> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://thecrimsonhub.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # AOC says lockdowns made ‘Woke 1’ insane. Her old tweets show she got an early and eager start - URL: https://thecrimsonhub.com/aoc-lockdowns-woke-1-insane-old-tweets-show-her-early-eager-start/ - Published: 2026-08-19T13:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-08-19T14:45:31.000Z - Description: AOC tried distancing herself from Woke 1. The record shows she doesn't have a lot of room to add that distance. - Author: Caleb Howe - Tags: Woke Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been at the center of a minor uproar over comments she made in an interview last week putting distance between herself and the aggressive "woke" politics that brought her and other Squad members to power, and seemingly acknowledging those views may not be as popular as they once were – or as sane as she pretended at the time. The record shows the "Woke 1" early adopter doesn't have a lot of room with which to add such distance. AOC chuckled on air last week as she quoted a local politician on woke politics in response to Karl's questions about past extreme positions among certain Democrats and Democratic Socialists. Laughing, she replied, "I have a local city councilman that has this saying: Woke 1 was crazy." The progressive congresswoman, herself a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, was suggesting and implicitly admitting that there were extreme ideas and rhetoric in her wing of the left, blaming it in large part on lockdowns. She essentially acknowledged that such views aren't popular with most Americans and hinted that in fact it hurts the party's electoral prospects. AOC did couch that pseudo-criticism in pseudo-praise by arguing that the extreme politics moved the so-called Overton Window and therefore had a positive impact on how issues are discussed today. Yet she did face criticism and some mockery over the last several days as a result of the comments, even though she faced very little pushback from Karl. ***"... RHETORIC IN THAT TIME IS NOT RHETORIC THAT WE WOULD USE TODAY..."** Despite the effort to distance herself from extreme comments made by candidates like [Francesca Hong](https://thecrimsonhub.com/hong-again-thanksgiving-hating-dem-socialist-has-another-hot-white-supremacy-take-in-wi-gov-race/) in Wisconsin, and in contradiction of her claims about the pandemic spurring In an article published over the weekend,[ Axios pointed out](https://www.axios.com/2026/08/16/aoc-walk-back-positions-2028?ref=thecrimsonhub.com) that AOC's mild walkaway from the wilder views of those years is belied to some extent, though the article did not put it in those words, by her own on-the-record comments from those days, some coming before the COVID pandemic ever reared its head. Axios hit some highlights, such as AOC's ["Defund the Police"](https://x.com/TweetBenMax/status/1277994205521096707?ref=thecrimsonhub.com) rhetoric and activism, about which [she proudly bragged](https://ocasio-cortez.house.gov/media/in-the-news/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-was-asked-about-defunding-police-and-her-answer-went?utm%5Fsource=chatgpt.com). They also brought up the infamous “[no choice but to riot](https://rumble.com/v7ed36c-aoc-says-marginalized-groups-have-no-choice-but-to-riot.html?ref=thecrimsonhub.com)” comments the congresswoman made in a 2019 radio interview. Axios had [a few more](https://www.axios.com/2026/08/16/aoc-walk-back-positions-2028?ref=thecrimsonhub.com) choice examples, including AOC's use of "menstruating person" in 2021\. That one comes after the lockdowns but shows no signs of having been walked back. Dozens of additional examples, many of which didn’t make the Axios article, are from before, during, and after lockdowns. Below are some of the most illustrative. > Our country has a “justice” system that criminalizes poverty + disproportionately targets race, yet routinely pardons large-scale crimes of wealth and privilege. > > Moments like these tell us it’s less a justice system, and more a class enforcement system. ⬇️ [https://t.co/etlIksWsiy](https://t.co/etlIksWsiy?ref=thecrimsonhub.com) > > — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) [April 16, 2019](https://x.com/AOC/status/1118301610864775169?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=thecrimsonhub.com) > Reminder: > \- Slavery ➡️ Jim Crow + Redlining ➡️ War on Drugs ➡️ Mass Incarceration > > \- Black Americans & PoC are far more likely to be convicted + sentenced longer than White Americans for similar crimes. > > \- Our system routinely criminalizes poverty + exonerates wealth > > — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) [April 25, 2019](https://x.com/AOC/status/1121434432840376322?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=thecrimsonhub.com) > Systemic racism is a root ideology that propped up an extractive economic system that prioritizes profit over human & environmental considerations. > > The injustices of slavery evolved into Jim Crow, redlining, the War on Drugs, mass incarceration, & beyond:[https://t.co/ox9co5QkeB](https://t.co/ox9co5QkeB?ref=thecrimsonhub.com) > > — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) [September 13, 2019](https://x.com/AOC/status/1172312004251574272?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=thecrimsonhub.com) > Mass incarceration is our American reality. It is a system whose logic evolved from the same lineage as Jim Crow, American apartheid, & slavery. > > To end it, we have to change. > > That means we need to have a real conversation about decarceration & prison abolition in this country. [https://t.co/9E9NTAmBNi](https://t.co/9E9NTAmBNi?ref=thecrimsonhub.com) > > — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) [October 7, 2019](https://x.com/AOC/status/1181196457145225216?