13 “Woke” Ideas That Are Fading Away—And Boomers Are Thrilled

Five years ago, progressive ideas about social justice dominated corporate America, universities and public discourse. Terms like “diversity, equity and inclusion” are thrown around and companies proudly declare their commitment to racial equality, questioning these initiatives can get you labeled as problematic or worse. But something has changed. Professor Eric Kaufmann documented this change in his 2024 book, noting the rollback of DEI mandates, a sharp rightward shift among young people in 2021-24, and a backlash against certain progressive policies. For those who feel uncomfortable with certain aspects of the movement, many of whom are baby boomers, this feels like a vindication. Here are thirteen “woke” thoughts that are disappearing, and why some people are breathing a sigh of relief.

1. Mandatory DEI training

Remember when every company put you through hours of diversity training? In those classes did you learn about microaggressions, implicit bias, and unconscious racism? They disappear quickly. Major companies including Walmart, Target, Ford and Toyota have quietly scaled back or canceled these programs altogether.

The trainings are supposed to make workplaces more inclusive, but critics say they often feel accusatory and make people defensive. Companies spend billions on these initiatives, but research questions their effectiveness. Now that the political and legal landscape has changed, many organizations are retreating. For baby boomers who hate having their unconscious biases taught to them, this feels like a return to common sense.

2. Recruitment based on identity and demographics

Companies used to publicly announce hiring targets based on race and gender, aiming to determine a specific ratio of diverse candidates for management positions. McDonald’s ends its established representation goal in January 2025. Meta discontinues diversity hiring practices. PepsiCo abandons representation goals for management positions. Amazon removes DEI mentions from its annual report.

In 2021, a backlash against the “woke” movement began to emerge as state laws removed certain race-based messages and ideas from education. In 2025, an executive order directly attacked DEI practices as discriminatory and ordered an end to such practices within the federal government. This resulted in the company removing certain race-related content from its website and notifying schools and colleges that they would lose federal funding if they did not stop DEI activities.

It has always been recognized that diversity improves outcomes and brings different perspectives. But skeptics — especially baby boomers who have made a career out of merit-based promotions — see it as discrimination. For them, recruiting should be about who is most qualified.

3. Calling everything “racist” or “problematic”

There was a time when it seemed like anything could be labeled racist—a hair style, a food preference, a Halloween costume. The problems keep growing and it becomes exhausting. When having a conversation, you have to worry about accidentally saying something offensive and being criticized publicly.

This creates what some call a “culture of discontent” where offense becomes a sport. Baby boomers feel this especially keenly—they lived through actual civil rights struggles and saw the word “racism” diluted into meaninglessness. When serious racism is conflated with trivial cultural preferences, it no longer makes any sense.

4. Gender ideology in primary school

Integrating gender identity lessons into early education has been hugely controversial. Parents are finding that their children are being taught about gender fluidity, preferred pronouns, and that biological sex is just a social construct.

In 2024, counter-woke efforts focused largely on schools, with mixed results. Some school boards promoting transgender-inclusive policies face opposition from Republican presidential candidates, while progressive candidates retain their seats in high-profile races. The debate continues, but the certainty that such courses should be ubiquitous has faded.

5. Ask everyone to share their pronounsiiiiii

There was a time when introducing yourself meant saying your pronouns—even if you’d never questioned your gender identity. Email signatures include a “she/her” or “he/him” statement. The company makes it standard practice. The aim is to make trans and non-binary people feel included, but it often feels performative and forced.

The practice has not completely disappeared, but in many areas it is no longer automatic or expected. For baby boomers who saw theater as solving no problems, the practice’s decline felt like a break from performative progressivism.

6. Cancel culture and public shaming of old tweets

In the early 2020s, people were losing jobs, opportunities, and reputations because of things they said years or decades ago. A questionable tweet in 2010 could ruin your career in 2020. The mob would swarm, demanding an apology and professional consequences. It creates an atmosphere of fear where no one feels safe.

This culture of punishment over rehabilitation leaves everyone on thin ice. Baby boomers see young people enthusiastically ruining each other’s lives over petty transgressions and think it looks like a cultural revolution rather than progress. While cancel culture still exists, its power has diminished. Companies are less likely to fire employees over Twitter outrage, and public figures are less likely to immediately apologize than to push back.

