“Peak Woke”

Evaluating the theories

Wokeness, most observers would agree, can be defined as the progressive worldview that views all racial and sexual disparities as proof of discrimination, and rejects liberal procedural traditions in favor of a totalizing politics that seeks to dismantle those disparities and silence dissenters. But nobody seems to agree on where it came from. Is wokeness an intellectual, religious, psychological, economic, legal, or institutional phenomenon? Its emergence over the last decade or so has been attributed to everything from academic intellectual trends, declining religiosity, victimhood psychology, corporate self-interest, white-collar class interests, the civil rights laws of the 1960s, and the copycat tendencies of large organizations. These all seem to have some explanatory power, but none seems on its own to account for the phenomenon fully. Let’s consider each in turn.

A BBC documentary attributes Islamic and African prejudices to — what else? — the British Empire.

Some people are foolish enough to take their political cues from show-business celebrities like Bette Midler, Rob Reiner, and Cher. Not me. I listen to athletes. So when I heard that 28-year-old British diver Tom Daley had made a documentary about the current status of human rights in certain former British colonies, I sought it out at once.

The U.S. Army is expected to fall nearly 40,000 troops short of its recruiting goals over the next two years. Fiscal year 2022 is expected to miss the mark by 10,000 troops, while the number in fiscal year 2023 could reach 28,000. These figures mean that this year is on track to be the Army’s worst recruiting year in almost 50 years.

The Army plans to circumvent the problem by offering $1 billion for its recruiting program and placing more emphasis on the use of its reserve units.

An 11-year old boy was recently called “shorty” by another boy on the street. As far as children’s taunting goes, this was fairly mild; further up the cruelty scale might merit some kind of disciplinary intervention from a parent, teacher or another allegedly responsible adult. What it almost certainly wouldn’t require is police action. Or at least it wouldn’t in the days before the world went mad.

Back in June, however, a Wiltshire police officer opened a “non-crime hate incident” file on the aggressor, also 11, for his jibe. Absurdly, the report could now appear in the kid’s criminal record checks for the next six years, hampering later employment opportunities and surely making him the sort with more, not less, time and inclination to bully others.

A Tory MP has said calls to change the name of a Dick Turpin ride are “the most ludicrous thing I have ever heard of in my life”.

A row erupted after a Dick Turpin carriage ride, which tells the story of the highwayman’s exploits, opened at York Dungeon last month — and parents complained that the name was offensive.

The attraction, owned by the leisure giant Merlin, said it had received “a number of requests for the character to be renamed to Richard due to the apparent rude nature of his nickname”.

A hate crime awareness course which gave alleged offenders the chance to avoid prosecution has been scrapped by a police chief.

Hampshire Constabulary was among three forces in the country that ran the two-hour educational sessions for people accused of racism, sexism, misogyny and transphobia.

The restorative justice scheme was funded out of the force’s Police and Crime Commissioner’s budget, but faced controversy when a 51-year-old army veteran was offered the course after retweeting a meme – which showed four LGBT pride flags positioned to make a swastika.