Dear Richard,
Given that your latest book, The Origins of Woke, examines the history of the movement, I thought it would be interesting for us to look at its future. I will tip my hand and say up front, I think it’s going to get much worse before it gets better. Too many have bought into the ideology, invested in the industry, and built careers off the movement. Kids on social media are high on woke while Russia and China are using algorithms to jam it through the breastplate of American youth like Vincent Vega.
Besides, nothing ever really dies. We defeated the South yet Confederate flags still fly in Southern skies. We defeated the Nazis yet neo-Nazi terrorists are still active on American soil. Even if we push back the flood of woke progressivism, our grandchildren will still be dealing with the mud of waterlogged soil left behind.
But like I said, though the water is receding, we’ve got a second flood peak coming. This is an election year and Donald J. Trump has a decent shot at winning. If he does, blue-haired baristas and alphabet-gendered pronoun police will become so triggered they’ll begin to glow and we may get an entirely new wave of woke.
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