7. Aim for fairness, not equality

The shift from equality (equal treatment) to equity (equal outcomes) represents a fundamental change in goals. Equity means engineering outcomes so everyone ends up in the same place, regardless of choice, effort, or ability. It requires treating people differently based on status to achieve the same results.

Critics argue that fairness requires discrimination and denies individual agency—if outcomes must be equal, then personal choice and work ethics become irrelevant. Baby boomers who have worked hard to succeed believe that fairness is an insult to everyone: it takes away credit from those who work hard and absolves those who don’t from responsibility.

8. Men participate in women’s sports

This became one of the most obvious flashpoints. Biological males dominate women’s track and field, breaking records and stealing opportunities from female athletes. Advocates say trans women are women and should be included. Critics say it completely erases women’s sports and is grossly unfair.

Public opinion has shifted dramatically on the issue. Even those who generally support transgender rights draw the line at biological males in women’s sports. States began passing laws to stop this. Sports organizations began to implement stricter policies. For the baby boomers who fought for Title IX and women’s sports opportunities, it’s infuriating to watch those gains disappear as they adapt to gender ideologies.

9. Defund the police movement

“Defund the Police” dominated the 2020 protests. Cities cut police budgets, criminals were released without bail, and public safety collapsed in progressive areas. Crime rates surged, businesses evacuated and residents fled. The real-world impact of this ideology became impossible to ignore.

Even the most progressive cities have quietly changed course. Police budgets were restored and sometimes even increased. Politicians who supported divestment suddenly supported enforcement again. It turns out that people actually like to have the police respond when they are robbed. Baby boomers, who have watched society abandon common sense in favor of slogans, feel vindicated when reality forces them to make amends. Cities cannot function without public safety – that much is obvious.

10. “Life experience” trumps data and facts

Academic and corporate spaces prioritize “lived experience” over empirical evidence. Individual feelings about oppression become unquestionable facts, transcending statistics, research, or objective analysis. If people from marginalized groups make certain claims based on their own experiences, then rebutting them (even with data) will be dismissed as invalid.

This creates confusion, where feelings are more important than facts and subjective experience cannot be questioned. Baby boomers, who grew up in a world where evidence and reason mattered, watched this with horror. Science, data, and logic are not tools of oppression—they are how we determine truth.

11. View meritocracy as “white supremacy”

Progressive ideology labels meritocracy itself as white supremacy—the idea that progress should be based on ability and achievement is considered inherently racist. Standards, testing and competition are attacked as tools of oppression that need to be eliminated to achieve fairness.

That means eliminating gifted programs, eliminating advanced courses, ending standardized testing and lowering standards across institutions. The stated goal was fairness, but the result was to bring everyone down rather than lift anyone up. For baby boomers who have achieved success on merit and believe in rewarding excellence, this is crazy. Calling achievement “white supremacy” is an insult to all hard-working people, regardless of race.

12. Apologize for the sins committed by our ancestors

There was a time when people were expected to apologize for things their ancestors allegedly did, take responsibility for historical injustices that had nothing to do with them, and accept guilt simply because of their race. White people are taught that they are collectively responsible for slavery, colonialism, and every bad thing in history.

This concept of inherited guilt makes no sense to most people. You can acknowledge history without taking personal responsibility for what happened generations ago. Baby boomers especially reject this—they didn’t own slaves, they weren’t colonizers, and they don’t apologize for their birth.

13. Continue to focus on race in all situations

It’s all about race. Every question, every question, every interaction is analyzed through a racial lens. The critical race theory framework tells us that racism explains all differences and is embedded in every system. This makes race inevitable and ubiquitous, exhausting and counterproductive.

Many people, including minorities, find the continued focus on race divisive and reductive. It reduces people into races, assumes everyone’s defining characteristic is skin color, and makes productive conversations nearly impossible. Baby boomers who have experienced integration and believe in color blindness see it as regression, not progress. They strive to be judged on character rather than skin color. Moving away from an obsession with race feels like a return to Martin Luther King’s actual vision: judging people by who they are rather than what they look like.