You make a great point (several, in fact) and I don't disagree. This said, I think the ultra-dogmatic "woke" impulse, which on its own is well-intended, starts

You make a great point (several, in fact) and I don't disagree. This said, I think the ultra-dogmatic "woke" impulse, which on its own is well-intended, starts in college, before these kids have to actually implement any capitalist machinery themselves. Still, I agree that a lot of it has to do with the fact that college is an age at which people get severely redpilled: they go from being big fishes in small ponds (smart kids at suburban high schools) to guppies in a world where the rules are completely different and parental advantages matter a whole lot more than they were taught (as they learn immediately when coming in contact with mediocre rich kids who got into Ivies, while equivalently middling kids from their hometowns go to community colleges if at all, and who will continue to easily get opportunities they will require hard work and extreme luck to get anywhere near). What's really interesting to me in the past six years is that we've seen a complete change in what "left" and "right" mean. The left, as you've noted, has been deliberately steered in a direction that is harmless to capital ("the jocks in your high school are why you can't have universal healthcare, so you shouldn't feel bad about outsourcing their jobs"); but the right, now that the pro-establishment conservatives from the 1990s are as anachronistic as the dinosaurs, is now as anti-elitist as we (my "we" meaning true leftists, the 2-4 sigma leftward fringe, the socialists and anarchists and communists and punks) always were. The horrible thing about it, though, is that this "populist" movement, even though these people have become quite aware of how society is rigged against them, has been steered into dangerous conspiracy theories, bizarre revenge fantasies, and the revival of some terrible ideas (e.g., racism, antisemitism) that should have died a long time ago. Also: I shan't get into details because I'm a banned HN "unperson" who changes his username every couple of months, but we know each other and I've enjoyed your company every time we've met. I hope you're well.