Have we finally reached peak woke? Have we developed a vaccine to the woke mind virus? Like a dying religion, it’s certainly in retreat, says Toby in the Standard. But some disciples of Wokus Dei are still clinging on. Here’s an excerpt.
I thought this ideological pandemic had peaked in 2020 when I set up the Free Speech Union (FSU), a non-partisan organisation that stands up for the speech rights of its members and campaigns for free speech more widely.
At the launch party, I confidently announced that the radical progressive ideology that had spread like wildfire in the second decade of the 21st century — sometimes referred to as Wokus Dei — was in retreat and the days when people were cancelled for daring to question it were coming to an end.
Then, in May of that year, George Floyd was killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis, transforming what had been a fringe political movement into a global crusade. I remember being shocked to see protesters in the Isle of Man confronting a bewildered group of bobbies with a chant of “Hands up, don’t shoot!” Black Lives Matter became so fashionable that the presenters on Sky Sports wore little badges proclaiming their allegiance to the cause.
But it couldn’t last, could it? BLM was an organisation with self-proclaimed Marxists devoted to the overthrow of capitalism. This felt like a strange aberration due to the fact that people were spending far too much time online during the lockdowns.
At the FSU’s third anniversary party in 2023, I made another speech in which I confessed to getting it wrong before, but predicted that now, at last, this quasi-religious cult was beginning to subside.
After all, Nicola Sturgeon had been forced from office by a scandal in which a male sex offender had transferred to a women’s prison, Elon Musk had just bought Twitter and Top Gun: Maverick was smashing box office records.
There was also growing evidence that the public was fed up with virtue-signalling corporations shoving their progressive values down customers’ throats. After Bud Light hired trans activist Dylan Mulvaney as a brand ambassador, sales of America’s best-selling beer went into freefall, declining by between 11 and 26%.
The message from consumers was clear: Wokus Dei had had its day.
Then, a year later, Labour won a thunderous majority at the General Election, reducing the Conservatives to a rump. Among other things, its manifesto promised to bring in a full, trans-inclusive ban on conversion therapy and turbocharge the Equality Act.
So, you can understand my reluctance to proclaim that we’ve finally reached peak woke. I feel a bit like a man falling through a burning building: every time my feet touch what I think is the bottom, the floor gives way and I carry on plunging downwards.
Nevertheless, there are reasons to think the religious fire may have gone out. Exhibit A is the Republican Party’s comprehensive victory last November, winning not just the Presidency, but also the House and the Senate. Part of the explanation for that rout is that the Democratic Presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, was perceived as being too ideologically extreme. The Democrats had got woke and gone broke.
True, Donald Trump’s election as president in 2016 didn’t do anything to stop the momentum of the Great Awokening. On the contrary, it gave it a boost, enabling members of the cult to point to the nasty orange man in The White House and say, “Look! I told you America was a cishet, patriarchal, white supremacist, fascist state.”
But it feels different this time. Taking their cue from the success of the MAGA movement, major American companies like McDonald’s, Google, Boeing, Amazon and IBM have scaled back their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes and Deloitte, one of the big four accounting firms, has instructed its employees to stop putting pronouns in their bios.
The great liberal citadels of the American media have struggled to retain their audiences since November, with CNN and MSNBC seeing a decline in viewing numbers of 27% and 38% respectively. Fox News, by contrast, saw its viewers jump by 40% in the weeks following the election.
After the 2016 election result, the Washington Post doubled down on its opposition to Trump, adopting the strapline: “Democracy dies in darkness.” Two weeks ago, by contrast, the Post’s owner Jeff Bezos announced that the paper would be taking a sharp, Rightward turn.
“We are going to be writing every day in support and defence of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets,” he said, prompting the resignation of David Shipley, the opinion page editor.
Mark Zuckerberg, too, is scrambling to adapt to the new political climate. Nick Clegg has been given his marching orders as President of Global Affairs at Meta, replaced by Joel Kaplan, a Republican who was once Deputy Chief of Staff to President George W, Bush. At the same time, Zuckerberg said he would be dismantling Facebook’s fact checking programme.
“Fact checkers have just been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they’ve created,” he said.
So is this finally peak woke? “I’m still not ready to commit,” says Toby, “having been proved wrong so many times before. But for free speech champions like me, things are certainly looking up.”
Worth reading in full.
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I don’t think our justice system is far behind.
It’s infiltrated by the same types, remember the guy jailed over some hurty stickers or something.
Exactly
The talk is GOP supporters are considering criminal cases against Biden and his wife and other democrats.
The democrats have opened Pandora’s box and nothing is going to shut it.