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=thecrimsonhub.com) > Ending mass incarceration means challenging a system that jails the poor to free the rich. > > Arresting people who can’t afford a $2.75 fare makes no one safer and destabilizes our community. > > New Yorkers know that, they’re not having it, and they’re standing up for each other. [https://t.co/asvidIe5zV](https://t.co/asvidIe5zV?ref=thecrimsonhub.com) > > — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) [November 2, 2019](https://x.com/AOC/status/1190683133588496389?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=thecrimsonhub.com) In messages, speeches, and interviews, and particularly on social media, both pre- and post-lockdown AOC wanted to defund the police and abolish ICE, advocated "decarceration" and prison releases, accused wide swaths of America – both citizens and government – of harboring white supremacy, racism, and more. She also made the very serious charge that the United States was running "[concentration camps](https://x.com/AOC/status/1140968240073662466?ref=thecrimsonhub.com)" under Trump, emphasizing she meant it literally and not as hyperbole. She demanded there be "no walls" and "no fences"[ at the border](https://x.com/AOC/status/1011659359951126534?ref=thecrimsonhub.com). Promised "no justice, no peace" on immigration. AOC wanted to [defund the entire Department of Homeland Security](https://x.com/AOC/status/1092214829572653056?ref=thecrimsonhub.com) over immigration policies she disagreed with politically, an obvious risk to national security. She was and remains major player in "Abolish ICE" activism. > This video was from 1 year ago this week - before my primary & the Fox News cycle. > > I flew to the concentration camp where the Trump admin was keeping children they stole from their parents. > > Back then, I was voicing my conscience. I still am. [#AbolishICE](https://x.com/hashtag/AbolishICE?src=hash&ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=thecrimsonhub.com)[pic.twitter.com/QLyc9MiMsV](https://t.co/QLyc9MiMsV?ref=thecrimsonhub.com) > > — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) [June 18, 2019](https://x.com/AOC/status/1141109343171076109?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=thecrimsonhub.com) div> AOC was also on the bleeding edge of "Woke 1" gender and euphemism politics, leading the charge on "Latinx" and the "pronouns" explosion. > What great news! > > Shout out to all our non-binary fam in the world, and the activists who’ve worked hard to let us celebrate the full spectrum of humanity 🏳️‍🌈 [https://t.co/BkpdVPleNe](https://t.co/BkpdVPleNe?ref=thecrimsonhub.com) > > — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) [September 18, 2019](https://x.com/AOC/status/1174166966749335554?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=thecrimsonhub.com) > Happy Black History Month everyone! > > This month I’d like to celebrate some Afro-Latinx ICONS. > > What better way to start than with the inimitable Celia Cruz? > > Nuestra Reina de Salsa (Queen of Salsa), Celia wrote the soundtrack to my childhood and pretty much all of Latin America. [pic.twitter.com/GGpmMYfHtg](https://t.co/GGpmMYfHtg?ref=thecrimsonhub.com) > > — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) [February 1, 2018](https://x.com/AOC/status/959086792233443328?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=thecrimsonhub.com) > .[@TimKaine](https://x.com/TimKaine?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=thecrimsonhub.com) & [@DougJones](https://x.com/DougJones?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=thecrimsonhub.com), you both should be ashamed of yourselves. > > You each campaigned on the backs of Latinx & African American voters. Now you’re COSPONSORING legislation that makes redlining (a major element of poverty in these communities) easier for Big Banks? > > Step it up. [https://t.co/YeTckR6NZJ](https://t.co/YeTckR6NZJ?ref=thecrimsonhub.com) > > — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) [February 20, 2018](https://x.com/AOC/status/965981020448350209?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=thecrimsonhub.com) > I often think about how I work with white or male allies when they say something insensitive. > > The 1st thing I do is pull them aside + say “hey, you may not be aware of X thing regarding Latinx people, but here is the history and it’s hurtful. If you want to learn more, read Y.” > > — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) [March 5, 2019](https://x.com/AOC/status/1102929545928282113?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=thecrimsonhub.com) > For the curious, in Latinx culture children take \*both\* their parents‘ names. > > It’s not a “progressive, new thing.” It’s just how some names work. PR hyphenates, others mark differently. Your last name = the families that came together to make you. > > AOC is also fine though :) > > — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) [March 21, 2019](https://x.com/AOC/status/1108538590903107588?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=thecrimsonhub.com) > Over & over again, I hear insider consultants say that investing in Latinx outreach is a “waste of time.” > > When I ran, people TOLD me “not to bother” with my own community. > > Bernie takes Latinx outreach seriously. He was often the only 1 showing up to Iowa satellite caucuses,too. [https://t.co/BkpnR8evbS](https://t.co/BkpnR8evbS?ref=thecrimsonhub.com) > > — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) [February 22, 2020](https://x.com/AOC/status/1231356927801778177?