Statistical Evidence Suggests That Shit Be Less Crazy
But could it be less crazy, still?
For a while now, I’ve been writing about how the wave of lefty weirdness that crested in 2020 has at least partially subsided. I’ve always hedged that argument; I’ve peppered my writing with phrases like “it feels like” and “it seems to me,” because, well…how do you quantify “weird-ass woke shit”? Do you do it by counting the number of multiracial, gender non-conforming characters in TV shows who serve no narrative purpose and who were obviously shoehorned in by the network at the last minute? Do you do it by measuring the fervency and frequency with which Cheez-Its denounces rape culture? I had no metrics, so I went by vibes.
But this month, The Economist did actually attempt to quantify wokeness. They identified traceable metrics relating to public opinion, the media, higher education, and business. And what they found will probably not surprise you: Wokeness did, indeed, swell in the 2010s, peak around 2020-’21, and has waned a bit. Long story short: We didn’t dream that. There are now data behind the cultural shift that we were told was: 1) Vital and important, and 2) A fabrication by right-wing media OMG what are you even talking about calm down.
Let’s see what we can learn from The Economist’s numbers.