Corporate America’s rush to grovel before Trump shows that ‘woke’ capitalism was a myth

Over the past decade, conservatives in the US have frequently accused the country’s corporate leaders of being too “woke” – a term they use to pejoratively describe Corporate America’s espousal of progressive socio-legal values and policies.

Right-wing pundits have long peddled a narrative that public institutions and corporations in America have sold out to an assortment of “liberal, leftist, and communist” principles. These entities, the pundits claim, seek to pressure Americans into adopting radical and dystopian reimaginations of gendered and racial relations.

This right-wing critique has taken on several forms and institutions. In the workplace, this frustration manifests against affirmative action frameworks such as Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. DEI, at least on paper, seeks to promote representation for historically marginalised people in the workplace and academia.

Within academia, the inclusion of Critical Race Theory in school curriculums has upset conservatives. Finally, in the entertainment industry, Hollywood has been a near-perpetual target for pushing a “woke agenda” to the public.

However, a lot of the critique has been directed toward the censorial impulse of Big Tech, and more specifically the modern town square – which is to say, social media.

Before Twitter was acquired by billionaire Elon Musk, the people running the platform were often characterised by right-wingers as…

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