Megyn Kelly Issues MASSIVE Warning to Democrats After Guilty Trump Verdict
“In light of the New York ‘hush money’ trial guilty verdict, making Donald Trump the first former president in American history to be convicted of a felony, Kelly suggested that a reckoning is coming for Joe Biden, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton.”
Trump compared to Biden is the lesser of two evils.
And whom would you rather have in the UK leading an opposition movement, Starmer, Tice or Trump (if it were possible) or maybe best stay with Wishy-Washy Sushi.
Trump wants to ‘drill baby drill’ and kick Net Zero and climate lunacy into the wide blue yonder. Wants to lower tax and regulation.
I don’t know why the ds feels it needs to write a normy piece like this. Tobes please don’t insult our intelligence by wresting yr bum on a fence you have no business sitting on. What happened in that court was pure kangaroo that makes zanu pf look like bastions of democracy. Let’s call it as it is, Brandon is attempting to take out his political rival who leads him in the polls, pure banana republic stuff. This has now opened Pandora’s box whereby the far worse crimes or Obama (use of fisa warrants against trump), Bill (also paying off numerous women) and Hilary (bleaching her emails) to name but a few will have to be bought to court in a red states. Not to mention 10 for the big guy Brandon and his bribes off the Chinese.
AntiChrist Drumpf & Biden & Hilary are all good friends.
It is very hard to see how this ends well.
The tit for tat lawfare you describe would be tantamount to a civil war.
If the conviction hurts Trump and Biden miraculously wins the election, it will be nothing short of a disaster.
The only way I can see this ending well is of Trump prevails in the election and then goes on to do a sterling job with minimal amount of revenge against his political rivals thereby proving to the world what a hysterical, mendacious bunch of scumbags the Democrats and de Niro types are.
I don’t like or dislike Trump. He’s complex. But never have I wanted someone to win a n election more.
I absolutely agree with you on trump. Mogs said it when she said she can’t forgive over lock down/vaxx but can also see he’s far preferable to commie Joe.
Good item in DT online. In essence you have misdemeanour charges whose statute of limitations have expired, so Trump can’t be tried on them (paying off Ms Daniels etc). You have a rabidly Democrat supporting Judge, (Merchan), and ditto the prosecution lawyer. By reclassifying the misdemeanour as a felony, it becomes indictable as the statute of limitations can’t be invoked, so that’s what they do. The case was heard in a 95% Democrat supporting area of NY (Manhattan) from which the jury was drawn. As Jim Royle might say, “Fair trial my arse!)”
Something you expect in a banana republic.
Stealing an election with a 40 million vote fraud has consequences – namely the inevitable end of the country.
I am not a Drumpfian given he is just another quackcine salesman and Lockdowner, but how anyone could support the idiot Biden or his Communist unDemocratic cult is beyond my ken. How anyone can’t see the massive 2020 election fraud is incomprehensible (do some simple maths, total # of registered voters less Drumpf’s votes = what the pedo money launderer CIA stooge won).
The US is a sad sorry evil joke. Lawfare, the FBI and courts acting more as a Gestapo against ‘opponents’ of the regime than a ‘legal system’, the Police little better, the CIA who is the shadow gov’t along with the DoD rampaging across the planet, globaloneyBSboiling, Rona etc etc.
And now this travesty of jailing someone for a non-crime because he is going to win in November by a landslide.
Yesterday was a defining moment on the US’ path to eventual self implosion and failure.
And we are right behind the place with a Muslim Mayor, you know, for diversities sake.
Midget Jihad Khan will be the Labour Leader one day and likely future PM. Fake News will be doing backflips and having orgasms over the ‘diversity’ as Christians, Jews and Infidels at large are targeted by the Muhammadan cult – which will have the full loving support of the CoE of course…..
Nonsense. A minor setback for the AntiChrist Drumpf, who will buy his way out of it.
i agree with everything you said. It will be interesting to see what sentence the judge imposes on him. Will he jail him (and essentially his assigned secret service agents)? Or will he sentence him to house arrest making it easier on everyone but keeping him off the campaign trail? Or will it be probation? The whole thing will be thrown out on appeal, if not in NYS definitely one of the higher courts. This is the first election that I’m at a loss to speculate on anything that could happen.
The supposed crime was that by hiding his affair to avoid the bad publicity which might have altered the 2016 outcome, it amounted to election interference.
What then hiding the Hunter Biden laptop for the same purpose in 2020?
