Suddenly, one day, “woke” was over. From November 6 to 7 this year, in the aftermath of the US presidential election, the pretence disappeared. Of course there are hold-outs – some people can’t admit to themselves that they were wrong. But even in the fashion-chasing Hollywood Hills, my sources report hearing the words “woke bullshit”. The atmosphere has changed, and most people just seem relieved.
Donald Trump’s second term as US president wasn’t the reason woke finally died. It has been crumbling slowly for years, collapsing under the weight of its own humourless hypocrisies.
The common theme is a sense that a small group of zealots has appointed itself the arbiter of truth. But the “truth” that they enforce is a fiction based on fashion rather than a scientific or simply observational view of the world. That makes many people uneasy, whether or not they can articulate why.
Gender and sex often feature in the confessions I hear. Just about everyone I speak to believes people should be free to be who they want to be. I agree. But some women and lesbians feel they have been robbed of their identity in the push to recognise that “transwomen are women”. Both men and women worry that children are being railroaded into taking puberty blockers, or at least being allowed to make decisions with consequences they are not mature enough to appreciate. Pronouns lurk in meetings, job interviews and at family gatherings, waiting to entrap the distracted.
There is also a sense that many well-meaning initiatives have been hijacked and debased by groups who now use them to pursue their own interests. Companies and brands piled into cause-marketing to appeal to a values-driven consumer. Lingerie, soap and even beer brands have pushed their idea of “acceptance” by filling their ads with a trendy idea of diversity.
It’s perhaps not a coincidence that trust in corporations fell as they embraced performative goodness.
Another initialism, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), has also had its day. Even with massive vested interests embedded in companies and institutions defending it, it’s become evident that you can’t think about sex or race all the time at work without evincing a creepy obsession with people’s sex and race.
So, 2024 is the year that woke broke, a victim of its own excesses. Now that the correction has come, we must embrace the moment to speak truth, not fill the void with a new unfreedom.
Source: It’s the year that woke broke, a victim of its own excess