This Is What The Fall Of Woke Influence Looks Like: Bobby Burack

The greatest trick the woke ever pulled was convincing American culture they existed at large.

The sect failed to convert much of the population. A Spiked study found that "the Woke crowd makes up only 8 percent of the electorate."

More Americans, one-third, say they support "woke" until they learn what it represents, a vision to define societal norms by identity. 

Still, woke influence has oft appeared mighty in size. See, while the public never succumbed to the pressure, institutions did. 

Institutions control the megaphone, the forms of messaging. Unidentified idealists perpetuated their vision through newsrooms, Hollywood, academia, sports, comedy, and Big Tech. 

Said institutions believed enabling censorship and thought control would embark them on the right side of history.

Woke is the ruse for which influencers fell.

Controlling communication is how a radical minority wields their preferences over a majority, as if the former is the consensus. 

A misrepresentation of society can continue so long as the proper messengers continue to acquiesce.

And therein lies the shift. The grip on influencers within institutions has weakened. 

Thus the beginning of the Woke Reversal.

This month, comedian Chris Rock debuted a stand-up special during which he derided the state of "business culture."

"In the old days, if someone just wanted your job, they just worked harder than you," said Rock. "Now, if somebody wants your job, they just wait for you to say some dumb s**t."

Rock refers to how employment now prioritizes one's placement on the Hierarchy of Victimhood over their skills.

The comedian made his remarks on Netflix, a streamer also no longer catering to the latest iteration of political correctness.

The Daily Mail recently profiled a swift change in the Netflix business model. The service removed programming about men birthing babies and "anti-racist" content from actual-racist Ibram X. Kendi. In lieu, Netflix doubled down on confrontational comedy, a la the Rock special. 

The philosophy stirred great financial success. Subscriptions rose by 7.6 million in the last quarter after years of steady decline amid trying to appease the perpetually offended.

Perhaps the shift is a consequence of another "awakening." This time, understanding that governing on behalf of a small unappeasable coalition is neither profitable nor practical. 

Elsewhere, comedian Russell Brand shifted from parroting the ignorance of Big Media to exposing it.

"The ludicrous, outrageous criticisms of Joe Rogan around ivermectin were deliberately referring to as a horse medicine, when they know it's an effective medicine here," Brand said on HBO. What about Rachel Maddow turning on the TV saying, "If you take this vaccine, you're not going to get it," when it hadn't been clinical trialed… You're participating in the same game."

Brand now resides on the alt-tech platform Rumble, where the thought-police lack jurisdiction.

Wokeness could not have infested culture without a near monolithic hold on the entertainment class, dutifully normalizing the ever-changing goalpost of supposed social justice. 

The movement must now withstand sans the participation of the leading streamer and comedians.

As necessary to the rise of Wokeness was its monopoly on social media, where rigged algorithms altered perception. 

Twitter amplified wonky social justice trends (meme as "The Current Thing"), suppressed inconvenient truths, ruled at the behest of the DNC, and shadowbanned conservative accounts. Those were once "conspiracies." Yet #TwitterFiles proved each claim a reality. 

Twitter 1.0 was a progressive utopia, where zealots could frame society unilaterally. Manufactured engagement duped institutional leaders into catering to said alternative reality. 

But the monopoly on Big Tech is no more. Elon Musk's chief purpose since purchasing Twitter is to undo politically-motivated censorship, to let online trends originate naturally.

Twitter enabled woke. And cancel culture was the catalyst.

Cancel culture, if you will, exuded fear. Fear contributed to the "silent majority," cowards who sat idly by as the destruction of societal norms ensued.

Employers caved into submission when outrage heightened. Prominent individuals apologized on cue, even for the most baseless accusations.

Labels like racist, homophobe, and white privilege loomed over corporate America. The terror intensified that one old post, one poor-timed joke, or one through-crime could cost you next.

As Megyn Kelly told OutKick in 2021, notable names started to "deposit chips into the Woke Bank" as if a built-up account would shield them from the wrath. Of course, it didn't. No one is safe.

Wokeness rippled through society as subjects chose to self-censor. They silenced themselves before the opposition could get to them.

But the fear has too begun to wane.

Progressive ghouls are not only small in scale. They are also vulnerable. Their movement is hardly invincible.

Dave Chappelle proved as much. In November of 2021, the comedian inflamed a smear campaign following his comedy special "The Closer." The usual suspects demanded he atone for including the trans community in a bit. 

The supposedly offended expected him to cave, like those before him. He never did.

Chappelle survived. Netflix doubled down on him. The resistance unveiled the limitations the outraged crowd possess. 

Canceling works only when the target or their employer obeys. The Chappelle saga proved cancel culture a product of submission.

Shall you not submit, they shall not cancel. 

Cancel culture is the playground bully who when finally knocked down, gets back up no longer as feared.

Now, Chappelle, Rock, Brand, and Netflix are not conservatives. They are mainstream brands rejecting the trajectory of woke messaging.

A movement begins to crater when it mutates into a cult, and the more fair-minded figures abandon the mission. 

Wokeism is an escalation of progressivism. A pursuit with no end.

The mission began with a focus on existing problems. But the mission must inherently continue to progress, even when the issues over which it screeches no longer exist.

A fight for gay marriage morphed into dangerous sex changes for young children. A racial reckoning morphed into the normalization of blatant anti-white racism. Abusive behavior on the internet morphed into the censorship of political opinions.

Woke is not the quest to improve human societies it purports. Rather, it's a manifestation of a society that allowed a fanatical minority to obtain influence against the wishes of the country at large.

The decline of woke would always begin with a loosening grip on American culture, where it began. Andrew Breitbart famously said, "politics is downstream from culture." 

This is what the fall of the woke influence looks like.

Written by
Bobby Burack is a writer for OutKick where he reports and analyzes the latest topics in media, culture, sports, and politics.. Burack has become a prominent voice in media and has been featured on several shows across OutKick and industry related podcasts and radio stations.