Not to mention that the “crime” was only specified at the prosecution summing up, after the defence had no chance to respond and test the allegation. There has been no trial of the truth or otherwise of this claimed crime – and indeed I gather there has already been a legal conclusion that there was no significant interference in the 2016 election by anybody.
Their only witness Cohen is a convicted felon and serial liar.
Judge is Columbian born, his daughter an UnDemocratic cult activist who apparently made some big cash out of the last election cycle.
First US Prez convicted of a (non) crime. Utterly insane how depraved the US deep state and society has become.
And Biden the money launderer and election thief roams (stumbles) free.
…and the Appeal goes to….(values, thriving democracy, diversity)
But that’s a federal crime and NY state had no jurisdiction to prosecute it even if the statute of limitations hadn’t run out.
All the showers Biden had with his then teenage daughter as per her contemporaneous diaries.
The classified documents that he smuggled out of the SCIF’s to keep in his garage.
The business associations with his family.
And his sleazy, perverted coke-head son sure as hell seems untouchable when it comes to the law.
Many Americans, particularly Blacks, Hispanics and working class Whites have had no faith in their justice system for decades.
This is why support from these groups has grown with each new charge levelled against Trump because he is getting the same treatment they are used to, so he has become one of them.
Do not lump working class Whites, whose ancestors built America into a great nation, in with Ethnic Africans & Latinos, who did not.
It certainly seems to have buoyed the mood on the left today. I expect they see this as the absolute proof that the ‘dreadful man’ is not coming to knock down their view of the world. The ‘means justify the end’ in this context. Who cares if the charges were minor and ‘trumped up’ (sic), all that matter is that he’s guilty.
Fortunately nothing like this could ever happen here. Could you imagine say hounding a Prime Minister out of office for a piece of cake..?
Or a piece of Parkin Neil.
Dont get giddy ’cause you made a pun…
Brilliant!
Well, if by some fluke The Donald succeeds in being elected there are going to be alot of Democrats with twitchy bottoms and the judge in this case may have significantly shortened his life span.
Actually, it doesn’t need to be The Donald, I suspect any Republican will set out their stall to wreck vengeance. It strikes me that the USA cannot survive in its current form following this so-called judgement. Some form of implosion seems inevitable but how nasty it becomes only time will tell.
The implications for the rest of the planet are decidedly uncertain in both the short and the long term.
I am sure some will disagree but I find it difficult not to believe that the Davos Deviants are involved with Billy having an input at least.
There could be trouble ahead…
Its inevitable that things are going to get worse. Having theories of how to run a country, isn’t having the reins in your hands. Steering a course for the ‘SS Gone with the fairies’, around the rocks and reefs of reality only has one outcome. Thats why Labour are stuffed from day one too. In this case, the forlorn hope that the far-left will behave themselves.
Fluke?
There are three more trials and possibly a bullet waiting. If Donald Trump gets to the election I cannot see it being anything but a fluke. Or a miracle.
Correct. We are almost ready to boil over. The world doesn’t seem to know but our demise is theirs, like the Don or not. And I dont like him. As a matter of fact I wrote articles against the man and for RFK. But now voting for Trump as there is no other choice.
Thanks. Great to hear from the USA.
I’m with you. It’s kind of a pain to vote from abroad and I wasn’t particularly motivated as I’m not a Trump fan but now I’m going to sign up and vote for him.
As someone said of Drumpf,
“For 2000 years Christians have warned about the AntiChrist, but when he arrived, they welcomed him with open arms.”
It’s great that I’m an atheist so I’m not prone to believe in nonsense like that.
I doubt they will succeed if they tried because the left has infiltrated every aspect of the federal government. It’s going to be impossible for Trump to govern even if the landslide is so big that it’s cheat proof. A breakup of the country is the only way forward, in my American opinion.
That’s a good idea. Since 1) almost every American state is larger than most European countries, who have managed to thrive for centuries alongside each other, despite a myriad of language barriers, and 2) the federal government has long proven to be actively hostile to the interests of American citizens… every American state should declare itself to be an independent nation, and establish good trade relations with each other and the world.
Whatever the Globalists want, we should do the opposite. The Globalists want to abolish all countries, so let’s create more of them. Abolish the UN, the EU and all Global organisations like WHO.
What you say makes a lot of sense. I think the Founding Fathers would be astonished and saddened that the Federal Government has been allowed to have so much power.
One practical issue with a breakup of the US is how the borders would be controlled and would the current free movement of citizens be able to be continued. I don’t see how it could because otherwise you would be dependent on the border states enforcing the controls that each state wanted. To an extent free movement of citizens to find work and a political home is a strength of the current system.
But somehow even the smallest European countries manage to protect their own borders, or at least they did until the EUSSR Communists seized power.
