Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Aug 18
NYT Opinion Seeks Accountability for Woke 1.0 After AOC Calls It Crazy
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Aug 18

NYT Opinion Seeks Accountability for Woke 1.0 After AOC Calls It Crazy

1 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Aug 18

Summary

  • A New York Times opinion essay argues Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s recent remark that “Woke 1.0 was crazy” should lead to restitution, apologies and accountability for people harmed by that era.
  • The piece says the damage went beyond language and workplace trainings, describing a system of ideological conformity that cost people reputations, jobs and, in at least one case, a life.
  • It cites 2020 fallout at major media outlets, including the resignations of Philadelphia Inquirer editor Stan Wischnowski and former Times opinion editor James Bennet, plus Slate’s suspension of podcast host Mike Pesca.
  • The essay also points to publishing, saying roughly 20 imprints rejected novelist Richard North Patterson’s manuscript and citing research that no white American man born after 1984 had published literary fiction in The New Yorker.

Insights

If public figures now admit “Woke 1.0” went too far, who should answer for the careers and reputations damaged along the way?
Were media and publishing institutions enforcing fairness in the early 2020s, or rewarding public pressure without due process?