The author maps three waves—civil rights (1954–68), political correctness (1980–95), and wokeness (2012–24)—arguing youth-led surges fade when core status gaps remain while only superficial wins accumulate. Movements are energized by concrete victories (e.g., gay marriage) but lose momentum when those wins don’t change group status outcomes. This generational forgetting resets the cycle for the next cohort.
— A repeatable cycle would help forecast when identity-driven politics crest and recede, informing media strategy, institutional policy, and electoral planning.
Emily Jashinsky
2025.09.03
70% relevant
The article accepts the broader peak-and-decline pattern (citing The Economist’s finding that wokeness peaked in 2021–22) but adds that educated Millennials at elite venues (Aspen Ideas, DNC land acknowledgments) have not followed the decline, helping keep party branding stuck in peak‑woke aesthetics; it also invokes a Harris ad test showing a 2.7‑point shift on pronoun signaling.
Matthew Yglesias
2025.08.25
60% relevant
The article’s claim that today’s left lacks a singular focus dovetails with the cycle thesis that movements fade when they fail to convert moral energy into concrete, status‑changing goals; both point to strategic misalignment on priority-setting.
Christopher F. Rufo
2025.08.07
72% relevant
Lorenz says the Resistance media model has collapsed, BLM has 'disintegrated,' and transgender activism is 'in retreat,' fitting the bust phase of the cycle and indicating a generational reset in progressive politics.
Sebastian Jensen
2025.07.07
100% relevant
The piece cites Matthias Gisslar’s 30‑year cadence and points to sharp 2024 opinion shifts (e.g., immigration support) alongside a 7.5% hereditarian-attitudes figure to argue the downturn isn’t caused by rising hereditarianism.