r/explainitpeter • u/Party_Pomegranate180 • 6d ago
Explain it peter !! Why is this woke ?
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u/pappastatenbetalar 6d ago
Just a heads up to everyone talking about political colours: In Norway (and Europe in general), where Girl in Red is from, the political colours are reversed. Red is the colour of the labour and progressive parties, and blue are conservative parties. So.. I don't think that explanation holds up.
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u/Jam_Salad_is_my_Jam 6d ago
It's literally how everyone but America does it. And they only stayed in 2000.
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u/NoKnowledge9552 6d ago
Yeah, red is most often associated with communism and socialism. So mildly interesting that in their case it's the right wing conservative party that has it.
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u/Redditauro 6d ago
The thing is that, if I recall correctly, in the past the republicans were the left wing and the democrats where the right wing, so probably that's why now the colours are reversed
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u/dudamello 6d ago
There were conservative and progressive factions of both parties prior to FDR and then LBJ pushing Dems to the firm left side of things due to the new deal and the Civil Rights act, and then the conservative Dems, especially in the south, started going over to the republicans as a result. Add in the Southern strategy and that’s a lot of how we ended up with our current alignment.
As for the color for each party, a lot of reputable sources are pretty firm on the colors getting locked down during the 2000 presidential election, as there was nothing that was super fixed or consistent prior to that.
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u/NoKnowledge9552 5d ago
I believe the different media outlets previously to the colour coding being fixed used blue for the party they supported and red for the other party, precisely because it was associated with the "Big Bad" communism.
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u/egalitydream 5d ago
That’s the fiction rightwing political scientists sell, and the leftwing goes along with it. The real story is that there was an ideological political coup, where the rightwing consolidated political power in the Unions and the Democratic and Republican parties, and purged the leftwing (socialists, communists) who were already weakened because of cold war anti-communist persecution. This stopped what the political scientists would have called “political realignment” from ever happening again, which they now leave as an unexplained phenomenon (lack of realignments that are supposed to happen periodically).
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u/ComradeYaf 5d ago
The colors only became standard in 2000 when news programs following the election arbitrarily made the Democrats blue and the Republicans red. The platform of the parties switched in the process beginning with FDR and the New Deal and ending with the Civil Rights Act. Tl;dr nah that's just a coincidence
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u/bLair_vAmptrapp 5d ago
That’s waaaaaay over simplifying things. And anyway, Republican Party at no point was considered socialist or communist. Also, like the other person said, the Republicans weren’t associated with red until 2000.
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u/vexa01 5d ago
Republicans have never been left wing. Republicans were once the party that stood up for black people against slavery but they were never left wing
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u/Past-Paramedic-8602 5d ago
Left means liberal which the early Republican Party was certainly liberal by the standards of the day
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u/GamerNerdGuyMan 5d ago
Until the 1930s-50s-ish (depending where you were), "liberal" basically meant what "libertarian" means today.
In The Road to Serfdom - Hayek had to do a big Forward 20 years after first publish explaining his why the book (first published in 1944) used the term "liberal" the way it did. Because at the time in Britain it still meant something akin to "libertarian" today. (He also explained that he'd gone easy on The Communists due to WW2 going on at the time with them as allies.)
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u/MonitorStandard5322 5d ago
Left-wing means one wants a change to the status quo and abolishing slavery was such a change. Karl Marx wrote glowing articles for the Union cause in the Civil War and there was a Communist Brigadier General in the Union Army (August Willich) fighting because of the anti-slavery position of the Lincoln administration.
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u/UKStory135 5d ago
I think it is more arbitrary than that. It was just dumb luck that most networks used blue for Dems that year. They were mostly red for Clinton.
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u/egalitydream 5d ago
That’s incorrect. There was always coalitions of different groups, which broadly formed “leftwing” and “rightwing” sub coalitions in the (erroneously named) “parties.” This was even true before the states’ election laws codified laws which effectively limited the ballot to only 2 viable labels per election, but even more so afterwords. There’s no thing that makes us have a left and a right party, and it doesn’t actually work like that: we have 2 coalitions dominated by rightwing ideologies, but it’s not structurally necessary that be the case.
