Discourse is a term coined by the postmodern thinkers Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida. The term discourse is intended to describe the meaning of language in all its dimensions. It is very broad; it also includes myths, narratives, explanations, concepts, and ideologies.119 Allegedly, dominant discourses determine how a particular topic should be discussed and what should be expressed through language.
From a woke perspective, language does not primarily serve to communicate about an objective, shared reality. Rather, language is the way humans create reality in the first place (see Social Constructivism).120
For woke activists, discourses form a kind of framework for reality: discourses influence how people think and what they recognise as knowledge. As an expression of political power, they shape human behaviour. Discourses encompass not only what is said but also what is not said (what lies beneath the surface).
From a woke viewpoint, knowledge and power are interconnected and interdependent in the Foucauldian sense.121 Woke activists strive to gain discursive hegemony to spread consciousness in society (see Critical Pedagogy).
Woke activists are therefore particularly interested in areas relevant to communication and knowledge production. To combat every form of oppression, persons with the right attitude should control discourses and ensure that the right ideas gain legitimacy (see Socialisation and Disinformation). Inspired by Foucault’s theory of power, they have made it their task to analyse, deconstruct, and problematise allegedly dominant discourses (e.g., as white, patriarchal, Eurocentric, xenophobic, racist, colonial, Islamophobic, cis-heteronormative, ableist, transphobic, sexist, environmentally harmful, etc.). Only ideas that are not problematic should be considered legitimate.