Elon Musk made reference to the drop in Netflix subscribers. The entrepreneur attributed it to the “Woke virus”. This is what he wrote on Twitter:
“The Woke Mind Virus is making Netflix unwatchable.” What exactly are you referring to? It is known as Woke or Woke culture to the awareness of racism that is experienced throughout the world. The word Woke in English means “awake” and refers to waking up to this situation.
Although over time the use to talk about awareness of other types of injustices such as social inequality in relation to gender or sexual orientation became widespread. Nowadays, it is basically used to talk about any kind of issues of social injustice.
The term began to be used more extensively by the hand of the Black Lives Matter movement. It was then also used in relation to accusations of harassment and abuse that were reported within the framework of the Me Too movement. But this concept is not entirely new, but it has lived a revival.
Woke began to be used in the forties. “In the first 1942 volume of Negro Digest, J. Saunders Redding used the term in an article about unions,” reads in an article in The Conversation, which also reproduces this excerpt from a speech given by Martin Luther King Jr. on June 14, 1965, as part of a graduation from Oberlin College. The speech talks about “Staying awake (woke)”:
There is nothing more tragic than sleeping during a revolution... Winds of change are blowing, and we see significant development in our day and age... The great challenge facing every individual who graduates today is to stay awake during this social revolution.
From some sectors of society, especially those more oriented to a right-wing political vision, it has been said that this Woke culture has brought with it an excessive concern to be politically correct in all areas. This has led, for example, to avoid touching, in conversations, works of art or films, certain themes or jokes that may lead to potential conflicts.
The fear of cancellation that may come with saying or showing something that may be annoying or hurtful to a group that considers itself to be victims of social injustices or minorities has transformed art. This is the position held by some. This can be inferred that Musk refers to.
The director of Space X also published this other tweet in relation to the streaming platform:
“Can you please limit yourself to doing science fiction and fantasy that is at least (mostly) about science fiction and fantasy?”
And then he responded with a “true”, showing his endorsement, to a user who said the following about his first post regarding the “Woke Mind Virus”: “Not just Netflix. Movies in general, video games, television, everything is infested with woke fashion for fear of offending a green-haired geek next to the cancel button.
The fall of Netflix suscriptors
Netflix reported a loss of subscribers on Tuesday for the first time in more than a decade and predicted further contraction in the second quarter, a rare setback for a company that has been a reliable growth engine for investors.
Netflix lost 200,000 subscribers in its first quarter, falling far short of its modest predictions that it would add 2.5 million subscribers, and its share fell 23% on Wall Street in post-closing transactions.
The streaming giant explained that this decline is mainly due to the difficulty of acquiring new subscribers around the world, and also to the suspension of service in Russia.
The platform experienced strong growth during the pandemic. The market expected a correction, but not so strong.
“The suspension of our service in Russia and the progressive decline in the number of paid Russian subscribers led to a net loss of 700,000 subscriptions. Without this impact, we would have had 500,000 additional subscribers” over the last quarter of 2021, the company said in a statement.
In addition, this week the official Russian agency TASS reported that Russian users have sued Netflix for 60 million rubles (733,772 dollars or 677,071 euros) for the suspension of its services in the country. The class action was filed in the Jamovnichesky court in Moscow, as lawyer Konstantin Lukoyanov told the agency.
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