Very discouraging. People who’ve lived long to have experienced several cultural/generational cycles will have been expecting a backlash against « wokism ». At first I was optimistic when the pendulum began to swing back towards equilibrium but history has shown that backlashes can swing to far the other way. Christopher Rufo seems like …
Very discouraging. People who’ve lived long to have experienced several cultural/generational cycles will have been expecting a backlash against « wokism ». At first I was optimistic when the pendulum began to swing back towards equilibrium but history has shown that backlashes can swing to far the other way. Christopher Rufo seems like a hyper-focused madman to me. And much, much worse is how russia and china have skilfully woven their own propaganda to fit the narrative of their choosing to further destabilize us.
I do think some younger people approach our current moment without totally appreciating how much this is history repeating itself. Reactionary backlash sure ain't nothing new, as you note!
But, yeah. Some things are definitely new about the scale/scope/intensity of all this. Maybe that's just the mirror image of how fast all these progress has been — like, I've been gobsmacked at just how quickly trans rights went from marginal to mainstream to normalized. (Which is, obviously, great!) We were always going to have the pendulum swing back. But, again, it's galling at just how intense, immediately, well-organized, and insidious it's become. Depressing, for sure.
But I try not to be fatalist about this stuff. We *can* push back against the grievance merchants and win — and, hopefully, wind up with a more positive and productive discourse as a result. We just have to be smart about it.
Very discouraging. People who’ve lived long to have experienced several cultural/generational cycles will have been expecting a backlash against « wokism ». At first I was optimistic when the pendulum began to swing back towards equilibrium but history has shown that backlashes can swing to far the other way. Christopher Rufo seems like a hyper-focused madman to me. And much, much worse is how russia and china have skilfully woven their own propaganda to fit the narrative of their choosing to further destabilize us.
I do think some younger people approach our current moment without totally appreciating how much this is history repeating itself. Reactionary backlash sure ain't nothing new, as you note!
But, yeah. Some things are definitely new about the scale/scope/intensity of all this. Maybe that's just the mirror image of how fast all these progress has been — like, I've been gobsmacked at just how quickly trans rights went from marginal to mainstream to normalized. (Which is, obviously, great!) We were always going to have the pendulum swing back. But, again, it's galling at just how intense, immediately, well-organized, and insidious it's become. Depressing, for sure.
But I try not to be fatalist about this stuff. We *can* push back against the grievance merchants and win — and, hopefully, wind up with a more positive and productive discourse as a result. We just have to be smart about it.