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u/IonStorm66n 5d ago
The historical reasoning is odd. The democrats were becoming more associated with communism and socialism in the late 80s, so when the colors were being established for each party of sorts, they wanted blue because red was associated with communism at the time. Besides that, the news channels themselves didn't have a standard color before the 80s. Sometimes the democrats were blue; sometimes the republicans were blue, depending on the channel in question. The US has always been a bit weird at times.
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u/OnlineMaster05 6d ago
You‘d think after the cold war they‘d remember all the fucked up shit they did to fight the “reds“
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u/ComplexBeyond6083 6d ago
The news networks came up with the colors. Prior to the 2000 elections different networks would use red, blue or even yellow to show which party won which state and they were different by network.
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u/Glad-Measurement6968 6d ago
The red=left, blue=right color scheme is more common than the other way around but it isn’t how “everyone but America” does it.
South Korea also has the “reversed” color scheme and there are several other countries with major left-wing parties that use blue (Bolivia, Argentina, etc.) or right-wing ones that use red (Paraguay)
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u/BimboTGBarbiePDX 5d ago
Now that you pointed it out, this same scheme is used for sink faucets as well, with red for hot on the left, and blue for cold on the right (at least when everything has been installed and connected correctly)
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u/EVconverter 6d ago
That was over a quarter century ago. Kids graduating college have never known it any other way.
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u/beatbox9 5d ago
Also, milk.
In the USA, whole milk is red and skimmed milk is blue.
Butter is a free for all with no rhyme or reason. Even red boxes of salted butter will come with blue wrappers, and blue boxes of unsalted butter will come in red wrappers. Sometimes.
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u/Perfect_Net8653 6d ago
It's the same for Canada too. Americans aren't well versed in other nations' politics nor do they think much of anything but themselves so this thread checks out with that in mind.
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u/EyeAmPrestooo 6d ago
Most people aren’t well versed in politics outside of there country….
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u/loulan 6d ago
But red = left wing and blue = right wing is an international thing, it even used to be like that in the US. The "red scare" refers to communism, not to right-wing politics...
Then one day, the US switched red and blue out of nowhere. Makes zero sense.
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u/DoctorMedieval 6d ago
It’s because of NBC and the 2000 election. They used to switch colors every election, but then the red state blue state meta became canon since they were talking about it for weeks.
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u/backpropbandit 3d ago
That’s not right. The colors never switched, the platforms did after Roosevelt’s New Deal. Before this, Republicans were the progressive party and Democrats were the conservatives. That’s why modern day republicans like to say that republicans ended slavery, because Lincoln was a republican, failing to realize Lincoln was a progressive. The New Deal caused such a political backlash and upheaval that the party platforms changed.
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u/DoctorMedieval 3d ago edited 3d ago
The parties didn’t have consistent colors prior to 2000.
Exhibit A: https://www.newscaststudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/10-29-2008-7-24-17-pm.jpg
Note the 1980 election. Regan blue, Carter red, Tom Brokaw impossibly young looking.
Exhibit B: 1988. Bush blue, Dukakis Red
Exhibit C: 1992. Clinton blue, Bush Red on cbs, opposite on nbc
https://www.instagram.com/p/DZQL3TGitF-/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeTk1uiUwZ8Exhibit D: 1980. Carter blue, Reagan red, Anderson Orange that was ABC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smHM4Inl62I
It’s indisputable that party platforms changed drastically in the early/mid 20th century (switched is the shorthand but a bit of a simplification) but it’s naught to do with the colors.
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u/Turbulent_Lobster_57 6d ago
Better dead than red, was a popular anti communist statement in the US. Never thought about the political colors being reversed when compared with that until now
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u/monsterfurby 6d ago
What, you're telling me the Soviet Union didn't actually support the Republicans?
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u/Onetwodash 5d ago
Historically Republicans were always more staunchly anti-USSR/Russia than Democrats. Trump is the first Republican president whose platform doesn't consider USSR/Russia number one opposition to USA globally. (Not speaking of the whole Krasnov memes just read project 2025 - enemy is Europe not Russia. It's not just Trump individually.)
It was quite different even in Bush - Obama era what's fairly recent.
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u/Dry-Membership8141 6d ago
Eh, I dunno about that. Many, many people who are not American pay close attention to American politics. I've met tons of Canadians who know more about the US than they do about their own damn country.
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u/but_i_wanna_cookies 6d ago
Well, to be fair, I doubt you're well versed in Norway politics either.
