To a New Shining Hill

Midway through 2025, it’s safe to say woke and anti-woke are exhausting themselves. Cultural clashes that characterized so much of the last decade just do not matter any longer. Woke has dissipated, and the blindly anti-woke have lost their raison d’etre. Some have defaulted to furious Israel advocacy or embrace of MAGA, while others keep their free speech commitments. The woke have mostly gone quiet, with a few outliers straining to revive a movement that is mostly done. If they have any hope for a comeback, it’s in Donald Trump’s overreach. But while Trump’s attacks on civil liberties and academic freedom have provoked a great deal of backlash, they have not created any environment remotely like the 2010s, when many different social justice causes were dominant and the power elite were desperate to keep up. Ibram X. Kendi and Robin DiAngelo will never be cultural giants again. Their moment has passed.