Indeed – I think it would have to be like that. I think you’d need an initial sorting out to give people a chance to move, which might get a bit sticky. You’d need to make sure your welfare programs were not over-generous.
Thank you. Comments from the American side are much appreciated.
There is not a cat in hell’s chance the demented old duffer will be re-elected in November now. What the retarded, evil b’stards have done is shown the world ( as if it were really necessary ) what lengths they’re willing to go to in order to dispatch the threat, but all they’ve done is shot themselves in the foot and sealed their fate. Their desperation will just come back to bite them in the arse, in my opinion. I reckon more people than ever will vote Trump now. I would, and I don’t have selective amnesia over what he did to Americans during the scamdemic and ‘Operation Warp Speed’. The world and their dog can see with clarity that it’s the Bidens that are the real threat to Americans, as well as the actual criminals in all of this. We’ve just got to hope there’s more sane, patriotic people than Leftard, West-hating mentalists when it comes to the voting. And that it isn’t rigged again;
”All it does it show us how vile and evil the left is, with absolutely no scruples of any kind as they seek to re-elect floundering Joe Biden and better still, knock Trump from the race by any means necessary. It’s banana republic stuff and a sign of just how corrupted our court system has gotten. The only way out now is to re-elect President Trump. The campaign lines are now reportedly jammed with donors.”
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/05/travesty.html
Agree with every word but…..if they are willing to do this in public then stuffing ballot boxes in private in Fulton county is child’s play to them.
They act with absolute impunity as if they already know their “re-election” plan will work. Then there is Trans Awareness Day declared for all future Easters. That’s the ticket for hearts and minds.
Thanks Mogs
“But will Trump’s conviction sway the dial in November and damage Trump’s bid for re-election?” “… and nobody knows if that verdict will make him more popular or less.”
Oh I think after a year of this nonsense, by now we do know. The Trump campaign website crashed immediately after the verdict, overloaded by the number of people trying to make donations.
And people – independents, Democrats – don’t necessarily have to switch their vote to Trump, just not vote for the other guy. Non-Trump voters may stay home or maybe vote for Independent JFK.
Trump’s support has not just remained steady but increased over the last few months, whereas Biden’s support has ebbed away.
They’ll just cheat again.
I rather think that there will be some unofficial scrutineering going on.
No victim.
No crime.
No legal case.
Biased, political judge.
White House’s fingerprints all over the process.
Complicit media.
Pure lawfare which puts banana republics to shame.
I look forward to Trump’s now guaranteed Presidency. Revenge coming.
I am surprised TDS would publish Spectator Dribble. If Trump does NOT win all the world, esp in UK, will suffer the horrors of worldwide dictatorship and death. Wake up folks. As for our election he will win big but whether it will be certified in a country taken out like Bolosnaros Brazil, is an open question.
The Supreme Court should throw it out, but at what cost to Trump who is diverted from his Rallies having to defend himself from endless Lawfare!
Excellent news. Justice has been done. Of course he’ll get out of it, because he’s the AntiChrist, and that’s the Illuminati plan.
The real story, not from Spectator:
https://www.frontpagemag.com/trump-found-guilty-of-running-against-democrats/
Steyn on Trump.
“Much of the United States – certainly the bits that matter – is now institutionally evil, and I am not sure that evil can be reversed, whether we’re talking about the bodily mutilation of middle-school girls or the sacrifice of a generation of a distant nation’s men in the meat-grinder of the Ukraine war. On America’s watch, the entirety of western civilisation is sliding off the cliff, and very fast – which is all anyone will remember about it.
And yet any alternative to the Uniparty consensus is not to be permitted, and must be hunted down and crushed. There is no future in the post-constitutional polity the Democrats are constructing. “Decline” is a choice – in the Austrian or Portuguese sense. But that’s not in the offing here: America’s death will be bloodier and more convulsive than anything seen in post-imperial Europe. Check back with me in ten years, and see who’s right.
For the moment, the Dems are, as always, three steps ahead. A lot can happen between now and July 11th, and much of it is undoubtedly already underway.
So, as John Hinderaker says:
Matt Walsh just interviewed Vivek Ramaswamy, who has been tipped as a possible VP to Trump. Ramaswamy had some very interesting insights. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okb3We_29Sc
Ramaswamy Dingdong has no insights except knowing how to say whatever you want to hear. He’s yet another Smarmy Indian Subcontinental trying to take over the West while everybody is shrieking about China.
Resident Biden is a conflicted melon. Rigged trial. Vote for Trump for President, like your life depends on it bcos it does