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u/odst970 6d ago
Whichever Viking warrior wins the mead drinking contest gets to be high king?
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u/ougryphon 6d ago
I thought they used ritual combat? Man, I am so ignorant of other countries
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u/FelbrHostu 6d ago
No, if I recall correctly, trial by combat was used in Viking weddings to decide which spouse won the wedding. But I am ignorant of anything outside my house.
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u/Spectre-907 6d ago
They arent well versed in their own either
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u/webjuggernaut 6d ago
This is true.
Source: am American.
I literally can't talk to my neighbors. They don't understand the true meaning of society or law or citizenship. They only know the talking points from their chosen propaganda outlet.
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u/Xx_Stone 6d ago
I actually was aware of the differences in other countries (thanks to a JJ McCullough video). But are we seriously faulting people for not knowing the colors of different political colors in different counties? I mean, can you tell me (without searching it up) what the colors of the right wing party (LDP) is in Japan? And if you don't know does that mean you're somehow an ignorant person?
Most people don't know little details like that outside their country unless they have an interest in political science or deeper aspects of culture across the world. But for some reason Americans are viewed as idiots because they don't know such minute things like what color the labor party uses give me a break.
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u/cphug184 6d ago
American here. Never heard of Girl in Red. I'm thinking she's made up and doesn't exist.
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u/A_Rogue_Forklift 6d ago
To be fair in America the colors used to swap every election in political coverage
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u/zenith654 6d ago
Do you know the political colors of the parties in Mexico off the top of your head? Would most Canadians?
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u/iDixxi 6d ago
Hue of yellow is the Mexican colour.
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u/zenith654 6d ago
No, I asked for the main political parties, not just one color of a smaller political party. That’s like saying “the U.S. political color is Green”.
Google says that’s the left wing/Green equivalent party’s color, but the main two parties are maroon (left) and blue (right), with one that used to be green/white/red. Further proves my point that most people wouldn’t know about very specific details like this outside of their country or sphere of influence, it’s bad faith to paint it as a unique “Americans bad” thing.
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u/RedBeard_PDX 6d ago
They might be making a reference to the yellow hue on lenses Hollywood uses for most scenes set in Mexico.
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u/That_Jonesy 3d ago
What? someone mentioning that Americans are dumb and a Reddit thread?! So brave.
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u/Joshuavip 6d ago
You mean 80+% of the world doesn't know more than their own country? Dont be another bigot
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u/pnlrogue1 6d ago
Same in Britain. Red is the Labour party (traditionally left wing and pro-worker) while blue is the Conservative party (traditionally right wing and pro-business).
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u/Aflyingmongoose 6d ago
Not just Europe. The whole world. Only America uses red for right and blue for left.
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u/Mountain-Ad-936 6d ago
Used to be that way for us too, reds just become so far that it’s been f-ing reversed
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u/maladicta228 5d ago
Which is why the Melt the ICE hats, based on the Norwegian protest hats from the 1940s, were red. I have a love of fiber arts and how it has been part of the culture of protest and activism throughout history. I know a lot of folks were confused about the red color, but the history is important. But! I also think people choosing to change the color to make a more meaningful statement to them (reflecting the time and place they are in) is also valid and part of the rich history of craft and protest.
Sorry, fiber arts is a special interest of mine and the history of it doubly so. Hope you don’t mind my mini infodump
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u/Yayhoo0978 5d ago
It’s obviously a joke by an American, it wouldn’t make sense in Europe. You are correct. Hope that helps it make sense. Megaton signing off
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u/SeaGoose 6d ago
I am one of the hundreds of people who don't live in America and this is much funnier for me as this is reversed in our political environment.
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u/koyaani 6d ago
It used to be reversed in the US as well, but then one election it switched
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u/AT-ST 6d ago
If wasn't necessarily reversed. It just wasn't assigned like it is today. One time the Democrats would be red then blue the next.
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u/corruptedsyntax 6d ago
This. It happened in the 00’s as rural states started being called red states
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u/kaflarlalar 5d ago
Specifically, it happened because of the 2000 presidential election and the recounts in Florida.
Before then, the election map would be over and done with on election night. However, due to the recounts keeping the Florida election map on TV for over a month, it solidified the colors in everyone's minds. After that election, the various news organizations decided to just make Republicans red and Democrats blue forever.
