jan baeyens

I've been telling the right for a while now to stop prematurely celebrating the supposed death of wokeness. I wasn't trying to be a buzzkill. And it wasn't out of some need to spread fear to maintain my supposed anti-woke grift. It just became clear to me that there was a major disconnect between reliable indicators of its ideological spread and its outward expression. In 2020, there was a major push to change the ideological makeup of our institutions from the ground up. It was wildly successful. But those changes at the level of graduate students, postdocs, and assistant professors in science, medicine, and law needed years to incubate before they could fully wield their power. Today, six years later, many have now received or will soon receive tenure, or become doctors and lawyers. The older, non-woke professors are increasingly outnumbered or retiring. Nearly all new hires are still woke, because woke people control the job searches and hiring committees. It's a woke ratchet. By 2028, those who entered academia during the woke hiring spree of 2020–2022 will have largely moved into tenured positions. Our institutions have never been more woke. Trump has simply delayed their plans by a few years. What we're seeing now, after the right getting a thorough midterm beatdown, is the woke beginning to test their newfound strength. What can they get away with saying (e.g., Dave Chappelle and Jennifer Welch)? Can they still cancel people over absurd accusations of racism (e.g., the Ole Miss girls making monkey noises)? They've been training in the off-season, but they haven't yet tested their strength gains in the real world, because flexing prematurely would only invite federal scrutiny. They're emboldened now and will continue testing their strength through 2028. If they win, they'll go all-in and unleash the woke tsunami. You don't understand how insane it will be. I don't either.