I think a more likely explanation is that President Obama used to frequently say “folks” in his speeches, probably in an effort to sound more colloquial/friendl

I think a more likely explanation is that President Obama used to frequently say “folks” in his speeches, probably in an effort to sound more colloquial/friendly. My guess is that many more people would be influenced by this than the smaller group of online people who get weirdly fixated on woke discourse.