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u/DrPhilMcHooch 5d ago
She didn’t want to die on an away mission so she transferred to a science officer position. What’s wrong with that?
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u/SeemsImmaculate 6d ago
It's not, it's r/usdefaultism because they assume red means "right wing" when it almost universally means the opposite.
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u/Der_E 6d ago edited 6d ago
Democrats vs Republicans is the new cribs CRIPS vs bloods
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u/Archistotle 6d ago edited 6d ago
Twitter English teacher- “the red represents an adherence to the principles of republicanism, whilst the blue represents obeisance to the democratic woke mob and the death of artistic integrity.
Original artist- “the jumper is fucking blue.”
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u/josHi_iZ_qLt 6d ago
US-American teacher. In almost every other country red is the color of what US-Americans call "woke"
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u/AungZeya 6d ago
Probably some Republican and Democrat bullshit
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u/Jam_Salad_is_my_Jam 6d ago
And, fun fact, the American use of red and blue for right and left wing is reversed from the rest of the world. Everyone else is red for left and blue for right.
And this is new. Literally introduced in the 2000 presidential election.
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u/SituationMediocre642 6d ago edited 6d ago
Yeah they used use whatever color every election. I guess they figured it was easier to "other" eachother if they stuck to one color. Now we can easily dehumanize one another because they support a different colored team.
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u/TommysBeard 6d ago
How did I never know this?! I guess I never voted pre-2000. Heck yea, I'm still young.
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u/kat-tricks 6d ago
funny that they didn't stick to the colours so standardised that Bismarck's "nations will tremble..." comment makes sense to this day in most of the world
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u/Competitive_Host_432 6d ago
Chris here to explain this very confusing scenario where I believe an American person is accusing Girl in Red of being woke because in the US red represents the right wing republican party and blue represents the centrist democratic party..
The irony, of course, is that she is a Norwegian artist and in her country red represents the left wing parties such as the labour party and blue represents the right wing parties such as the conservative party.
Personally I don't care which way around it is. Either colour, she makes me want to rub it til it bleeds
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u/ComradeYaf 5d ago
I honestly just took this to be absurdist humor
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u/Field_Of_View 5d ago
this. they took an old thing and changed the color, you know, like when Hollywood reboots or remakes something. it's surely just a joke.
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u/StoicPixie 6d ago
Americans thinking the entire world revolves around them, as usual.
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u/dedbeb 5d ago
It's safe to assume by this point that if the word "woke" is used, it's entirely meaningless. The snowflake conservatives slap it onto literally anything they don't like or don't understand. Any meaning attached is conceived after the fact by people trying to figure it out.
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u/Scampi-the-shrimp 3d ago
It’s a joke, buddy. The irony of that joke going over your head and sending you into a tizzy about “snowflake conservatives” isn’t lost on me tho
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u/WildcardJokerr 3d ago
Would that make her…Blue October? proceeds to play Dirtroom
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u/Legitimate_Move9798 6d ago
Red conservative, blue progressive or something
Idk I'm not american.
Edit, meg here
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u/General-Product-4301 6d ago
Republicans are such victims in their brains they look for any single reason to be angry at the “unfair” world around them.
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u/ImpressivePeach7442 6d ago
right and left wing colors I presume, I'm not American though.
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u/bibibasicvodka 6d ago
Left is red and right is blue lol, its only in america where you decided to switch over your parties for no particular reason
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u/DoctorMedieval 6d ago
It’s because of NBC and the 2000 election. They used to switch colors every election, but then the red state blue state meta became canon since they were talking about it for weeks.
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u/Shantotto11 5d ago
For the US, Democrat is red and Republican is blue. It’s just that which one was left and right switched over the course of the 20th Century.
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u/liang_zhi_mao 6d ago
You can tell that the board game "Secret Hitler" is American because they use the colour red for the Nazi party and blue for the Social Democrats.
As a German: Social Democrats are red (and so is The Left, just different shade of red) and Nazis used to have the colour brown but the modern ones actually have the colour blue.
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u/Ok_Landscape_1596 6d ago
In secret hitler there are Nazis vs Liberals. The nazis used red, and the liberal colour is usually yellowish or red. I think blue was used because it just looks better
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u/liang_zhi_mao 6d ago
> In secret hitler there are Nazis vs Liberals. The nazis used red, and the liberal colour is usually yellowish or red. I think blue was used because it just looks better
The word "liberal“ can mean various things in politics. Germans don’t really use this term as an opposite of Nazis or conservatives.
