Early in 2022, I argued that wokeism had peaked. At the time, that suggestion was met with a mix of skepticism and hostility, as wokeism still seemed to be rising to many people. Corporate boards were still adopting racial equity audits, for example, and young employees were pressuring companies to adopt progressive stances.
But if we fast-forward to May 2026, my prediction seems pretty good. Wokeism is hardly gone, as a visit to most universities still can demonstrate, but it does seem to have peaked in 2022 or so. President Donald Trump has been reelected, and the Republicans hold a trifecta in government. Universities have retreated from cancel culture and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Elon Musk bought Twitter, now X, and shifted its content sharply to the right. The media in general have moved right, which includes a more libertarian Washington Post and the rise of The Free Press.
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What turned the tide? In part, the political right organized countermeasures, such as campaigns to expose discriminatory practices at progressive universities, led by the activist Christopher Rufo and others. In part, the political center decided it disliked woke ideas and their excesses. And in part, the political left itself stopped seeing wokeism as a vote-winner. For instance, a surprising number of minorities defected from the Obama coalition and decided to support Trump in 2024 because wokeism did not sit well with them, especially many young black males and Latinos. The war in Ukraine also brought about a new political seriousness that did not slot well into wokeism, with its obsessions over pronouns and who should control the meanings of various words.
If wokeism has dwindled, what has replaced it?
