Consent-Based Wokeness Beats Mandates

Using Habermas’s lifeworld/system split, the author claims the same DEI norms are humane and pro‑social when adopted voluntarily inside communities, but oppressive when enforced by bureaucracies under threat of job loss. In practice, social sanction in a subculture (e.g., a Burn) feels like ordinary etiquette, while HR-style compulsion triggers backlash and performative conformity. — This reframes culture‑war fights around consent and institutional scope, suggesting policymakers and leaders should favor voluntary norm formation over coercive DEI regimes to reduce polarization.