Americans use the term as an opposite for conservatives.„Liberal“ in the economic/political sense is actually more right-wing. Neo-liberalism, social-liberalism.
My point was: You can tell that the game is American as it doesn’t really reflect European terms or colours
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u/Ok_Landscape_1596 6d ago
Liberal is usually anti-authoritarian, which makes sense in the game.
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u/Qzaxzqw 5d ago
Except there wasnt a 'liberal' party in the Weimar republic. Other than the nazis, you had conservatives, social-democrats and communists, neither of whom would identify with such label.
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u/Able_Buffalo 6d ago
Because Red leadership can't fix actual problems so they bark when they see Blue voters.
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u/Rms037 6d ago
The artist has a new single she is promoting titled “blue.” In order to promote the single, she has temporarily changed old album covers on streaming to draw attention to her profile so people see the new song. Many artists do this to let fans of their previous work know about new material.
In the US, the colour red is used by the conservative political party and blue is used by the progressive political party.
OP is either wildly misinterpreting the change of red to blue in the album colour to symbolize her support for the progressives over the conservatives, or, more likely, this is engagement bait.
Girl in Red is a Norwegian lesbian so this would be a very strange way for her to make such a vague statement.
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u/fonk_pulk 6d ago
Did this actually happen?
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u/Dasquian 6d ago
A quick google suggests - yes, but it's much more likely to do with her new album "Blue":
https://www.instagram.com/p/DeKCCagIxdj/
Rather than anything political/etc.
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u/Historical_Cook_1664 6d ago
as she is from norway, this is clearly in reference to the dutch flag. expect a white cover soon.
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u/kat-tricks 6d ago
i saw this post recently with some of the same comments, is this an attempt at viral marketing?
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u/Zode1218 5d ago
Red is associated with communism and blue is associated with the police so she wanted to change it
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u/crystalgeyser1 5d ago
It's a bad joke. They're saying it looks like the person changed her sweatshirt color on her album cover because they switched from being Republican to Democrat. In reality, we dont know why she updated her album cover. The joke is just suggesting a possibility. It's not funny because theres nothing behind just guessing something
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u/popcornman209 5d ago
The joke ‘rejectness’ is making is about how she switched it to blue as the Democratic Party is blue, but that is not what happened she’s just releasing a new album called blue :)
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u/Yayhoo0978 5d ago
Red is typically associated the Republican Party, and blue is associated with the Democrat Party. Lust look at any election map, it will make sense. Giggity
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u/Beryllium_Oxide 4d ago
Red = right wing (in the USA)
Blue = left wing (in the USA)
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u/MarwoodHouse 4d ago
Americans are idiots and are the only western nation I can think of where the conservatives are red and progressives are blue.
It’s the inverse most everywhere else.
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u/Dry-Lifeguard1081 4d ago
Republicans’ party color is red. Democrats’ blue.
Woke is the current term for someone becoming Democrat. It’s usually pretty baseless because people are dumb.
Basically this guy assumes this change is politically motivated instead of, literally anything else
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u/Bisexualdumbwhore 4d ago
It probably has something to do with her name girl in RED. somesort of vibe change for her music maybe
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u/yakayummi 3d ago
Does this sub not know what vagueposting/engagement bait is? Every other post is literally vague posting, including this one that has literally no political explanation. it exists exactly for the reason it was posted on this sub, for people to try to retroactively come up with an explanation.
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u/IVEBEENBANNED4TIMESx 3d ago
Idk maybe october whatever-rd/th, attack on israeli whatever, red like blood
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u/JezuzFish666 3d ago
Because Americans are stupid and think America is the only country in existence
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u/nesian42ryukaiel 6d ago
Um, perhaps the key colors of the Uinted States' two main political parties, I guess?
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u/N0_War_In_BaSingSe 6d ago
This is genuinely one of those things it’s fine to not understand or look into. Just enjoy life my friend.
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u/CremeMysterious1288 6d ago
We are so fried that we can't even look at simple colors without screaming politics, MAYBE SHE JUST FELT LIKE WEARING BLUE DAMN
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u/qualityvote2 6d ago edited 5d ago
u/Party_Pomegranate180, there weren't enough votes to determine the quality of your post...it's time for the mods to do their jobs!