentum quoted X user @Matthewtravis08's post, calling his decision to abandon his "MAGA family" as a prime example of #DarkWoke in action.
Other internet users were more facetious with their #DarkWoke jokes, as seen in a January 22nd, 2025, post by X user @BlobMenendez. After @luvmoonv joked, "my Grandma voted for Trump so I made sure she fell down the stairs 🙄," posting a presumably staged photo of an elderly woman in pain, X user @BlobMenendez wrote, "#beastmode #DarkWoke."
What Are Some More Examples of People Using The Hashtag #DarkWoke?
Many subsequent viral #DarkWoke posts revolved around internet users taking glee at the prospect of Republican voters suffering at the hands of the politicians they voted for, with X user @shreyabasu003 posting about how her father is looking forward to proposed tariffs hiking up prices, and X user @PunishedChimp jokingly taking credit for the D.C. airport plane crash
For the full history of Dark Woke, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.
