Howard Stern says being called ‘woke’ is a compliment: ‘I’m not for stupidity’
Howard Stern is embracing being called “woke,” saying he wants “to be awake.”
“I kind of take that as a compliment, that I’m ‘woke,’” the SiriusXM host told listeners of his eponymous show Monday in response to a YouTube personality applying the term to him.
“To me, the opposite of woke is being asleep,” Stern, 69, said. “And if woke means I can’t get behind [former President Trump], which is what I think it means, or that I support people who want to be transgender, or I’m for the vaccine — dude, call me woke as you f‑‑‑ing want,” Stern exclaimed.
“I’m not for stupidity,” he continued, saying he recently received the latest updated COVID-19 vaccine.
“F‑‑‑in’ science. This f‑‑‑ing country is so great,” he said.
“I am woke, motherf‑‑‑er. And I love it.”
“I want to read legitimate news sources. Here’s how woke I am: I believe the election was not rigged,” Stern said of Trump’s unfounded claims of mass electoral fraud in the 2020 presidential race.
“I’m woke. I think that’s a compliment,” added Stern, who frequently hosted Trump as a guest on his radio show before the New York real estate developer entered politics.
In the past, the veteran broadcaster referred to Trump as a friend, but Stern grew increasingly critical of the 45th commander in chief during his presidency, slamming him for his administration’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
“These guys who I see on the internet who say they’re not woke, but they seem to be really angry, super against gay people — especially transgender,” Stern said.
“Am I for kids being able to read about anything in school? Yeah, I am. I don’t give a s‑‑‑ what kids read,” he said of book bans in Republican-led states.
“Give me vaccines, man. I’m all for it,” the “Howard Stern Comes Again” author said.
“I like being woke, if that’s what woke means,” he told listeners.
“So I guess somewhere the rap is I used to be good, but now I’m woke,” Stern added, before concluding, “I think I always was awake.”
A USA Today/Ipsos poll released in March found that the majority of Americans — 56 percent — had a positive association with the term “woke,” understanding it to mean to “be informed, educated on, and aware of social injustices.”
Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed..