Is the Woke Bubble Bursting?
People with real problems are finally stopping playing the stupid games of those with invented ones.
"The formation of bubbles isn't so much about people irrationally participating in long-term investing. They're about people somewhat rationally moving toward short-term trading to capture momentum that had been feeding on itself..." - Morgan Housel The Psychology of Money
It can be argued that the roots of "Woke Culture" started with "PC Culture." Nobody wanted to be "politically incorrect" back in the day. Not making ethnic, racial, or sexist comments seemed like a rational and small price to pay not to seem like a jerk or worse get dragged into a meeting with HR (the rise of human resources as a disciplinarian in corporate culture seemed funny enough to coincide with the rise of PC culture).
Giving up certain words also seemed the right moral thing to do. They were hurtful words and people who were the "victims" of such words had a valid grievance. White people felt guilty using such words. Yet language compliance always seemed a little wrong. Being told you can't say "gypped" anymore because the term is offensive to Gypsies when there are no Gypsies in the United States and nobody knew what the root of the term actually was seemed a stretch. But most people simply said OK because the rational choice was not to get in an argument over it.
But again it seemed - off. People began asking if comedy could survive in a PC world where certain subjects and language would be off-limits. There's a reason Bill Maher named his HBO show Politically Incorrect. In 1993 the liberal Maher was being edgy with the title of his show.
But the drip-drip-drip of small requests morphed PC culture into Woke culture over time. And people continued to go along to get along. Until the pandemic hit. And the demands of the Woke became just too much.
"Bubbles do their damage when long-term investors playing one game start taking their cues from those short-term traders playing another." - Morgan Housel The Psychology of Money
Just prior to the pandemic we had the rise of the pronoun game. Each individual had the "right" to choose their own "pronouns" - even ones like "ze" and "zer" that didn't even exist until 5-minutes ago. Using the wrong pronouns or "misgendering" someone could even get you fired. But then came Covid-19.
The country shut down ("just two weeks to stop the spread"). The economy shut down. People were forced to do things. Stay inside. Wear cloth masks that had no scientific basis for being effective. Get vaccines from the Big Pharma companies - vaccines that with just two injections were supposed to take away any chance of a person getting sick from COVID. But then they moved that goal post as well. Suddenly you also had to get booster shots to be "fully-vaccinated." Vaccines weren't supposed to work this way - so they literally changed the definition of the word vaccination.
Everything seemed to be happening all at once. Parents forced to work from home and children forced to do home-schooling were together and parents started seeing what was actually being taught their children and they didn't like it. In reaction complaining at a school board meeting could suddenly now get a parent listed as a "domestic terrorist." Wanting to let kindergarten children be free not to have sexuality thrust in their faces suddenly made you a homophobe. It was insane and people saw it was insane.
Gas prices shot through the roof (and are continuing to rise) because of Progressive energy policies which are also insane. Inflation is the worst in memory because of Progressive policies that call for the printing of more and more money to pay for more and more useless government programs. It's insane. And people see it.
People who complain that "Men at Work" signs were misogynist began to be openly ridiculed. People stopped putting their preferred pronouns in their Zoom profiles. The war in Ukraine provided a stark contrast between the "Woke West" and what real struggles looks like. And people saw it.
Going along with those who claim some sort of victimhood was insane and people see that now. Even someone like Bill Maher who was considered far-left in 1993 when he started his show sees it. According to Maher, "I haven't changed at all. My politics hasn't changed. They've changed. Letting three-year olds decide what gender they are, this wasn't something five years ago."
We all see it Bill. We all see it. And most people are now refusing to go along anymore. The short-term victimhood game is coming to an end. The woke bubble is bursting. People are becoming rational once again.
“Resist much. Obey little.” - Walt Whitman
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