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=thecrimsonhub.com) Another hallmark of "Woke 1" was intersectionality and identity politics and rhetoric. Again, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez was a major figure at the forefront, and not as a consequence of lockdown. > None of this is “whataboutism.” Racism and bigotry of all forms is inextricably linked. > > When you don’t address them as a system and attempt to pick them apart as though they are distinct and separable issues, eventually the thing that gets advanced is white supremacy + classism. > > — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) [March 6, 2019](https://x.com/AOC/status/1103160188742307841?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=thecrimsonhub.com) > I respectfully disagree. The disproportionate treatment is what is exacerbating the situation. > > I think this moment is a good opportunity for an intersectional approach. > > — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) [March 6, 2019](https://x.com/AOC/status/1103163478024601601?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=thecrimsonhub.com) > The way we reject the 0-sum idea that some communities win at the cost of others is by using opportunities to address issues intersectionally - to highlight that Antisemitism, Islamophobia, and all bigotry serve the same ends & that we prevent division by championing one another. > > — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) [March 6, 2019](https://x.com/AOC/status/1103164872374845441?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=thecrimsonhub.com) > There is a difference between white supremacists & white supremacy. > > White supremacy is like a virus. > > Supremacists are those who have been completely overcome by the disease, but supremacy - the virus - exists on a larger scale beyond just the infected. It also lays dormant. > > — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) [August 8, 2019](https://x.com/AOC/status/1159254426097467394?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=thecrimsonhub.com) > Healing ourselves of white supremacy will be hard. It will be hard because it requires us to confront \*ourselves.\* > > We wish it was as simple as denouncing a white hood, a burnt cross, vile language. But we need to address where supremacy \*begins,\* not just where it ends. > > — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) [August 8, 2019](https://x.com/AOC/status/1159254459014402050?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=thecrimsonhub.com) She also often voiced the extremely woke, exceedingly unpopular view that anyone – or any white person – can "aid" racism, assist white supremacy, or be racist without even knowing it just by virtue of who they are or where they live or events that occur in their proximity. > White supremacy is often subconscious. & Clearly, our nation has not been inoculated. WS is our nation’s original sin;the driving logic of slavery, of Native genocide, of Jim Crow, of segregation, of mass incarceration,of “Send Her Back.” > > It never went away. It was just dormant. > > — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) [August 8, 2019](https://x.com/AOC/status/1159254457177333760?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=thecrimsonhub.com) > But it is incredibly important that we recognize that perfectly normal, good people are capable of aiding racism & white supremacy. > > Recognizing that is not about pillorying people. It’s about learning to recognize \*the virus\* & end an oppressive system designed to hurt us \*all.\* > > — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) [August 8, 2019](https://x.com/AOC/status/1159254465876299777?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=thecrimsonhub.com) > Recognizing white supremacy in ourselves - our institutions, our subconscious, our own past remarks or acts (no matter how consciously unintentional), is what makes the healing work ahead challenging. > > But it is not impossible,and confronting it is the only way to move forward. > > — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) [August 8, 2019](https://x.com/AOC/status/1159254462277591043?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=thecrimsonhub.com) On *This Week,* the almost apologetic reminder of past views that Karl sheepishly offered AOC did not include mention of her many, many such views, all of which were perfectly in-line with, if not a primary source of, "Woke 1" politics and ideology. And the idea that she, Hong, and even radical podcaster and purported Democratic kingmaker Hassan Piker have walked back from their extreme views was taken as a given by the ABC journalist. Nevertheless, as Axios pointed out in [brief](https://www.axios.com/2026/08/16/aoc-walk-back-positions-2028?ref=thecrimsonhub.com), and we have documented here more extensively – though not comprehensively or utterly – it's safe to say that prior to the COVID lockdowns, Woke 1 was already well underway. And despite her effort to move toward the so-called "center" in politics, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was one of its chief architects and biggest cheerleaders. Something she herself pointed out. > Tired: Profiles about homogenous, working-class Trump voters > > Wired: Profiles about intersectional, working-class Ocasio voters - > > “They say looking at your phone is a bad thing... but that’s how I learned about intersectional feminism.” - Alejandro Osorio [https://t.co/iUwb3mRdDF](https://t.co/iUwb3mRdDF?ref=thecrimsonhub.com) > > — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) [January 6, 2019](https://x.com/AOC/status/1081703108001046530?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=thecrimsonhub.com) **One more thing**: Axios noted that AOC isn't the only progressive left figure trying to court the center in this midterm year (emphasis added): > California Gov. Gavin Newsom said last year that "not one person ever in my office has ever used the word Latinx," **though he repeatedly** [**did**](https://x.com/GavinNewsom/status/1287878270864601088?s=20&ref=thecrimsonhub.com)[**so**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hK%5FZcGlcdM&t=218s&ref=thecrimsonhub.com) **in 2020**. Ouch.